http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_culture
So, a succinct explication would be Pop Culture derives from the popular cultural themes in one group of peoples, usually a nation. These themes range and vary with all that on the surface of the mainstream media. Examples are movies, music, current events, fashion, and other phenomena. The internet has definitely played one of the biggest roles with the impact it has had on society by providing the fastest and broadest medium for all this things to be transmitted to everyone and anyone. With out the internet, there also wouldn't be a fairly new addition to the themes of pop culture: Memes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_meme
Which has certainly provided most of us with great sources of entertainment.
I really liked this other pages:
http://culturalpolitics.net/popular_culture
http://english.berkeley.edu/Postwar/pop.html
I like the way that last link sums it up nicely:
"Popular culture has been defined as everything from "common culture," to "folk culture," to "mass culture." While it has been all of these things at various points in history, in Post-War America, popular culture is undeniably associated with commercial culture and all its trappings: movies, television, radio, cyberspace, advertising, toys, nearly any commodity available for purchase, many forms of art, photography, games, and even group "experiences" like collective comet-watching or rave dancing on ecstasy. While humanities and social science departments before the 1950s would rarely have imagined including anything from the previous list in their curricula, it is now widely acknowledged that popular culture can and must be analyzed as an important part of US material, economic and political culture. "Pop culture" is also one of the US' most lucrative export commodities, making everything from Levi's jeans to Sylvester Stallone movies popular on the international market. "These group experiences they mention, such as rave parties, and fads such as Planking:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planking_%28fad%29
Certainly fall under pop culture.
At the end of the paragraph they mention how Pop Culture is one of the U.S's biggest exports. Like wise, as the U.S's counter part in Asian, Japan also exports and sells gargantuan amounts of "pop culture," most prominent in other Asian countries, but also big in the U.S, such as video games and anime/manga. May be some music...but in ALL absolute honesty, Americans don't consider Japanese pop music to be that great, unless they are "otakus" (Which Otakus from the US are inherently different than Otakus in Japan) or REALLY just love Japan.
The way I like to think about pop culture is the collective preferences of the masses, since when boiled down to the individual, their unique preferences will be very different from every one else's, but when all added at ones, they will lose their singularity and become the huge mess of pop culture out there.
I personally dislike most pop culture as most of it is painful to bare, hear or watch and choose to enjoy what I want, when I want, and if it happens to coincide with pop culture then it's on mere coincidence. This is why I feel like I'm an 80 year old man.
As for pop culture in social media, there's Youtube.com, Facebook pages, and all sorts of other links to follow. Here's one that apparently keeps up to date:
http://www.popculturemadness.com/
For Japanese craziness of pop culture, Dannychoo.com would be your best gateway.
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I like the summarization of pop culture in the past and present. It gives us insight into how pop culture sort of started and then came to be what it is today.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I suppose it is true that normal Americans have pretty much no interest in Japanese music, but I have to admit I am quite the Japanese music and video game otaku so I really have an interest in it.
Great blog!
Thank you Amanda! :) And yeah I keep that image of post WWII almost black and white pop culture in America. American pop culture is still pretty distinctively vivid, but there's just way too much stupidity out there.
ReplyDeleteAs for the American version of "Otaku," Hell yeah, I'd read the Manga, watch the Anime, download the Japanese pop music played in the animes and dramas...and of course THE VIDEO GAMES! :D Those definitely shape up American otakus. I've played them all, up until I hit 20, then against my own will I had stop, lol. Wonder if I'll ever get the time to play them ever again...
I appreciate the research and analysis you put in to this blog post. I spent some time looking at the cultural politics and berkeley websites. Thought the quote you used is somewhat academic in tone, I think it's discussion of the growth and spread of pop-culture in America to the rest of the world in the postwar years is an point worth bearing in mind.
ReplyDeleteYou also make a powerful point about how trivial much of what is considered to be pop culture actually is.
Thank you, professor. I personally feel that after WWII The U.S was a true hegemony, and therefore Americans enjoyed a high quality of life, where they had a lot of time to make babies and indulge in things that eventually became pop culture. According to Ana's blog, even in Russia U.S pop culture was spread. Every country I've visited is very well familiar with American music and classic movie quotes. America at one point had the luxury of wealth and time to really indulge on the phenomenon of pop culture.
ReplyDeleteI personally love the IPad ad picture :)
ReplyDelete@Hughes, haha! Me too :)
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