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Full-Text Articles in American Studies

Art And Aids: Viral Strategies For Visibility, Stephen Baylor Pillow Apr 2021

Art And Aids: Viral Strategies For Visibility, Stephen Baylor Pillow

Honors Theses

“Art & AIDS: Viral Strategies for Visibility” examines the complex relationships between social stigma, healthcare, homophobia, and mortality, and how these impacted the lives of Western artists and manifested in their works. Most of the art discussed in this thesis was produced during the height of the AIDS crisis (late-1980s to mid-1990s). During this period, gay artists and their allies employed new strategies in their work to inspire activism, and convey intense emotions –– predominantly frustration, grief, and anxiety –– associated with HIV/AIDS. In the U.S., the inaction of the Reagan administration was largely due to widespread homophobia kindled by …


From Southern Gothic To Postmodern Anonymity: R.E.M. And The Globalization Of American Popular Music, Richard Hardack Dec 2020

From Southern Gothic To Postmodern Anonymity: R.E.M. And The Globalization Of American Popular Music, Richard Hardack

Journal X

No abstract provided.


Country Fun: A Cultural History Of Opryland Usa, Nashville, And The Suburban South, William C. Nieman May 2020

Country Fun: A Cultural History Of Opryland Usa, Nashville, And The Suburban South, William C. Nieman

Honors Theses

This thesis centers around the history of Opryland USA, a theme park and “musical showplace” that existed from 1972 to 1997 in the suburbs of Nashville, Tennessee. Using a variety of primary sources including park ephemera, newspaper articles, and songs, I show how, over its twenty-five years, Opryland became a country music theme park after initially presenting a seemingly diverse picture of American popular music. I reveal that, despite local businessowners’ and musicians’ reluctance to embrace Opryland at first, the park was accepted by many Nashvillians to the point where it is now nostalgically mourned. Then, putting those primary materials …


Finding Aid For The Blues Archive Poster Collection (Mum01783) Apr 2020

Finding Aid For The Blues Archive Poster Collection (Mum01783)

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids

These blues posters, broadsides, and oversize printings, collected by various individuals and institutions, document the world of blues advertising.