The summer of 2023 was marked most notably by the “Barbenheimer” movie premiere and the re-release of Taylor Swift’s “Speak Now” album.
July 21, the long-awaited “Barbenheimer” day, marked the peak of the summer movie season with the release of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.” It sparked a phenomenon that led to many watching both films in one day, with some viewers even wearing themed merchandise for the event.
“My friends and I wore pink for ‘Oppenheimer’ and black for ‘Barbie.’ It was a great time,” Kennesaw State student Kristina James said. Both films would go on to receive massive critical and financial acclaim.
“Barbie” was successful due to Warner Bros’ Discovery’s powerhouse marketing, with the company spending as much as $175 million alone on promotion via interviews, red carpets, billboards and merchandising tie-ins. Gerwig’s vision was to create an “authentically artificial” world of Barbie-Land with inspiration from Hollywood’s golden age of musicals.
“Oppenheimer,” played most of its cards on the resume of filmmaker Christopher Nolan, one of the few directors in Hollywood with a mainstream appeal on his name alone. The film is led by potentially one of the biggest casts of a blockbuster film of all time, with Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon and Robert Downey Jr. alongside a deep bench of supporting stars.
“It is right between ‘Interstellar’ and ‘Dark Knight’ for me. I enjoyed it more than I thought, as a three-hour biopic,” KSU student Matthew Clark said when asked to rank the Nolan films.
Shifting the focus to major music of the summer, one name jumps to the top. While she has always been a massively successful artist, 2023 was the peak for Taylor Swift with the “Taylor’s Version” re-recordings, “Speak Now” in July, “1989” in October and the extremely lucrative Eras Tour, the first leg of which spanned the United States from March 17 to Aug. 9. An international leg is currently underway.
The top-selling album throughout the summer was the third studio album “One Thing at a Time” from country star Morgan Wallen, which became the highest-charting country album on the Billboard Hot 100 since Taylor Swift’s “Fearless” in 2009.
One reveal from James was the emergence of the indie-rock group “Shake Awake” which features KSU students Joseph Hawkins, Tiernen Callahan and Alejo Guerra. The group began playing shows in the Atlanta underground scene and continues to improve. James was quick to shout them out as a rising group.
Another major news story in the TV scene is the first dual strike of the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists since 1960. The organizations are demanding fair wages and residuals for past work.
“The repercussions are likely to come in the spring, once the finished scripts fully dry up,” Clark said.
As of the publication of this article, the strike is ongoing.
