Cult-Culture: The Rocky Horror Picture Show

The Rocky Horror Picture Show, while far from being the first film to gain a cult following among a marginalized audience, it is perfectly suited for use in a discussion on mainstream adoption of the cult sensibility; while once relegated to a small but dedicated following and ignored by practically everyone else for being a film of ‘low-culture,’ Rocky Horror has reached an apex of ‘high-culture,’ being selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry and additionally transcended cult-culture to exist within the dominant popular-culture. Rocky Horror is a textbook case of the dominant society enveloping cult-culture. In order to comprehend the track a cult film travels in its journey to acceptance by mainstream society,

In the case of Rocky Horror these exceptional people consist of the earliest cult followers of the film; a number of characteristics of the Rocky Horror viewing experience can be traced back to a contribution by a single individual. It was, in fact, a man named Louis Farese Jr. who initiated the tradition of calling out responses to pieces of film dialogue (Batchelor 42). Next, The Stickiness Factor, refers to the ability of a message to make a lasting impact and remain in one’s memory for an extended period of time (Gladwell 32). In Jeffery Jackson’s essay in Cult Pop Culture, he perfectly exemplifies Rocky Horror’s adherence to ‘The Stickiness Factor’ stating, “I defy any skeptics out there to listen to Time Warp and then deny the tune is stuck in their heads” (Batchelor 44). Finally, The Power of Context, states that ideas “are sensitive to the conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which they occur” (Gladwell 46). This final aspect of an ‘idea’ dictates at which point the idea will have the capacity to cement itself as a permanent fixture within the dominant