The Monkees Paradox: A T.V. Band That Became Real

WhenThe Monkeesdebuted on NBC this month in 1966, it was unlike any program that had ever been on television. Inspired in part by the Beatles’ mad-cap rock ‘n’ roll movies,Help!和A Hard Day’s Night,The Monkeesstarted out as a sit-com centered around the shenanigans of a struggling pop music group.

But more than 50 years later, the show continues to stand out as a vehicle that served up anti-establishment youth culture to mainstream audiences, dismantling television conventions and blurring the line between fantasy and reality in the process.

For researchers curious aboutThe Monkees’革命对流行文化的影响，我们探讨了不同类型的资源如何提供各种观点和见解：1966年的报纸文章揭示了如何The Monkees’were received in their own time; a scholarly article written in 1988 explores the postmodern elements of the show’s construction; and a retrospective article published last year in a contemporary rock’n’roll magazine demonstrates howThe Monkees继续违约分类。

“The Monkees: Why the Teenagers Like Them”

It’s no wonderThe Monkeesare sometimes (dismissively) known as the “Pre-Fab Four.” Lloyd Shearer’sBoston Globe文章从1966年12月开始，在展会首次亮相后四个月写，概述了The Monkees开始了。两个年轻人（其中一个人中的一个哥伦比亚图片的儿子

So, Shearer notes, the partners put out an ad in theDaily Varietythat read: “MADNESS…seeking a quartet of hip, insane, folk-oriented rock’n’rollers, 17 to 21, with the courage to work.”

超过400 candidat潜力es showed up to audition, and ultimately four young men with varying backgrounds in music and acting (and four distinct personalities) – Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork, Davy Jones and Mickey Dolenz – were cast asThe Monkees, a quasi-fictional boy band designed to appeal to younger audiences.

And it worked, kind of. Shearer pointed out: “The kid audience likes it, but many of the adult TV viewers are resistant to mopheads, finding difficulty following a program which has little or no storyline, is based on wild camera work, and a special, hipster, juvenile vocabulary.”

（实际上，该表演是如此争议，一些NBC附属公司甚至不会把它放在空中。他们的脸上是鸡蛋：The Monkeeswon Emmys in 1967 for outstanding comedy and comedy directing).

While Shearer expressed uncertainty that the show would continue, the band seemed to be a hit. Their records were selling, they were booked for personal appearances, and, “most important of all, fanatical teenage girls are writing in by the droves, requesting autographs, locks of hair, discarded clothes.”

Of course, teenagers lovedThe Monkees– its creators studied what young audiences liked, repackaged it and sold it back to them in the form of a television show/rock group, “[proving] irrefutably that the formula for entertaining today’s teenagers is easily reproducible. Two of the main ingredients are long hair and rock’n’roll.”

But is that really allThe Monkeeswere about?

“The Monkees和the Deconstruction of Television Realism”

In 1988, a scholarly article by Laura Goostree, published in the中国流行电影电视杂志，看着The Monkeesfrom a deconstructionist perspective. In doing so, she defines the conventions of traditional television sit-coms, and the cutting-edge waysThe Monkeessubverted those conventions.

对于吸引人的迷人分析，The Monkees电视节目被认为是一个关键的文本，从“剩下的左撇子蔑视他们的音乐，他们的观众和他们的存在，他们的存在，就像它一样。”这使得能够重点检查如何The Monkees“以统治传统的网络电视现实主义，以兼职青年运动的一部分和包裹。”

Goostree explains that in traditional television, the viewer is put in a passive position to witness a self-contained fantasy world presented as reality. To create a fantasy that seems real, “realist television” avoids showing or referring to any elements of the production indicative of the show as a “show.” Sets, writers, make-up, the audience etc. are discreetly tucked away from viewers. In contrast,The Monkees“不仅意识到自己作为电视，还意识到观众觉得这一事实。”

This consciousness, according to Goostree, is demonstrated through several creative and innovative devices. For example, each episode of the program included instances of direct communication with the audience, whether the characters looked or spoke directly to the camera, or on-screen graphics provided commentary on what was happening during the program, inviting the viewer in on the construction of the show. As a result, viewers had a more participatory than passive relationship with the program.

另外，演员在演出中扮演自己 - 以某种方式扮演自己。这些人物与播放它们的表演者具有相同的名称，并且该展示并入了非故事碎片 - 例如采访和外出 - 以表达者为单位，而不是他们的虚构人格。在这样做时，该计划提请注意与他们的角色分开的行为者的身份，扰乱了现实主义电视的约定。

Goostree指出，在这样做，展会在展示中创造了“幻想和现实之间的难以置信的紧张局势，我们不知道真正的”猴子是谁以及“假装”猴子的谁是谁。“通常，在展会中的访谈和外出中，每个演员人物的元素都与他们描绘的角色直接冲突透露。

The result of these efforts to subvert traditional television convention is, according to Goostree, that “instead of the simple series of stories about a struggling rock band it is disguised as, The Monkees is a complex text that is part and parcel of the oppositional youth culture of the 1960s.”

但是如何知道星星的位置The Monkeesof the cultural phenomenon they were creating?

“Do I have to do this all over again?”

In 2016, The Monkees celebrated the 50^thanniversary of their debut, and members of the band spoke with Peter Watts from the U.K. rock music magazineUncut关于猴子职业生涯的悖论。Mike Nesmith以这种方式解释了它：

The TV series was one group, who lived in an imaginary beach house. They were a rock’n’ roll band that wanted to be The Beatles, but never made it. It was about the struggle, and that’s what endeared it to the kids around the world, because on the show we were never successful. But then there is the other Monkees group, the one that went on the road and got hit records. You have to dig down deep into it and see the genetics of it. It wasn’t a manufactured band because it was never meant to be a band. Get your head around the concept and it makes sense.

当然，猴子的成功作为乐队复杂的事项。即使是集团的一些成员在音乐中有一些经验和背景，他们也没有被雇用一起让音乐 - 他们真的知道如何让音乐作为乐队。瓦特描述了如何作为展会的制造，专业音乐家在记录上工作。

Then the song “Last Train to Clarksville” reached no. 1 on the charts. Nesmith told Watts, “We had to do something to satisfy the fans. We couldn’t just wave and sign autographs. They wanted to see The Monkees come to life.”

Peter Tork added, “We were like a cover band for our own music.”

The Monkees learned how to play their own songs, and buoyed the success of their first tour, they started making their own records, going on to release a couple of well-received garage rock albums. But according to Watts’ article, as The Monkees became a real band experimenting with an identity increasingly distinguished from the show, the show fell apart, and then the band started coming apart as well.

Nesmith concluded that The Monkees “wasn’t a trick to fool the public. It was us discovering the power of combined media, of TV and music, and the symbiosis of that and live performance…It was strange, scattered, multiple efforts all strung together to become an actual thing that no one can define. That’s where we are 50 years later. An actual thing.”

Suggestions for further research:

Ebooks:

Austen, J. (2005).TV-a-Go-Go: Rock on TV From American Bandstand to American Idol.

Greene, D. (2012).Teens, TV and Tunes: The Manufacturing of American Adolescent Culture.

Wojcik, P. R., & Knight, A. (Eds.). (2001).Soundtrack Available: Essays on Film and Popular Music.

Dissertations:

Belscamper, D. L. (2014). "您对Demazeville的门票“：1960年代美国女孩文化中的16个杂志的功能（订单号3635251）。可从Proquest论文和中国全球范围内获得。（1614530726）。

Bodroghkozy，A.（1994）。沟槽和卷轴革命：20世纪60年代和流行文化的青年叛乱(Order No. 9431444). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (304112017).

Stahl, M. W. (2006).Reinventing Certainties: American Popular Music and Social Reproduction（第3244179号订单）。可从Proquest论文和中国全球范围内获得。（305347414）。

Citations:

Goostree, L. (1988).The Monkees and the Deconstruction of Television Realism.中国流行电影电视杂志，XVI(2), 50-58.

Shearer，L.（1966年12月11日）。猴子：为什么少年喜欢他们.波士顿地球（1960-1985）。

瓦特，P.（2016）。Do I Have to Do This All Over Again?Uncut,(229), 46-51.