In order to study and understand pop culture we must first and foremost confront the difficulty posed by the term itself. This is because it is used in quite different ways and are of inquiry and theoretical definition and analytical focus. Popular culture is generally defined as signifying practices that produce meaning, has mass accessibility and appeal. Origin of popular culture can be traced to the creation of middle class generated by the industrial revolution.
Popular culture was mostly associated with the poorly educated or the lower class while the official culture which was mostly associated with the well-educated and the upper class citizens.
However, according to john Storey popular culture “is the culture that is left over after
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This sub groups are created by people who feel left out or don’t fit in the society. Most of this sub groups are associated with the youths because they are believed to have more leisure time at their disposal. The youths in the sub groups create their own ideology hence create panic. This is because they challenge the norms and most of the times go against how people should think.
The main difference between pop culture and high culture is that pop culture is for the people in terms of it is accessible to the masses no matter the level of social or economic class.
On the other hand, high culture is not only readily unavailable or inaccessible but it is also not meant for mass consumption. Examples of high culture that are associated with the social elite include: opera, intellectual pursuits, theater and fine art. Most of this elements associated with the upper class in the society do rarely cross over to pop culture.
There is a great relationship between what we have learned and how we have learned it.
For instance, Advanced capitalist societies is the places were popular culture is mostly found in and is characterized by commodification (Kidd, 2007). Popular culture is commonly viewed
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Again people use this product despite of them having no clue of how they are produced. That is “the negative effects of popular culture were very clear to Walter Benjamin, who argued that mechanical reproduction of arts removes the ‘aura’ from that work. (Kidd, 2007, p. 74).the consequences of this process is that people don’t know or get to learn the traditional way of production of get to learn from those who produced cultural objects.
People ability to think independently and critically have been greatly undermined by the introduction of the standardized and commercialized products which are said to distract people from fighting the organized order by the social elite. This is according to theorist of the Frankfurt school. According to Horkheimer and Adornos work Dialectic of Enlightenment (1992), people have been turned into passive consumers from purchase of mass reproduction such the television which has been brought about by the advance technology of popular culture.
In conclusion we can see pop-culture changes with time. A good examples is the
Pop Culture was the result of Mass media, also known as the media boom, which introduced “cultural
society, and are not accepted in many aspects of the general public, and with these
The historical study of popular culture is distinct in that it diverges from the elitist perspective that governs much of our reflection on past events. Although, certain groups may face subordination in a given society, that does not imply a deficiency in their cultural achievements. From the Native people of the new world to the uneducated peasants of later years, their inferior social status in society often led their unique cultural practices into relative obscurity; dominant groups were the societal dictators of culture and the practices that future generations would deem as applicable to that time period. However, neglecting outranked cultural practices of past societies deprives historians of a more complete and accurate depiction of past societal realities. Contemporary accounts of early modern popular culture such as works by Ginzburg, Yassif and Bakhtin allow the reader to witness a shift in the earlier Romantic emphasis on the fascination and domination of the subordinate cultures [Herder] to a notion of cultural reciprocity between the elite and popular strata of society.
The Levin Institute - The State University of New York. "Pop Culture." Globalization101. The Levin Institute - The State University of New York, 2014. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.
Popular culture refers to information or an event that briefly hold the interest of the public. These events and information are mostly heard or broadcasted on mass media such as radio, television, newspapers and the internet. It is one of the cultures that is easily accessible and considered much more entertaining by the greater part of the population in the world. It has helped in the enhancement of human relationships and socialization in our modern world. As a Haitian, below I try to outline some of the popular cultures I can think of.
Pop culture in the 1950s and 1960s began to spread and infest the nation from front to back through radio shows, books and magazines, television programs, and even motion pictures. Whether it is culture in terms of political affairs, clothing or the latest musical sensations, the United States has always played the dominant role when it came to who knows what is best, first. Some cases of Americanizati...
Popular Culture has changed drastically over the decades with the biggest question being whether or not popular culture is a positive or negative expression of our ideas and reflections. American Pop Culture has an extremely important role that influences the United States and around the world. There are countless topics that make up pop culture and it is nearly impossible to name all of them. Some of the topics are Television, Music, Religion, Politics, Arts, Economy, Education, Family roles and structures. Three of the cultures that I believe has changed the most and seems to cause the most controversy are television, music and religion.
Research studies have found that popular culture can and has been successfully and effectively used in schools, giving diverse classrooms more opportunities to engage in critical thinking through common understandings and connections...
On an individual basis, popular culture helps establish and mold the subjective self. It influences the way individuals think, act and respond, and this becomes part of how people develop their personalities, preferences, beliefs, and their overall identity. For example, most people idolize certain fashion statements or fads which determines their preference of clothing. This process of self-formation coincides with both elements of personal choice and the responses and attitudes of others. Furthermore, the identity that an individual asserts is influenced by and helps determine the development of social relationships; it influences the communities and groups to which an individual will identify with and how that identification is processed. In the establishment of communal bonding, mass culture helps with, as Leavis describes, a “leveling down of society” (35). The lines of class distinction have been blurred which, to Leavis is not a good thing, but it unites us nonetheless. Popular culture also promotes unity in that it “blurs age lines” (29). As stated earlier, the products of popular culture are targeted towards a variety of audiences; adults read comic books, children watch adult films, etc. (Macdonald 29). Similarly, teenagers and young adults are brought together through night clubs, fashion, and music; college students come together to enjoy campus events; book fans wait in line hours for new releases, etc. Each of these instances produce feelings of belonging, acceptance and connection with members of society over a common
Popular Culture. Ed. John Woodward, Farmington Hills, MI: Thompson Gale, 2005. 138-140.
There are many ways to define popular culture. Many individuals have grappled with the question what is popular culture? And how to critically analyze and deconstruct the meanings. Looking at the root words of popular culture is where to begin. Raymond Williams states ‘popular’ means: “well liked by many people" or “culture actually made for the people themselves (Storey, p.5). This is part with the word ‘culture’ combine to look at how the two words have been connect by theoretical work within social and historical context. John Storey approaches popular culture in six categories, they are as followed: “Popular culture is simply culture that is widely favoured or well liked by many people”, Popular culture is “the culture that is left over after we have decided what is high culture”, Popular culture is “mass culture”, “Popular culture is the culture that originates from ‘the people.” and “Popular culture as a site of struggle
In the beginning, the relationship between everyday culture and mass media culture are closed but there are some difference between popular culture and traditional culture. The traditional culture is known as ‘high culture’ which refer to literature, art, music etc. However, popular culture is the produced by mass media, may know it as low culture. People used to entertainment or relaxation. It shared and spread rapidly in groups, communities, societies and so on. Some people may say popular culture help us to understand more about the world because of the globalization factor.
The purpose of this essay is to firstly explain what John Fiske means by ‘popular culture lies not in the production of commodities so much as the productive use of industrial commodities’ (Fiske, J. 1990 p.28). Secondly this essay will go on to compare Fiske’s interpretation of popular culture to MacDonald’s theory of mass culture.
Pop culture is a reflection of social change, not a cause of social change” (John Podhoretz). It encompasses the advertisements we see on T.V, the clothes we wear, the music we listen to, and it’s the reason Leonardo DiCaprio has not won an Oscar yet. It defines and dictates the desires and fears of the mainstream members of society and it is so ingrained into our lives that it has become as natural as breathing. Moreover, adults never even bat an eyelash at all the pop culture and advertising that surrounds them since it has become just another part of everyday life. Pop culture is still somewhat seen as entertainment enjoyed by the lower class members of society but pop culture standards change over time.
This is one of the main differences between Fiske’s and MacDonald’s theories, while Fiske believes in the power of the consumer to decide what is popular culture and to decide how to consume it, MacDonald asserts that popular culture and mass culture are something that is force-fed to consumers and forces mass conformity. Although mass culture and popular culture do breed conformity it is very important not to ignore the choice and the power of the consumer. Counter-cultures are great evidence to show that choice. The hippies of the 70’s and the hipsters of today are two well-known examples of counter-cultures formed by people who were exposed to mainstream popular culture and mass culture and chose to deviate from it. Although mass culture and the very peer pressure like influence it has can be very hard to deviate from, but the choice is still there and MacDonald ignores that choice. When faced with the commodity of popular culture we as consumers have the power to deny it as individuals and to change it as a society whether or not we chose to use that power or to even realize we have