Popular Culture Analysis

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

Hegemony can refer to the way in which dominant groups in society, through the process of ‘intellectual and moral’ leadership seek to win the consent of the subordinate groups of society. This can apply to popular culture being the agent of struggle between the subordinate and their incorporation into the dominant groups. Gramsci’s theory applies to The Voice as the judges, being wealthy successful artists use their leadership to critique the ‘starving artists’ as the subordinate. Though the contestant gain knowledge from the judges that will hopefully propel their careers, the judges are in a better situation as they control the contestants weekly, as well likely — if successful sign them to their own record labels. All in all, the notion of hegemony is applied to The Voice through the relationship between contestant and