Pop
culture – atypical - is culture by the people for the people
Commodity
culture
“bestowing
on common people the assurance that cultural trends are for everyone, not just
for an elite class of artists and cognoscenti. It is thus populist,
unpredictable, and highly ephemeral, reflecting the ever-changing taste of one
generation after another” – pop culture: introductory perspectives chapter 1
page 4
bricolage
of collage = high medium and low brow culture combined – sets pop culture apart
from all previous forms of culture
Pop
Culture: An Overview
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Generally recognized as the vernacular or people’s
culture that predominates in a society at a point in time
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As Brummett explains in Rhetorical Dimensions of Popular Culture,
pop culture involves the aspects of social life most actively involved in by
the public.
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‘culture of the people’ - determined by the interactions between people
in their everyday activities: styles of dress, use of slang, greeting rituals
and the foods that people eat, and the mass media.
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encompasses the most immediate and contemporary aspects of our lives
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These aspects are often subject to rapid change, especially in a highly
technological world in which people are brought closer and closer by
omnipresent media.
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Iconic brands at risk – base itself on pop culture than it is only
subject to short term trends
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Fueled by further
technological growth, popular culture was greatly impacted by the emerging
forms of mass media throughout the twentieth century. Films, broadcast radio
and television all had a profound influence on culture.
4:
sport – coverage on the tv – world cup and Olympics huge
worldwide – highbrow vs lowbrow – high culture is elitist – not linked with
mass media as seeks to preserve its exclusivity whereas pop culture’s purpose
is to seek all general public outlets –
Pop culture is intimately connected with education, mass
communication, production and society’s ability to access knowledge
Popular culture was
formed because of the superior attitude of the academy, because of the idea
that studying what everyday people did was not important.
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The postmodern period broke down these ideas. I
think that contemporary scholars see this and I do believe that popular culture
has gained respect across the disciplines. In almost all universities both the
humanities and the arts have courses dedicated to the study of popular culture.
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POPULAR CULTURE AS A ATYPICAL FORM OF CULTURE
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Clifford Geertz states his idea of culture
denoting ‘a historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a
system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which
men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes
toward life’ (2000,89). Additionally, Peter Burke defines culture as referring
to a system ‘of shared meanings, attitudes and values, and the symbolic forms
(performances, artefacts) in which they are expressed or embodied’; ‘popular
culture’, Burke says, ‘is perhaps best defined ... in a negative way as
unofficial culture, the culture of the non-elite, the “subordinate classes” as
Gramsci called them’ (1994, xi). Thus, both Geertz and Burke express culture as
something living and organic, and as popular culture is not static and is
constantly thriving on new trends, it does fit into their defining
notions.
Fashion
Highbrow vs. lowbrow is again present in fashion culture,
however is nowadays more affected by popular culture due to the growth in
advertisement, online fashion and trends stemming from social media outlets
(e.g. Instagram and tumblr). Hancock separates fashion into two groups, ‘mass
fashion’ (large volumes, exploiting consumer demands for novelty) and ‘couture’
(high fashion).
He explains, ‘fashion merchandisers are continuously
analysing sales and looking at art, style, design, and people on the street’
thus presenting mass fashion and being more influenced by pop culture, whereas
describing couture as more of an ‘artistic endeavour’.
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