Popular culture

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Popular culture, sometimes called pop culture, (literally: "the culture of the people") 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]

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 had a particular influence on art from the early 1960s, through Pop Art.

1 Popular culture in the 20th and early 21st centuries
- 1.1 Popular culture as commercial artifact
- 1.2 Institutional promulgation
- 1.3 Folklore
2 Criticisms of popular culture
3 In popular culture
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

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.

Popular culture as commercial artifact

In conditions of modernity, popular culture is directed and influenced by the set of industries that make profit by inventing and promulgating cultural material. The progression of mainstream cultural awareness increasingly traces commercialization as a principal source. The nature and durability of this relationship is reflected in:

Institutional promulgation

Popular culture is also influenced and originated institutionally, by the values and practices of professional communities that provide the public with facts about the world. Such promulgation of facts entails interpretation, and adaptation of cultural artefacts for consumption by the public at large, usually consistent with an underlying institutional doctrine or ethos. Institutional influence of popular culture, recognizable in various forms, originates from news media, scientific and scholarly communities, the military and other sources.

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. At this point, they become known as urban legends. Other urban myths may have no factual basis at all, having simply originated as jokes.

Folklore

Folklore provides a second and very different source of popular culture.^[2] 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.

Criticisms of popular culture

Popular culture has attracted much criticism. Some attribute this criticism to the sheer breadth of its availability, others posit that the very notion of "pop culture" is merely an arbitrary construct used to perpetuate elitism.^[1]

Some charge that popular culture tends to endorse a limited understanding and experience of life through common, unsophisticated feelings and attitudes and its emphasis on the banal, the superficial, the capricious and the disposable. Critics may also claim that popular culture stems more from sensationalism and narcissistic wish-fulfillment fantasies than from soberly considered reality and mature personal and spiritual development. Cultural items that require extensive experience, education, training, taste, insight or reflection for their fuller appreciation seldom become items of popular culture.

Corporations and advertisers are commonly accused of engaging in campaigns (as by attempting to generate pseudo-popular discussion, controversy, or memes), to generate increased purchasing of their products and services. Some Marxists claim that popular culture — and its implied insistence on a necessary causal relationship between consumption and self-actualization — perpetuates pernicious, deep-seated social and economic divisions which alienate the working class from the ruling professional and leisure classes and result in general discontent and a diminished quality and enjoyment of life for all (compare situationism).

Due to the nature of popular culture, it is also criticized as being overtly commercial. This criticism arises from how elements get introduced as being popular; a system of commercially-driven media outlets contribute to a centralized item that develops a following.

In popular culture

There are frequent references to popular culture in the television program Family Guy. (It should be noted that the majority of these references constitute parody of popular culture rather than direct references.)
The television show The Gilmore Girls features frequent mentions of popular culture topics.
The cable network VH1 has several series devoted to the discussion of popular culture.
The Simpsons uses references to popular culture but in an arguably more subdued way than Family Guy.
Some religions such as the Amish stand in direct opposition to popular culture.
The online encyclopedia Wikipedia often has a "Popular culture" section in articles which catalogues references to the topic in anime, video games, underground scat porn and animated TV shows.
Popular culture is most often spread through movies and TV, though the internet is becoming an increasingly popular medium.
In the anime Azumanga Daioh, Japanese popular culture is often parodied in ways that can sometimes stymie the American viewer.

References

^ ^a ^b Asa Berger, Arthur (1990). Agit-Pop: Political Culture and Communication Theory. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 0887383157.
^ On the Ambiguity of the Three Wise Monkeys A. W. Smith Folklore, Vol. 104, No. 1/2 (1993), pp. 144-150