(Redirected from Pop culture)
'Popular culture', sometimes abbreviated to 'pop culture', consists of widespread
cultural elements in any given
society. Such elements are perpetuated through that society's
vernacular language or an established ''
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,"
[1], that is, the culture of
ruling social groups.
[2]
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.
According to popeducation.org, when modern pop culture began during the early 1950's, it was harder for adults to participate. Today, most adults, their kids and grandchildren "participate" in pop culture directly or indirectly.
Contested definitions of Popular culture
The meaning of popular and the meaning of
culture are
essentially contested concepts so it is not surprising that there is more than one definition of popular culture and that any definition is problematic.
John Storey, in "Cultural Theory and Popular Culture", discusses six definitions:
1. The obvious,
quantitative definition, of culture that is widely favoured. This has the problem that much "high" culture (e.g. television dramatisations of Jane Austen) is widely favoured.
2. The culture that is "left over" when we have decided what "
high culture" is. However, many works straddle or cross the boundaries e.g.
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.
3. 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.
4. An "authentic" culture of the "people". However the 'scare quotes' surrounding authentic and the people draw attention to the problems in defining and identifying what authenticity is and who the people are.
5. Definitions 1 to 5 above may have hinted at a political dimension to popular culture. Storey's fourth definition makes this explicit. He spells out that ''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.
6. 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 it's 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 in the 20th and early 21st centuries
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 promulgation
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.
Folklore
Folklore provides a second and very different source of popular culture.
[3] 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 referrring to other images, other narratives; self-referentiality is all-embracing, although it is rarely taken account of."
[4]
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.
[5]
Examples from American television
According to some critics, self-referentiality in mainstream American television, especially comedy, both reflects and exemplifies the type of progression characterized previously. 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.
[6]
Examples include:
★ ''
Seinfeld'' a show premised on the concept that it is a "show about nothing." The main character of the show has the same name as the actor who plays the character. In one episode, the character George mocks this very premise directly by asking "Who will go for that crap?" Such self-derision represents an especially salient and humorous critique considering the relative success of the show.
[6]
★ ''
The Simpsons'' routinely alludes to mainstream media properties, as well as the commercial content of the show itself.
[8] The show also invokes liberal reference to contemporary issues as depicted in the mainstream, and often merges such references with unconventional and even esoteric associations to classical and postmodernist works of literature, entertainment and art.
[6]
Alternative usage
The phrase 'Pop' culture'' may also refer semi-humorously or euphemistically to
physical punishment. ''Pop'' can express
onomatopoeically a
swat or lick given with an implement, as in the title of this
newspaper article on CorPun.
See also
★
Fads
★
Fashion
★
Low culture
★
Pop icon
★
Pop-culture tourism
★
Popular culture studies
★
Porn creep
★
General-audience description
Notes
1. Agit-Pop: Political Culture and Communication Theory, , Arthur, Asa Berger, Transaction Publishers, 1990, ISBN 0887383157
2. Bakhtin 1981, p.4
3. On the Ambiguity of the Three Wise Monkeys A. W. Smith Folklore, Vol. 104, No. 1/2 (1993), pp. 144-150
4. Postmodernism and Popular Culture, , Angela, McRobbie, Routledge, 1994, ISBN 0415077125 Cultural anthropologist and feminist discourse on cultural studies.
5. Ralph Dumain, Cultural Sophistication and Self-Reference On American Television An essay on self-referentiality and American television.
6. (Dumain)
7. (Dumain)
8. In one episode, Bart, a character of the show complains about the crass commercialism of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade while watching television. When he turns his head away from the television, he is shown floating by as an oversized inflatable balloon.
9. (Dumain)
References
★
Bakhtin, M. M. and Michael Holquist, Vadim Liapunov, Kenneth Brostrom. (1981) ''
The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays'' (University of Texas Press Slavic Series). Ed. Michael Holquist. Trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin and London: University of Texas Press.
★
Storey, John Storey (2001). Pearson Education Limited
External links
★
Dumbing Down and Popular Culture
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