Television

The debate over whether to watch “Friends” or “Survivor” on Thursday nights seems to have been decided.

This year in television, comedies gained momentum as reality television took a nosedive.

“I’m expecting that viewers have tired of these reality shows where people are placed in some sort of challenging situation and survive the best they can,” said Tom Beell, professor of journalism and mass communication.

“I think they’ve gone downhill,” said Kylah Piechowski, senior in psychology. “They’re not real.”

Audiences who don’t believe the participants are behaving in their normal fashion could be tuning out that particular genre of programming and finding something else to watch.

“[The participants have] seen so many of them that they know how to act, they know how to get their way and they know how to manipulate,” Piechowski said.

Perhaps people have learned how to “survive” on reality television, perhaps people experience a little too much reality on Sept. 11, or perhaps people are just ready to move on to something else.

The increasing notoriety of political shows such as “The West Wing” is due to what Beell, who teaches an electronic media course, thinks is a result of recent events that have impacted the nation.

“The Sept. 11 attacks occurred, and suddenly there is a great resurgence in government and politics,” he said. “People are fascinated by the White House; now more than ever before.

“They want entertainment to escape the pressures of the negative, stressful news they’ve had to contend with,” said Beell. “People are eager to laugh again.”

Music

Rock bands have nudged their way into the charts that were once dominated by teen icons. And although groups such as the Backstreet Boys and `N Sync remain strong on the Billboard charts, they have been joined by bands with a much different approach.

“Our sales have been dominated by the alternative rock sound like Staind, Linkin Park, Nickelback, Disturbed and System of a Down,” said Brad Niland, manager of Sam Goody.

“Alternative rock was more popular this year than it had been in years past,” said Mark Hansen, junior in electrical engineering, “but I still think that teenage pop music is the most popular of all genres.”

Perhaps the surprise of the year is from a band who broke up 30 years ago. The Beatles’ “1” album has worked its way to the top of the charts.

And as for the upcoming year of popular music, Hansen foresees a progression into alternative rock and punk-inspired music.

“I think everyone is tired of the happy, bouncy pop scene and maybe people will go back to the music we had in the early ’90s – bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana,” said Hansen, who lists his favorite album of 2001 as Linkin Park’s “Hybrid Theory.”

Niland doesn’t envision a musical revolution within the next year, but more of the same in the music world.

“I expect [the trend] to continue,” he said. “It’s continuing now with Creed. We still might have big sellers from the teen-rock, like Britney Spears, but who knows what new music will be over the horizon.”

Movies

Movie-goers seemed to be looking for escape in 2001. Box office results show science fiction and animation as the genres of choice. Movies such as “Shrek” and “Monsters, Inc.” have been successful in catering to a wide audience.

“There will always be a big market for kids and teenagers,” said Andy Langager, crew member and guest panelist on “Trailer Home,” an ISU4 show that discusses movie releases. “With `Shrek’ and `Harry Potter’ and `Monsters, Inc.’, a lot of college kids will go to that, not just kids.”

“It’s a fantasy world that nobody can ever live in,” said Nick Vander Sluis, freshman in pre-business about animated movies. “It’s better than reality.”

“Overall, I don’t think it was a very good year for quality movies, although the box office did very well,” said Langager, a graduate student in journalism and mass communication. “Either they have big stars or they just create so much hype around the movie that it does really, really well at first but it drops off really quickly because of word of mouth.”

A surprising, or not so surprising addition, to the box office is “Harry Potter.” Since its release less than a month ago, the movie has already jumped to the number three spot on the year-to-date chart.