The scope of this issue is to gather papers related to a decisive period in the development of audiovisual media in contemporary Europe: the 60’s and 70’s are linked with different patterns of economic growth and consumption across different countries, but nevertheless related to the diffusion of television and the new technologies in the record industry, from both the point of view of production and reproduction. Such changes determined the emergence of new forms of expression, media aggregation and consumption behaviors with respect to the past.

The special issue aims at being particularly open to comparative contributions which highlight both the specific characteristics of the national contexts and the features that we might call the “mediatisation” of contemporary culture. We wish to draw out and explore some of the tensions between notions of the underground and mainstream, and the local, national, and international.