Everything about Popular Culture totally explained
Popular culture (also known as
pop culture) deemed as what is popular within the social context — that of which is most strongly represented by what is perceived to be popularly accepted among society. Otherwise, popular culture is also suggested to be the widespread
cultural elements in any given
society that are perpetuated through that society's
vernacular language or
lingua franca. It comprises the daily interactions, needs and desires and cultural 'moments' that make up the
everyday lives of the
mainstream. It can include any number of practices, including those pertaining to
cooking,
clothing,
consumption,
mass media and the many facets of
entertainment such as
sports and
literature. (Compare
meme.) Popular culture often contrasts with a more exclusive, even
elitist "
high culture,", that is, the culture of
ruling social groups. The earliest use of "popular" in English was during the fifteenth century in law and politics, meaning "low", "base", "vulgar", and "of the common people" 'til the late eighteenth century by which time it began to mean "widespread" and gain in positive connotation. (Williams 1985)
Pop culture finds its expression in the mass circulation of items from areas such as
fashion,
music, sport and
film. The world of pop culture has had a particular influence on
art from the early 1960s on, through
Pop Art.
When modern pop culture began during the early 1950s, it made it harder for adults to participate. Today, most adults, their kids and grandchildren "participate" in pop culture directly or indirectly.
Definitions
The meaning of
popular and the meaning of
culture are
essentially contested concepts and there are multiple competing definitions of popular culture.
John Storey, in "Cultural Theory and Popular Culture", discusses six definitions. The
quantitative definition, of culture has the problem that much "high" culture (for example television dramatisations of
Jane Austen) is widely favoured. "Pop culture" can also be defined as the culture that's "left over" when we've decided what "
high culture" is. However, many works straddle or cross the boundaries for example
William Shakespeare,
Charles Dickens,
Puccini-
Verdi-
Pavarotti-
Nessun Dorma. Storey draws our attention to the forces and relations which sustain this difference such as the educational system.
A third definition equates pop culture with Mass Culture. This is seen as a commercial culture, mass produced for mass consumption. From a U.K. (and European) point of view, this may be equated to American culture. Alternatively, "pop culture" can be defined as an "authentic" culture of the people, but this can be problematic because there are many ways of defining the "people." Story argues that there's a political dimension to popular culture; neo-
Gramscian hegemony theory "... sees popular culture as a site of struggle between the 'resistance' of subordinate groups in society and the forces of 'incorporation' operating in the interests of dominant groups in society." A
postmodernism approach to popular culture would "no longer recognise the distinction between high and popular culture'
Storey emphasises that popular culture emerges from the urbanisation of the industrial revolution, which identifies the term with the usual definitions of 'mass culture'. Studies of
Shakespeare (by Weimann, Barber or Bristol, for example) locate much of the characteristic vitality of his drama in its participation in
Renaissance popular culture, while contemporary practitioners like
Dario Fo and
John McGrath use popular culture in its Gramscian sense that includes ancient folk traditions (the
commedia dell'arte for example).
Popular culture changes constantly and occurs uniquely in place and
time. It forms currents and eddies, and represents a complex of mutually-interdependent perspectives and values that influence society and its institutions in various ways. For example, certain currents of pop culture may originate from, (or diverge into) a
subculture, representing perspectives with which the
mainstream popular culture has only limited familiarity. Items of popular culture most typically appeal to a broad spectrum of the
public.
Institutional propagation
The
news media mines the work of
scientists and
scholars and conveys it to the
general public, often emphasizing "
factoids" that have inherent appeal or the power to amaze. For instance,
giant pandas (a species in remote Chinese woodlands) have become well-known items of popular culture;
parasitic worms, though of greater practical importance, have not. Both scholarly facts and news stories get modified through popular transmission, often to the point of outright falsehoods.
Hannah Arendt's 1961 essay 'The Crisis in Culture' suggested that a "market-driven media would lead to the displacement of culture by the dictates of entertainment."
Susan Sontag argues that in our culture, the most "...intelligible, persuasive values are [increasingly] drawn from the entertainment industries", which is "undermining of standards of seriousness." As a result, "tepid, the glib, and the senselessly cruel" topics are becoming the norm. In pre-industrial times,
mass culture equaled
folk culture. This earlier layer of culture still persists today, sometimes in the form of
jokes or
slang, which spread through the population by
word of mouth and via the
Internet. By providing a new channel for transmission, cyberspace has renewed the strength of this element of popular culture.
Although the folkloric element of popular culture engages heavily with the
commercial element, the public has its own tastes and it may not embrace every cultural item sold. Moreover, beliefs and opinions about the products of commercial culture (for example: "My favorite character is
SpongeBob SquarePants") spread by
word-of-mouth, and become modified in the process in the same manner that folklore evolves.
Self-referentiality
Owing to the pervasive and increasingly interconnected nature of popular culture, especially its intermingling of complementary distribution sources, some cultural anthropologists have identified the use of "popular culture within popular culture" as a distinct phenomenon. Literary and cultural critics have identified this as following the well-recognized but variegated concept of
intertextuality.
One commentator has suggested this "self-referentiality" reflects the advancing encroachment of popular culture into every realm of collective experience. "Instead of referring to the real world, much media output devotes itself to referring to other images, other narratives; self-referentiality is all-embracing, although it's rarely taken account of."
Many cultural critics have dismissed this as merely a symptom or side-effect of mass
consumerism, however alternate explanations and critique have also been offered. One critic asserts that it reflects a fundamental paradox: the increase in technological and cultural sophistication, combined with an increase in superficiality and dehumanization.
Examples from American television
According to television scholars specializing in
quality television, such as
Kristin Thompson, self-referentiality in mainstream American television (especially comedy) both reflects and exemplifies the type of progression characterized previously.
Thompson argues that shows such as
The Simpsons use a "...flurry of cultural references, intentionally inconsistent characterization, and considerable self-reflexivity about television conventions and the status of the programme as a television show." Extreme examples literally approach a kind of thematic
infinite regress wherein the distinctions between art and life, commerce and critique, ridicule and homage become intractably blurred..
Further Information
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