Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, output (also known as popular art cf. or mass art, sometimes contrasted with fine art)
Heavily influenced in modern history by mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday life of people in a given society. Therefore, popular culture has a way of influencing an individual's attitudes towards certain topics.[McGaha, Julie. "Popular Culture & Globalization". Multicultural Education 23.1 (2015): 32–37. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 5 Aug. 2016.] However, there are various ways to define pop culture.[Strinati, D. (2004). An introduction to theories of popular culture. Routledge.] Because of this, popular culture is something that can be defined in a variety of conflicting ways by different people across different contexts.[Storey, J. (2018). Cultural theory and popular culture: An introduction. Routledge.] It is generally viewed in contrast to other forms of culture such as folk culture, working-class culture, or high culture, and also from different academic perspectives such as psychoanalysis, structuralism, postmodernism, and more. The common pop-culture categories are entertainment (such as film, music, television, literature and video games), , news (as in cultural icon/places in the news), politics, fashion, technology, and slang.
History
In the past,
folk culture functioned analogously to the popular culture of the masses and of the nations.
The phrase "popular culture" was coined in the 19th century or earlier.[Although the Oxford English Dictionary lists the first use as 1854, it appears in an address by Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi in 1818: ] Traditionally, popular culture was associated with poor education and with the lower classes,[, The educational institutions of the United States, their character and organization, J. Chapman, 1853, p. 243: "Influence of European emigration on the state of civilization in the United States: Statistics of popular culture in America". John Morley presented an address On Popular Culture at the Birmingham Town Hall in 1876, dealing with the education of the lower classes.] as opposed to the "official culture" and higher education of the upper classes.
With the rise of the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Britain experienced social changes that resulted in increased literacy rates, and with the rise of capitalism and industrialization, people began to spend more money on entertainment, such as (commercialised) public houses and sports. Reading also gained traction. Labeling the Victorian equivalent of video games, The Guardian in 2016 described penny fiction as "Britain's first taste of mass-produced popular culture for the young".
The stress on the distinction from "official culture" became more pronounced towards the end of the 19th century,["Learning is dishonored when she stoops to attract," cited in a section "Popular Culture and True Education" in University extension, Issue 4, The American society for the extension of university teaching, 1894.] a usage that became established by the interbellum period.[
e.g. "the making of popular culture plays in", Huntly Carter, The new spirit in the Russian theatre, 1917–28: And a sketch of the Russian kinema and radio, 1919–28, showing the new communal relationship between the three, Ayer Publishing, 1929, p. 166.]
From the end of World War II, following major cultural and social changes brought by mass media innovations, the meaning of "popular culture" began to overlap with the connotations of "mass culture", "media culture", "image culture", "consumer culture", and "culture for mass consumption".["one look at the sheer mass and volume of what we euphemistically call our popular culture suffices", from Winthrop Sargeant, 'In Defense of the High-Brow', an article from LIFE magazine, 11 April 1949, p. 102.]
The abbreviated form "pop" for "popular", as in "pop music", dates from the late 1950s.[ The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, volume 15, p. 85 entry Pop music] Although the terms "pop" and "popular" are in some cases used interchangeably, and their meaning partially overlap, the term "pop" is narrower. Pop is specific to something containing qualities of mass appeal, while "popular" refers to what has gained popularity, regardless of its style.[Steinem, Gloria. Outs of pop culture , in LIFE magazine, 20 August 1965, p. 73 quotations: ][Bill Lamb, "What Is Pop Music? A Definition" , About.com, retrieved 8 March 2012 quotation: ]
Definition
According to author John Storey, there are various definitions of popular culture.
[John Storey. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, pp. 4–8.] The quantitative definition of culture has the problem that too much "
high culture" (e.g.,
television dramatizations of
Jane Austen) is also "popular". "Pop culture" is also defined as the culture that is "leftover" when we have decided what high culture is. However, many works straddle the boundaries, e.g., William Shakespeare and
Charles Dickens,
Leo Tolstoy, and
George Orwell.
A third definition equates pop culture with "mass culture" and ideas. This is seen as a commercial culture, mass production for mass consumption by mass media.[Sérgio Campos Gonçalves, "
]
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Cultura e Sociedade de Consumo: um olhar em retrospecto", InRevista – Núcleo de Produção Científica em Comunicação – UNAERP (Ribeirão Preto), vol. 3, pp. 18–28, 2008, . From a Western European perspective, this may be compared to American culture. Alternatively, "pop culture" can be defined as an "authentic" culture of the people, but this can be problematic as there are many ways of defining the "people". Storey argued that there is 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 approach to popular culture would "no longer recognize the distinction between high and popular culture".
Storey claims that popular culture emerged from the urbanization of the Industrial Revolution. 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).[, Shakespeare and the Popular Tradition (1967)][Robert Shaughnessy, The Cambridge companion to Shakespeare and popular culture (2007) p. 24.]
Popular culture is constantly evolving 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. Important contemporary contributions to understanding what popular culture means have been given by the Germany researcher Ronald Daus, who studies the impact of extra-European cultures in North America, Asia, and especially in Latin America.
Levels
Within the realm of popular culture, there exists an organizational culture. From its beginning, popular culture has revolved around classes in society and the push-back between them. Within popular culture, there are two levels that have emerged, high and low.
High culture can be described as art and works considered of superior value, historically, aesthetically and socially.
Low culture is regarded by some as that of the lower classes, historically.
Folklore
Adaptations based on traditional folklore provide a source of popular culture.
[On the Ambiguity of the Three Wise Monkeys A. W. Smith Folklore, Vol. 104, No. 1/2 (1993), pp. 144–150.]
This early layer of cultural mainstream still persists today, in a form separate from mass-produced popular culture, propagating by word of mouth rather than via mass media, e.g. in the form of
or
. With the widespread use of the
Internet from the 1990s, the distinction between mass media and
word-of-mouth has become blurred.
Although the folkloric element of popular culture engages heavily with the commerce element, communities amongst the public have their own tastes and they may not always embrace every cultural or subcultural item sold. Moreover, certain beliefs and opinions about the products of commercial culture may spread by word-of-mouth, and become modified in the process and in the same manner that folklore evolves.
Criticism
Western popular culture stands persistently accused of functioning as a vast engine of commercialism. This system, critics argue, is designed to privilege products selected and mass-marketed by capitalists. Such criticisms find articulation in the works of Marxist theorists—including luminaries like
Herbert Marcuse,
Theodor Adorno,
Max Horkheimer,
bell hooks,
Antonio Gramsci,
Guy Debord,
Fredric Jameson,
Terry Eagleton—as well as postmodern philosophers such as Jean-François Lyotard (who dissected the commercialization of information under capitalism).
[Lyotard, Jean-François (1979). La condition postmoderne: rapport sur le savoir. Paris: Minuit.]
Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School, particularly
Theodor Adorno and
Max Horkheimer, delivered critiques through their concept of the "culture industry," explored in their seminal
Dialectic of Enlightenment. Drawing from
Kant,
Marx,
Nietzsche, and others, they argued that capitalist popular culture is far from an authentic expression of the people. Instead, it constitutes a system churning out homogenous, standardized products, manufactured to serve the interests of elite domination. Consumer desire for
Hollywood films, pop melodies, and disposable bestsellers is not organic, but shaped by the capitalist behemoths—Hollywood studios, record labels, publishing giants—and the elite gatekeepers who dictate which commodities saturate our media, from television screens to print journalism. As Adorno noted, "The industry bows to the vote it has itself rigged".
This elite dictates commodification based on narrow ideological values, habituating audiences to formulaic conventions that, Adorno contended, stifle genuine intellectual engagement.
[Adorno & Horkheimer: Dialectic of Enlightenment. p. 100.] His work influenced cultural studies, philosophy, and the
New Left.
[Held, D. (1980). Introduction to Critical Theory: Horkheimer to Habermas. Berkeley, University of California Press.]
Contemporary Critique
The digital age, as music critic Alex Ross observed in
New Yorker (2014), has only magnified Adorno's relevance.
The success of phenomena like the Harry Potter franchise, as critiqued by
Jack Zipes, exemplifies this mass commercialization and corporate hegemony. Zipes contends that culture industry commodities achieve "popularity" precisely through their homogeneity and adherence to formula. The media, he argues, actively molds children's tastes.
[Zipes, J. (2002). Sticks and Stones: The Troublesome Success of Children's Literature from Slovenly Peter to Harry Potter. p. 175.] Postmodern sociologist
Jean Baudrillard presented a stark view of the consumer's role. He argued that individuals are relentlessly conditioned to pursue the maximization of pleasure as a social duty – a failure to participate risks rendering one
asocial.
[Baudrillard. J. (1998). The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. p. 80.] His core critique held that products of capitalist culture, especially those marketed as rebellious, can only offer an illusion of defiance. True rebellion is impossible because the system producing these commodities remains firmly controlled by the powerful.
Scholarship robustly demonstrates how Western entertainment industries fortify transnational capitalism and cement Western cultural dominance.[Lee Artz (2015). Global Entertainment Media: A Critical Introduction. 167–175.] Consequently, commercial entertainment is less an authentic local expression and more a culture amplified by transnational media conglomerates,[Hearts and Mines: The US Empire’s Culture Industry Tanner Mirrlees . Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2016. 336 pp.] leading to an homogenization of cultural identities, eroding diverse traditions in favor of marketable forms.[Sayre, Shay; Cynthia King (2010). Entertainment and Society: Influences, Impacts, and Innovations (2nd ed.). Oxon, New York: Routledge. p. 31.] These conglomerates—vast media empires controlling music labels, film studios, streaming platforms, and news outlets—are often answerable primarily to shareholders demanding ever-increasing returns.
Corporate Exploitation
The culture industry not only standardizes taste but also rests upon and obscures a foundation of global exploitation, resource plunder, and the relentless pursuit of shareholder value above human dignity and ecological sustainability.
While mega-stars achieve immense wealth, the system is structured so that the vast majority of revenue flows upwards: to platform owners, shareholders, and executives. The success of celebrities becomes a powerful marketing tool for the conglomerate itself, boosting its stock price and attracting investment, while obscuring the exploitative labour practices and environmental damage embedded within its global supply chains. The very devices essential for consuming this culture often rely on minerals mined under appalling conditions. Cobalt and tantalum, critical for electronics, are frequently sourced from mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo using child labour and artisanal miners facing lethal hazards and exploitation, generating vast profits for multinational conglomerates further up the supply chain.
Feminist Critique
The influential feminist scholar
[bell hooks. Beyoncé's Lemonade is capitalist money-making at its best . Guardian. 2016]
Media Critique
The very structure of mass media facilitates control, as Edward S. Herman and
Noam Chomsky argued in their pivotal 1988 work,
. They posit that a powerful elite, driven by its own interests, controls and manipulates mainstream information flow. Mass media, therefore, operates as a sophisticated system of propaganda:Popular culture has frequently served as a vehicle for
imperialist ideologies. John M. MacKenzie highlights how many such products were crafted to glorify the British upper classes and promote imperialist worldviews, rather than reflecting a democratic perspective.
[John M. MacKenzie. Imperialism and Popular Culture. 1986, Manchester University Press 155]
Sources
Print culture
With the invention of the
printing press in the sixteenth century, mass-produced, cheap books,
Pamphlet wars and periodicals became widely available to the public. With this, the transmission of common knowledge and ideas was possible.
Radio culture
In the 1890s,
Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi created the
radiotelegraph, allowing for the modern radio to be born. This led to the radio being able to influence a more "listened-to" culture, with individuals being able to feel like they have a more direct impact.
This radio culture is vital, because it was imperative to advertising, and it introduced the commercial.
Films
Films and cinema are highly influential to popular culture, as films as an art form are what people seem to respond to the most.
With moving pictures being first captured by Eadweard Muybridge in 1877, films have evolved into elements that can be cast into different digital formats, spreading to different cultures.
The impact of films and cinema are most evident when analyzing in the search of what the films aim to portray.
Popular culture or mass culture, is reached easily with films which are easily shared and reached worldwide.
Television programs
A television program is a segment of audiovisual content intended for broadcast (other than a commercial, trailer, or other content not serving as attraction for viewership).
Television programs may be fictional (as in comedies and dramas), or non-fictional (as in documentary, light entertainment, television news and reality television). They may be topical (as in the case of a local newscast and some made-for-television movies), or historical (as in the case of many documentaries and fictional series). They can be primarily instructional or educational, or entertaining as is the case in situation comedy and game shows.
Music
Popular music is music with wide appeal
that is typically distributed to large audiences through the
music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no
musical training.
[Popular Music. (2015). Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia] It stands in contrast to both
art music and
folk music. Art music was historically disseminated through the performances of
written music, although since the beginning of the recording industry, it is also disseminated through
sound recording. Traditional music forms such as early
blues songs or
were passed along orally, or to smaller, local audiences.
Sports
Sports include all forms of
Competition physical activity or
which,
through casual or organized participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants, and in some cases,
entertainment for spectators.
The connection between sports and popular culture is significant in recent times because there is an influx of sport history to keep track of, as sports journalists produce quality pieces, more sports museums are developed, and there are various radio, film, and television documentaries. Sport history has embraced popular culture as it has expanded its horizons on elite athletes and governing bodies, to the study of every day activities. It has broadened its perspective by connecting sports and athletes with class, gender, ethnicity, and disability. Sports are becoming more popular in the eyes of society, and impacting human culture as they get more invested in the game, and perhaps even play the sports themselves in their neighborhoods. Museums also show sports as popular culture, such as Stuart Clarke’s "The Homes of Football" photographic collection in the National Football Museum.
Corporate branding
Corporate branding refers to the practice of promoting the
brand name of a corporate entity, as opposed to specific products or services.
Personal branding
Personal branding includes the use of social media to promotion to brands and topics to further good repute among professionals in a given field, produce an iconic relationship between a professional, a brand and its audience that extends networks past the conventional lines established by the mainstream and to enhance personal visibility. Popular culture: is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of the practices,
Opinion, and
Cultural objects that are dominant or prevalent in a
society at a given point in time. As celebrities online identities are extremely important in order to create a brand to line-up sponsorships, jobs, and opportunities. As
influencers, micro-celebrities, and users constantly need to find new ways to be unique or stay updated with trends, in order to maintain followers, views, and likes.
For example,
Ellen DeGeneres has created her own personal branding through her talk show
The Ellen DeGeneres Show. As she developed her brand we can see the branches she created to extend her fan base such as Ellen clothing, socks, pet beds, and more.
Social media
Social media is interactive
computer-mediated technologies that facilitate the creation or sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via virtual
communities and networks. Social media platforms such as
Instagram,
Facebook,
Twitter,
YouTube,
Pinterest,
TikTok and
Snapchat are the most popular applications used on a daily basis by younger generations. Social media tends to be implemented into the daily routine of individuals in our current society. Social media is a vital part of our culture as it continues to impact the forms of communication used to connect with those in our communities, families, or friend groups.
We often see that terms or slang are used online that is not used in face-to-face conversations, thus, adding to a persona users create through the screens of technology.
For example, some individuals respond to situations with a hashtag or emojis.
Social media influencers have become trendsetting
Influences
Pop culture has had a lasting influence to the products being released in their time. Many examples of art, books, films and others, have been inspired by pop culture. These include:
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that first emerged in the 1950s as a reaction and a counter to traditional and
High culture by including common and well-known images and references.
[ Pop Art: A Brief History, MoMA Learning] Artists known during this movement include
Eduardo Paolozzi, Richard Hamilton,
Larry Rivers, Robert Rauschenberg and
Andy Warhol.
Pop music
Pop music is a wide-ranging
music genre whose characteristics include styles and tones that have a wider and
popular music to all kinds of consumers.
[S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), , pp. 95–105.] Oftentimes, many examples of these music contain influences from other pre-existing works.
[Popular Music. (2015). Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia] The origins of popular music began in the late 1800s with the inventions of Edison’s phonograph and Berliner’s gramophone, both of which allowed for music to be available for purchase to the public rather than access to just the elites. Due to the almost nonexistent copyright laws, the early 1900s flourished with composers and publishers aiming to make and sell as much music as they could. The hub for this activity was a small area of New York known as Tin Pan Alley, which quickly became one of the major spots for popular music as the demand grew intensely.
Technological advances in the 1940s only furthered the success and popularity of the genre. The reel-to-tape recorder was groundbreaking in terms of innovation and served as the baseline for many more transformations this genre and the music industry as a whole will endure. Along with the continued innovation of popular music, multiple subset genres emerged as the new faces of popular music, all with the foundation of jazz and blues. Some of those genres include Rock and Roll, Punk, and Hip Hop.
Due to the increasing mainstream success of popular music, artists of the genre grew in fame and popularity. A few of the major singers and musicians of this genre include
Michael Jackson,
Madonna,
Britney Spears,
Justin Bieber,
Elvis Presley,
Beatles,
Beyonce,
Katy Perry, and
Taylor Swift. Popular music will continue to be shaped by, and evolve to fit the tastes and preferences of the public.
Pop culture fiction
Pop culture fiction is a
genre in
books,
comics,
films,
television show, and many other story-telling media that depicts stories that are purposely filled with
easter eggs and references to pop culture.
[ January 19, 2016] The genre often overlaps with
satire and
parody, but the most-well known are considered to be more serious works of
literature. Writers of this genre include
Ernest Cline, Bret Easton Ellis, Bryan Lee O'Malley, and
Louis Bulaong.
Pop culture studies
Pop culture studies are
thesis, and other academic works that analyzes various trends of pop and mass culture,
, or the effects and influences of pop culture in society and history. Ray B. Browne is one of the first
Academic staff to conduct courses on the studies about pop culture.
See also
Notes
-
Ashby, LeRoy. "The Rising of Popular Culture: A Historiographical Sketch," OAH Magazine of History, 24 (April 2010), 11–14.
-
Ashby, LeRoy. With Amusement for All: A History of American Popular Culture since 1830 (2006).
-
: Der deutsche Pop-Roman. Die neuen Archivisten ( The German Pop-Novel. The new archivists), C.H. Beck, München 2002, .
-
Bakhtin 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.
-
Browne, Ray B. and Pat Browne, eds. The Guide to U.S. Popular Culture (2001), 1010 pages; essays by experts on many topics.
-
Burke, Peter. "Popular Culture Reconsidered," Storia della Storiografia 1990, Issue 17, pp. 40–49.
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Freitag, Sandria B. "Popular Culture in the Rewriting of History: An Essay in Comparative History and Historiography," Journal of Peasant Studies, 1989, Vol. 16 Issue 3, pp. 169–198.
-
Gans, Herbert J. Popular Culture and High Culture: an Analysis and Evaluation of Taste. New York: Basic Books, 1974. xii, 179 p.
-
Gerson, Stéphane. "' A World of Their Own': Searching for Popular Culture in the French Countryside," French Politics, Culture and Society, Summer 2009, Vol. 27 Issue 2, pp. 94–110
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Golby, J. M. and A.W. Purdue, The civilisation of the crowd: popular culture in England, 1750–1900 (1985) online
-
Griffin, Emma. "Popular Culture in Industrializing England," Historical Journal, (2002) 45#3 pp. 619–635. online , Historiography
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Hassabian, Anahid (1999). "Popular", Key Terms in Popular Music and Culture, eds.: Horner, Bruce and Swiss, Thomas. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers. .
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Kamaludeen Mohamed Nasir, 2016: Globalized Muslim Youth in the Asia Pacific: Popular Culture in Singapore and Sydney, New York: Palgrave. .
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Knight, Robert H. The Age of Consent: the Rise of Relativism and the Corruption of Popular Culture. Dallas, Tex.: Spence Publishing Co., 1998. xxiv, 253, 1 p.
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Ross, Andrew. No Respect: Intellectuals & Popular Culture. New York: Routledge, 1989. ix, 269 p. (pbk.)
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John Seabrook. NoBrow : the culture of marketing the marketing of culture, New York: A.A. Knopf, 2000. .
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Storey, John (2006). Cultural theory and popular culture. Pearson Education. .
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Peter Swirski (2010). Ars Americana Ars Politica: Partisan Expression in Contemporary American Literature and Culture. Montreal, London: McGill-Queen's University Press. .
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Peter Swirski (2005). From Lowbrow to Nobrow. Montreal, London: McGill-Queen's University Press. .
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On Religion and Popular Culture
Further reading
-
Duncan, Barry (1988). Mass Media and Popular Culture. Toronto, Ont.: Harcourt, Brace & Co. Canada. .
-
Rosenberg, Bernard, and David Manning White, joint. eds. Mass Culture: the Popular Arts in America. New: Free Press of Glencoe, 1957.
-
Cowen, Tyler, "For Some Developing Countries, America's Popular Culture Is Resistible". The New York Times, 22 February 2007, sec. C, p. 3.
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Furio, Joanne, "The Significance of MTV and Rap Music in Popular Culture". The New York Times, 29 December 1991, sec. VI, p. 2.
External links
