Covering four decades of music history, this engaging book explores a genre of pop music that has been overlooked, under-reported, and ineffectively characterized—but which nevertheless remains immensely popular. The very qualities that made glam unusual and undervalued are now being reintroduced into our culture through video, music, and cyber and computer mediums, while artists such as Lady Gaga have made glam popular once more. Carefully explaining this misunderstood genre, The Twisted Tale of Glam Rock explores glam's attraction and the reasons it has endured. With the help of copious examples, the book covers the style from the pre-glam British invasion of 1964-69 through the classical glam era (1970-75); the metamorphosis into glam goth, glam metal, and glam new-romanticism (1976-90); and the style's reemergence (1990-present). It provides a theoretical basis for musicians' attraction to this highly visual and theatrical form of pop music and sets glam in a historical context, following the format through MTV, videos, and vibrant stage and theatre presentations. Finally, the book explores the hybridization of glam with other styles, illustrating how the genre has progressively reemerged as a premier form of performance pop.

How do reality television programs shape our view of the world and what we perceive as real and normal? This book explores the bizarre and highly controversial world of reality television, including its early history, wide variety of subject matter, and social implications. In recent decades, reality television shows ranging from Keeping up with the Kardashians to Duck Dynasty have become increasingly popular. Why are these "unscripted" programs irresistible to millions of viewers? And what does the nearly universal success of reality shows say about American culture? This book covers more than 100 major and influential reality programs past and present, discussing the origins and past of reality programming, the contemporary social and economic conditions that led to the rise of reality shows, and the ways in which the most successful shows achieve popularity with both male and female demographics or appeal to specific, targeted niche audiences. The text addresses reality TV within five, easy-to-identify content categories: competition shows, relationship/love-interest shows, real people or alternative lifestyle and culture shows, transformation shows, and international programming. By examining modern reality television, a topic of great interest for a wide variety of readers, this book also discusses cultural and social norms in the United States, including materialism, unrealistic beauty ideals, gender roles and stereotypes in society, dynamics of personal relationships, teenage lifestyles and issues, and the branding of people for financial gain and wider viewership.