Suburbia
Related: city - Suburbia (1984) - white
Definition
The term suburbia is frequently used to encapsulate the concept of suburbs as oddly picturesque slices of tract-home nuclear family life that harbour forces destructive of natural human impulses towards true community and concerns of communal welfare.
Given the de facto segregation of the American housing marketplace in the 1950s through 1970s, 'suburbia' also includes the notion of a 'white' area, inaccessible to members of other ethnicities and races, particularly African-Americans.
After the rise of "Levittowns" across the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, many American teens born during those decades began to understand the inherently sanitized and disspiriting nature of American suburbs.
The concept of 'suburbia' came to envelop this and other, sometimes endearing, idiosyncrasies of suburban life -- for example, 4th of July backyard barbecues.
Popular culture largely recognized this concept during the 1980s and early 1990s. In Britain, television series such as The Good Life, Butterflies, and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin depicted suburbia as well-manicured but relentlessly boring, and its residents as either conforming their behaviour to this situation or going stir crazy through its regimented blandness. In America, similar but more violent themes could be found in the works of David Lynch.
Musicians, too, picked up on the idea of suburbia for subject matter, with songs such as My Pink Half of the Drainpipe by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Suburbia by the Pet Shop Boys, Subdivisions by Rush, Christmas in Suburbia by Martin Newell, Rocking The Suburbs by Ben Folds, Jesus of Suburbia by Green Day and Barons of Suburbia by Tori Amos.
Fear (band) also makes a reference to Suburbia on "The Record", in the song Let's Have a War which says "It's already started in the city, Suburbia will be easy.".
In 1994, playwright Eric Bogosian wrote and directed the play subUrbia, which focused on suburban twentysomethings with no real life goals or direction reacting to the return of a high school friend who had become famous. The play was made into a low-budget, independent film in 1997, with Richard Linklater at the directorial helm and featured up-and-coming actors Steve Zahn, Parker Posey, Ajay Naidu, and Giovanni Ribisi in lead roles.
Etymology: According to dialogue in the 1984 movie Suburbia (no relation to the Bogosian version) [1] , suburbia is a neologism made by combinining suburb and utopia. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suburbia [Dec 2005]
Suburbia (1984) - Penelope Spheeris
Suburbia (1984) - Penelope Spheeris [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Suburbia is a movie written and directed by Penelope Spheeris (The Decline of Western Civilization) about suburban punks who run away from home. The kids take up a minimalist, punk rock lifestyle by squatting in abandoned suburban tract homes.
Released in 1984, Suburbia is also known as Rebel Streets and The Wild Side. Red Hot Chilli Peppers' bassist Flea makes a cameo appearance as "Razzle (Mike B. The Flea)". It gives Spheeris' vision of early 1980's punk rock sub culture and an opinion on what drove the youths to become "Punks". Although completely misguided into the punk rock opinions of rape and drug use, it does score right on the money with its comparisons to the hippies of the 60's and the discrimination that many punk rockers faced from others because of the way that they chose to look and the music that they loved. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suburbia_(movie) [Oct 2004]
Sin in the Suburbs (1962) - Joe Sarno
Sin in the Suburbs is a 1962 film by Joe Sarno starring Marie Liljedahl.
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