University Press of Kansas
Review Brian Tanguay
Although I lived through the era of their ascendancy, I never understood the immense popularity of professional wrestling, Jerry Springer, the Beanie Baby craze, and the rise of reality TV. Had I paid more attention to low culture, I might have been less astounded when a product of make-believe television became president of the United States.
In 1999, journalist and market research analyst Ross Benes shows how cultural phenomena from the late 1990s continues to influence our society, politics and economy. The irrational exuberance and speculative frenzy that drove the price of Beanie Babies into the stratosphere is seen today with crypto currencies; the lowest common denominator sensibility of Jerry Springer and professional wrestling is firmly enmeshed in national politics, as evidenced by the spectacle of Donald Trump’s rallies; violent video games are still scapegoated every time a mass shooting occurs; and, as was the case of the musical duo Insane Clown Posse, people with dubious or non-existent talent still gain fame and notoriety.
No individual embodies the word “kayfabe” as does Donald Trump. Kayfabe entered the lexicon from professional wrestling, and is defined as: the tacit agreement to behave as if something is real, sincere, or genuine when it is not. It’s entertainment value over substance, fantasy over facts, and spectacle as the dominant value. But more than that, it’s the willing suspension of disbelief, doubt, and critical thinking. As Benes documents, the roster of people who parlayed reality TV fame into political influence is very long.
What I appreciate most about this book is the way Benes connects the emergence of lowbrow culture, video games, porn, and professional wrestling with political decisions that dismantled the regulatory framework that governed advertising and media ownership. The creation of huge media conglomerates by merger and acquisition — Disney buying ABC, General Electric acquiring NBC, Time Warner merging with AOL — is what I most remember from this period, but an entire generation likely has no idea how the Telecommunications Act of 1996, signed into law by Bill Clinton, cleared the way for phone companies, cable companies, and internet providers to compete in each other’s markets. Restrictions on how many radio and TV stations one company could own were struck from the books. As Benes notes, within a year of its passage more than one hundred billion dollars in communication industry mergers and acquisitions were announced, a staggering reorganization of the media landscape.
While the year 1999 may have been a tipping point for low culture, it was also a time when films such as The Green Mile, American Beauty and The Matrix appeared. On television, the Sopranos and The West Wing began airing. This book pulls the curtain back on this best and worst of times era, and traces the lasting implications of the expansion of trashy, throwaway culture in a way that’s easy to assimilate. In a mass consumption society, popular amusements reveal a lot about their audience. Our attention is coveted by those who can turn a profit or gain power from capturing it, and appealing to the lowest common denominator is a reliable way of achieving this end.
