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Popular Culture Review
counter-culture in the U nited States and W estern Europe during the 1960s and
1970s.
R egard less o f the valu e-lad en and “m orally ju d gm en tal” attitude that,
w hether on e lik es it or not, has b een prevalent in the descriptions, interpretations
and critiques o f such a phen om en on in the course o f history o f art and culture, it
is quite o b v io u s that the dom inant cultural atm osphere o f the last tw o d ecad es o f
the Pahlavi m onarchy in Iran practically dem onstrated such a d ecadence. D uring
these d ecades, e sp ecia lly in the 1970s, thanks to the oil industry b o o m that led to
the rushing o f a huge torrent o f petro-dollars to Iran, com m od ity con su m erism
saw a dramatic flourishing am on g the urban m iddle and upper cla sses.
M ean w h ile, as a great num ber o f Iranians, m ostly b y taking educational,
touristic, or b u sin ess trips to W estern Europe and the U n ited States, had co m e to
exp erience firsthand and to understand the contem porary pop culture in those
lands, and brought back to h om e certain aspects o f that culture, thereby m aking
a breakthrough in the historical ep istem o lo g y o f Iranians in general, the dem and
for sim ilar h om em ade cultural consum er com m od ities also increased.
Ganj-e Qarun (Croesus’ Wealth) (1965), the ultimate Filmfarsi