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Rewind, Replay
Britain and the Video Boom, 1978-1992
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Book Presentation:
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’.
Media historian Johnny Walker explores how distributors and store owners navigated various pressures including piracy, the video nasties moral panic and market rationalisation, as well as significant developments including the introduction of new legislation bespoke to the video medium and the corporate expansion of the industry in the late 1980s and early 1990s, to show how the pre-recorded videocassette, over the course of a few years, became a staple of high street retail.
About the Author:
Johnny Walker is Associate Professor in the Department of Arts at Northumbria University. His authored books include, Contemporary British Horror Cinema: Industry, Genre and Society (2015), as editor, Hammer and Beyond: The British Horror Film (by Peter Hutchings, 2021), and as co-editor, Grindhouse: Cultural Exchange on 42nd Street, and Beyond (2016). His scholarship can be found in numerous journals and anthologies.
Press Reviews:
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.– Daniel Herbert, European Journal of Cultural Studies
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.– Graeme R. Spurr, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television
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.– Graeme R. Spurr, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television
An illuminating, poignant and insightful text that establishes an important and previously unclear historical narrative.– Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television
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.– Frederick Wasser, Brooklyn College CUNY
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.– Julian Petley, Brunel University
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.– Paul McDonald, King's College London
See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press
> From the same author:
Contemporary British Horror Cinema (2015)
Industry, Genre and Society
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