Umbrella title
Encyclopedia
An umbrella title is a formal or informal name connecting a number of individual items with a common theme. It is most often used in lieu of listing separately the separate components or providing a convenient "label" for a collection of discipline
s.
", "physical education
", and "medicine
", to distinguish them from specialized fields of study such as exercise physiology
.
s use umbrella titles as unifying themes for the activities scheduled in the course of the conference.
or participating in a lawsuit
.
, jazz
, rock music
, hip hop
, rhythm and blues
and other labels which each cover more specialized musical styles. A similar "structure" can be found in the field of dance.
Prior to the sale of the long playing record in 1950, albums containing several 78 revolutions-per-minute records were often sold under umbrella titles (a collection of recordings from Oklahoma, for example). It can be argued that titles of all long-playing records and compact disks are, in fact, umbrella titles -- and several such recordings with a common theme often have an umbrella title (such as Chip Davis
' "Day Parts
" series) as well.
), wheel series
, and other series under a common heading (such as Crimetime After Prime Time and Four in One
).
While it was common practice in the 1950s and early 1960s for series to alternate or otherwise share a time slot in American
broadcast network television (for example, The Jack Benny Show shared a time slot with, first Private Secretary
and then the George Gobel Show), umbrella titles were not used by United States' networks until 1964, when NBC
presented three half-hour programs on Monday nights as a programming block centered at a southern California apartment complex, 90 Bristol Court.
While the 1964 programming experiment did not succeed (two of the series were cancelled; the third lasted the broadcast season but was not renewed for the 1965-1966 season), NBC was not dissuaded from further programming experimentation. Within a decade, the network then experimented with wheel series, first with Four in One and The Bold Ones
, then with NBC Mystery Movie
(and NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie). Afterwards additional wheel series were presented by American broadcast networks, to varying degrees of success.
In the United Kingdom, umbrella titles were used in varying degrees in their programming as well. The long-running Doctor Who
used umbrella titles on several levels, first with individual named episodes under the umbrella of the title of an overall story (the first four episodes were commonly called "An Unearthly Child" even though none of them actually showed it to be the title of the story); even after the naming of individual episodes ceased, umbrella titles were often used to collect stories with a common enemy or theme
(Dalek
s stories, Cybermen
stories, UNIT
stories, and season-long "Key to Time" and "Trial of a Time Lord
").
and the Three Colors
trilogy (a.k.a. "Red, White, and Blue trilogy") commonly are called by umbrella titles, as was the case for their literary cousins (such as John Dos Passos
' U.S.A.). Umbrella titles were often used to cover longer sequences of motion pictures or novels (such as the James Bond
and Star Wars
films and Marcel Proust
's multi-volume Remembrance of Things Past). Often umbrella titles are used to collect motion pictures with common stars ("Marx Brothers
movies") or common characters ("Dirty Harry
movies"), as is the case for novels or comics ("Perry Mason
novels", for example). In literature, sometimes an umbrella title is used for a collection of stories with a common locality, such as the Wessex
novels of Thomas Hardy
.
Discipline
In its original sense, discipline is referred to systematic instruction given to disciples to train them as students in a craft or trade, or to follow a particular code of conduct or "order". Often, the phrase "to discipline" carries a negative connotation. This is because enforcement of order –...
s.
Academia
Nonspecific fields of study are identified by umbrella titles such as "physicsPhysics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
", "physical education
Physical education
Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
", and "medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
", to distinguish them from specialized fields of study such as exercise physiology
Exercise physiology
Exercise physiology is the study of the acute responses and chronic adaptations to a wide-range of physical exercise conditions. In addition, many exercise physiologists study the effect of exercise on pathology, and the mechanisms by which exercise can reduce or reverse disease progression...
.
Scientific conferences and discussions
Many scientific and academic conferenceAcademic conference
An academic conference or symposium is a conference for researchers to present and discuss their work. Together with academic or scientific journals, conferences provide an important channel for exchange of information between researchers.-Overview:Conferences are usually composed of various...
s use umbrella titles as unifying themes for the activities scheduled in the course of the conference.
Employment
Umbrella titles in common use involve either general job descriptions of a group of workers with similar responsibilities (like "teacher") or rank (military or nonmilitary).Politics and law
Collections of organizations with a common legal or legislative interest are often "united" under an umbrella title for the purposes of lobbyingLobbying
Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or...
or participating in a lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
.
Entertainment and literature
Umbrella titles are widely used in music, literature, television, and theater. Uses of umbrella titles vary widely in the arts, to a much greater spectrum of use than in other fields of study.Music and dance
Umbrella titles are used to demarcate the music field into general trends or styles: classical musicClassical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
, rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
and other labels which each cover more specialized musical styles. A similar "structure" can be found in the field of dance.
Prior to the sale of the long playing record in 1950, albums containing several 78 revolutions-per-minute records were often sold under umbrella titles (a collection of recordings from Oklahoma, for example). It can be argued that titles of all long-playing records and compact disks are, in fact, umbrella titles -- and several such recordings with a common theme often have an umbrella title (such as Chip Davis
Chip Davis
Louis F. "Chip" Davis, Jr. is the founder and leader of the music group Mannheim Steamroller.He also wrote the music for C.W. McCall, including the 1975 hit "Convoy".-Biography:...
' "Day Parts
Mannheim Steamroller
Mannheim Steamroller is an American music group founded by Chip Davis and Jackson Berkey, known primarily for its modern recordings of Christmas music. The group has sold 28 million albums in the U.S. alone.-Beginnings:...
" series) as well.
Television
While it can be argued that every title of a televised series, especially those primarily used to designate a time period rather than actual programming (like NBC Monday Night at the Movies) is an umbrella, the term is more appropriately applied to names of anthology series, series that combine together to provide a common theme (such as the three components of 90 Bristol Court90 Bristol Court
90 Bristol Court is the umbrella title of a short-lived NBC experiment comprising three situation comedies set in a Southern California apartment complex located at the title address...
), wheel series
Wheel series
A wheel series is a term applied in the broadcast television industry to a television program in which two or more regular series are rotated with the same time slot...
, and other series under a common heading (such as Crimetime After Prime Time and Four in One
Four in One
Four in One was the umbrella title for a wheel series broadcast in the United States on the NBC television network as part of its 1970-71 schedule in the Wednesday 10 PM Eastern time slot....
).
While it was common practice in the 1950s and early 1960s for series to alternate or otherwise share a time slot in American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
broadcast network television (for example, The Jack Benny Show shared a time slot with, first Private Secretary
Private Secretary (TV series)
Private Secretary is an American sitcom that aired from February 1, 1953 to September 10, 1957 on CBS, alternating with The Jack Benny Program on Sundays at 7:30pm EST...
and then the George Gobel Show), umbrella titles were not used by United States' networks until 1964, when NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
presented three half-hour programs on Monday nights as a programming block centered at a southern California apartment complex, 90 Bristol Court.
While the 1964 programming experiment did not succeed (two of the series were cancelled; the third lasted the broadcast season but was not renewed for the 1965-1966 season), NBC was not dissuaded from further programming experimentation. Within a decade, the network then experimented with wheel series, first with Four in One and The Bold Ones
The Bold Ones
The Bold Ones is the umbrella title for several television series. It was produced by Universal Television and broadcast on NBC from 1969 to 1973...
, then with NBC Mystery Movie
NBC Mystery Movie
The NBC Mystery Movie is the general name of an American television series, produced by Universal Studios, that was broadcast by NBC from 1971-77...
(and NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie). Afterwards additional wheel series were presented by American broadcast networks, to varying degrees of success.
In the United Kingdom, umbrella titles were used in varying degrees in their programming as well. The long-running Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
used umbrella titles on several levels, first with individual named episodes under the umbrella of the title of an overall story (the first four episodes were commonly called "An Unearthly Child" even though none of them actually showed it to be the title of the story); even after the naming of individual episodes ceased, umbrella titles were often used to collect stories with a common enemy or theme
Story arc
A story arc is an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, boardgames, video games, and in some cases, films. On a television program, for example, the story would unfold over many episodes. In television, the use of the story...
(Dalek
Dalek
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
s stories, Cybermen
Cyberman
The Cybermen are a fictional race of cyborgs who are amongst the most persistent enemies of the Doctor in the British science fiction television series, Doctor Who. Cybermen were originally a wholly organic species of humanoids originating on Earth's twin planet Mondas that began to implant more...
stories, UNIT
United Nations Intelligence Taskforce
UNIT is a fictional military organisation from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures...
stories, and season-long "Key to Time" and "Trial of a Time Lord
The Trial of a Time Lord
The Trial of a Time Lord is a fourteen-part British science fiction serial of the long running BBC series Doctor Who. The serial, produced as the twenty-third season of the Doctor Who television series, aired in weekly episodes from 6 September to 6 December 1986...
").
Motion pictures and literature
The use of umbrella titles in motion pictures parallels their use in literature. Movie trilogies such as Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the Rings film trilogy
The Lord of the Rings is an epic film trilogy consisting of three fantasy adventure films based on the three-volume book of the same name by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The films are The Fellowship of the Ring , The Two Towers and The Return of the King .The films were directed by Peter...
and the Three Colors
Three Colors
The Three Colours Trilogy is the collective title of three films – a trilogy – directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, two made in French and one primarily in Polish: Trois couleurs: Bleu , Trzy kolory: Biały , and Trois couleurs: Rouge...
trilogy (a.k.a. "Red, White, and Blue trilogy") commonly are called by umbrella titles, as was the case for their literary cousins (such as John Dos Passos
John Dos Passos
John Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist and artist.-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Dos Passos was the illegitimate son of John Randolph Dos Passos , a distinguished lawyer of Madeiran Portuguese descent, and Lucy Addison Sprigg Madison of Petersburg, Virginia. The elder Dos Passos...
' U.S.A.). Umbrella titles were often used to cover longer sequences of motion pictures or novels (such as the James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
and Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
films and Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
's multi-volume Remembrance of Things Past). Often umbrella titles are used to collect motion pictures with common stars ("Marx Brothers
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
movies") or common characters ("Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry is a 1971 American crime thriller produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the Dirty Harry series. Clint Eastwood plays the title role, in his first outing as San Francisco Police Department Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan....
movies"), as is the case for novels or comics ("Perry Mason
Perry Mason
Perry Mason is a fictional character, a defense attorney who was the main character in works of detective fiction authored by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason was featured in more than 80 novels and short stories, most of which had a plot involving his client's murder trial...
novels", for example). In literature, sometimes an umbrella title is used for a collection of stories with a common locality, such as the Wessex
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
novels of Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
.