Essay On Board Game Culture

The Teen Transition: How Rock and Roll Culture Killed Board Game Culture The intent of this paper is to explore the connections between the introduction of rock and roll music into the mainstream media of the 1950s and the subsequent downturn of board game popularity among teenage youth in the years that follow. Although board games as a medium of entertainment did not disappear entirely, their inclusion in teenage life has diminished greatly over the years. Board games today are now reserved for the extremely young or more mature audiences. During the 1950s, rock and roll music entered the mainstream media and gradually disassembled teenage board game culture through its promotion of rebellion, commoditization of popularity, and lack of family values, which eventually severed the connection …show more content…
In her book, Regan does mention “Teen Towns” or teen gathering places run with minimal adult supervision. These youth centers were meant to combat the notion that all teenagers were rowdy rebels, by providing a safe space for teens to enjoy themselves. They had jukeboxes, pool tables, ping pong, and other table games, but a severe lack of board games. This just reinforces that even the tame teenagers who sought to rebel against the previous generations were separating themselves away from the entertainment of the past. They had been consumed by the marketing of the time and even youth centers were providing teens with the rebellious media that they desired. Rebellion became a marketing strategy to target this new niche desire of teenagers, and unlike the music industry, the board game industry was not able to capitalize on this teen craving. Elvis adequately juxtaposes the marketing strategies at the time. He was supposed to be the rowdy, but fashionable teen that everyone wanted to be, while board game ads were still showing children wearing neat and tidy dress clothes and playing games with their parents. Teens were no longer sitting at home with mom and dad on a