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The Nicest Kids in Town

Matt Delmont, Author

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Notes for Imagining National Youth Culture

[i] Chuck Berry, “Sweet Little Sixteen,” performed by Chuck Berry (1958), Chuck Berry: The Anthology (compact disc; Chess; 2000).
[ii] Clark, Rock, Roll and Remember, 81.
[iii] Josh Kun, Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), 2.
[iv] Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, Revised edition (New York: Verso, 1991), 35.
[v] Diana Mutz, Impersonal Influence: How Perceptions of Mass Collectives Affect Political Attitudes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), xvi. Quoted in Sarah Igo, The Averaged American: Surveys, Citizens, and the Making of a Mass Public (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007), 12.
[vi] On the locally televised teenage dance programs that competed with American Bandstand, see Tom McCourt and Nabeel Zuberi, “Music on Television,” Museum of Broadcast Communications, http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/M/htmlM/musicontele/musicontele.htm (accessed July 1, 2007); Laura Wexler, “The Last Dance,” Style: Smart Living in Baltimore magazine, (September/October 2003), pp. 130-135, 166-169; Gary Kenton, “Cool Medium Hot,” Television Quarterly 36 (Winter 2006), 36-41; Clay Cole, Sh-Boom!: The Explosion of Rock ‘n’ Roll 1953-1968 (New York: Morgan James Publishing, 2009), 26, 43, 46, 72; Austen, TV a-go-go, 42; Matt Schudel, “Milt Grant: Dance Host, TV Station Entrepreneur,” The Washington Post, May 3, 2007; Richard Harrington, “Before Dick Clark, Washington Had Boogied on Milt Grant’s Show,” The Washington Post, May 2, 2007; “J.D. Lewis Jr. obituary,” News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), February 20, 2007; “Bud Davies obituary,” The Detroit News, October 28, 2006; “Bill Craig Jr. obituary,” The Star Press (Muncie, IN), March 23, 2006; “Clark Race Popular Radio DJ and Host of KDKA-TV’s ‘Dance Party,’” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 28, 1999; “David Hull, 66, Host of ‘Chicago Band Stand,” Chicago Tribune, May 4, 1999; “KPTV premieres High Time, Portland's first music show for teenagers, with host Ed Gilbert,” KPTV (Portland, Oregon) Timeline, http://home.comcast.net/~kptv/timeline/timeline.htm (accessed July 1, 2007).
[vii] “Milt Grant Pitches his Show to Sponsors,” May 27th, 1957, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJLTQ-3Mgik (accessed, October 15, 2010).
[viii] Michael Shore and Dick Clark, The History of American Bandstand: It’s Got a Great Beat and You Can Dance to It (New York: Ballantine Books, 1985), 13.
[ix] “American Bandstand,” December 17, 1957 (video recording), Acc T86:0318, Museum of Radio and Television (MTR).
[x] Ibid.
[xi] “American Bandstand,” December 18, 1957 (video recording), in author’s possession.
[xii] On the concept of “imagined communities,” see Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (New York: Verso, 1991). On the production strategies through which television constructs its national audience, see Victoria Johnson, Heartland TV; Torres, Black, White, and in Color; and Marita Sturken, “Television Vectors and the Making of a Media Event,” in Reality Squared, ed. Friedman, 185-202. For related studies of imagined communities with respect to radio, see Susan Douglas, Listening In; and Loviglio, Radio’s Intimate Public.
[xiii] “American Bandstand Yearbook, 1958,” [no publication information listed], in author’s possession.
[xiv] “American Bandstand,” December 2, 1957 (video recording), Acc T86:0317, MTR; “American Bandstand,” December 17, 1957; “American Bandstand,” December 18, 1957.
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