Rewind, Replay
Britain and the Video Boom, 1978-1992
Charts the introduction and rise of video entertainment in Britain from the launch of Betamax and VHS in 1978 to the development of the video superstore in the early 1990s
- Presents the first book dedicated to Britain’s video boom
- Considers the development of the video distribution industry in the UK, identifying the key players
- Appraises the development of video shops and clubs, from the late 1970s to arrival of Blockbuster
Rewind, Replay is the first history of Britain’s video boom. It considers the earliest video distributors who, from the late 1970s, took chances on a wide range of films and other programmes to attract consumer interest. It also addresses the phenomenon of the video shop, the speed with which video rental became a habitual practice among the British public, and the key industry players who, at the height of a recession, invested wholesale into what contemporaneous media reportage was describing as a mere ‘plaything’.
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Introduction: Rewind, replay
- We’ve got it taped
- Shrugging off the recession
- Threats and benefits
- Regulation and adaptation
- Independent spirit vs. corporate muscle
Conclusion: Video legacies
Written in lively prose that is infused with Walker’s clear passion for the subject, Rewind, Replay is as engaging as it is insightful [...] this book is essential reading for students and researchers that specialize in home video as well as those that focus on British media culture.
A loving, and detailed account of how video 'boomed’, and bust, in Britain [...] The way in which Walker has brought together different magazine and journal material to generate a historical snapshot of a burgeoning industry is wonderful [...] an illuminating, poignant and insightful text that establishes an important and previously unclear historical narrative.
A loving, and detailed account of how video 'boomed’, and bust, in Britain [...] The way in which Walker has brought together different magazine and journal material to generate a historical snapshot of a burgeoning industry is wonderful [...] an illuminating, poignant and insightful text that establishes an important and previously unclear historical narrative.
An illuminating, poignant and insightful text that establishes an important and previously unclear historical narrative.
Rewind, Replay is a formidable addition to an important and growing body of scholarship establishing home video as a prelude to the digitalization of life. Walker shows how marketing and distribution of analogue video folded ‘cinema’ into a swathe of other activities.He does so with skill and depth.
In Rewind, Replay, Johnny Walker traces with exemplary clarity and copious detail the evolution of video distribution and retail in Britain from 1978 to 1992. A great deal has been written about ‘video nasties’ but far less about the industry in which they, and many other kinds of videos, circulated. This is a much-needed and very welcome addition to the literature on the early days of video in the UK.
Walker authoritatively chronicles the formative years of the home video boom in Britain. By tracing the distributors, shops and clubs that brought video into UK homes, he identifies the conditions that enabled popular uptake of a new entertainment technology. In so doing, Walker provides us with essential coordinates for grasping the full significance of this transitional period in the history of screen media in Britain.
