Popular culture
Popular culture, or
pop culture, (literally: "the culture of the people") consists of the
cultural elements that prevail (at least numerically) in any given
society, mainly using the more popular media,
vernacular language and/or an established
lingua franca. It results from 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,
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".
If one regards culture as a way of defining oneself (an extremely individualist approach), a culture needs to attract the interest of people (potential members) and to persuade them to invest a part of themselves in it. People like to feel a part of a group and to understand their
cultural identity within that group, which tends to happen naturally in a small, somewhat isolated community. Mass culture, however, lets people define themselves in relation to everybody else in mass society at the level of a city, a country, an international community (such as a wide-spread language, a former colonial empire, a religion...) or even of a whole planet.
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.
Curiously, though almost everybody spends their
lives immersed in popular culture, nobody seems able to agree on what popular culture consists of. We see
advertisements for products and services almost daily â€" that counts as participation in popular culture. We watch
television, go to
movies, listen to
popular music, read
newspapers and
magazines, use the
Internet, eat snacks and
dress in certain ways. All of these go to form part of our popular culture.
Historically, commentators on culture defined the term "popular culture" in negative terms as those parts or expressions of culture not accepted into the cultural milieu of the social
élite (such as
courts, the
nobility,
patricians or the rich
bourgeoisie), nor in an
institutionalized context (such as professional
theatre, church
liturgy, military life). Some distinguish the products of high culture as "art" (i.e., sacred) and popular culture as mere "entertainment" (i.e., "profane"). However, this implied value-distinction ultimately misleads in its use of definitions, since all art in some sense "entertains", and all entertainment likewise entails an artistic discipline of some kind.
The dividing line between popular and "higher" culture can often become blurred, as "official" culture may adopt (and often polish) popular elements, giving them wider kudos. This happened, for example, with the
waltz: originally an Austrian peasant dance, it experienced a refinement process in Viennese
high society and subsequently spread worldwide. And note too the story of the
Trojan War: whatever the ultimate origins of this tale in folk
mythology,
Homer cast it as sophisticated narrative for aristocratic Achaeans; the Attic tragedians brought it to more popular levels; it survived for centuries as part of the high culture of the
classically-educated, only to get re-worked in the 21st century as populist blockbuster film-material (in
Troy, for example).
Some forms or culture remain too academic, esoteric or aesthetically "difficult" to gain wide popularity; but in general, modern copying/distribution technology and mass media (as well as socio-economic progress) have given the masses access to many cultural products previously reserved for the happy few â€" for example, through broadcast performances. Yet in many societies various forms of culture remain unpopular with the vast majority, possibly as a result of the majority lacking education or tradition.
Some people make a distinction between popular art forms and entertainment genres (such as
detective stories,
westerns and
situation comedies) and
mass media (such as
radio, television,
film,
newspapers and
magazines). But to the extent to which much of the media devotes itself the popular arts, the distinction between the two may seem relatively unimportant.
Some people talk about mass culture, which suggests an interest in the culture of the ordinary man (as contrasted with the "
high culture" of
élites). But the title of an important collection of articles on mass culture, published in the mid-1950s:
Mass Culture: The Popular Arts in America suggests that (in
America at least) mass culture equates to the popular arts.
Popular culture has a broader scope than the popular arts. It comprises the whole culture of the
people â€" their behavior, values, and (in particular) their entertainments â€" not just certain art forms which appeal to large numbers of people. One can perhaps best give an indication of the definition of popular culture by stating what popular culture generally is not. It does not equate to the classic
works of
literature and
philosophy (though curiously enough much popular culture relates directly to the same myths as in
Greek tragedy, for instance; and Greek tragedy had its roots in ancient Greek popular culture). Popular culture does not consist of highly sophisticated art which appeals only to a person of highly
cultivated and discriminating
tastes (though popular culture
can demonstrate considerable sophistication). Cultivated and discriminating persons may enjoy modern
poetry as well as
roller derby and
professional football, but the average roller-derby and football fan probably doesn't enjoy esoteric poetry or the novels of
Henry James.
In modern urban
mass societies, several factors have played a major role in shaping popular culture:# the development of industrial
mass production# the introduction of new technologies of sound and image broadcasting and recording# the growth of
mass media industries â€" the
film,
broadcast radio and
television, and the book-
publishing industries, as well as the print and electronic
news mediaBut one cannot describe even contemporary popular culture as just the aggregate product of industrial developments; instead, contemporary Western popular culture results from a continuing interaction between those industries and those who
consume their products. Bennett (1980, p.153-218) distinguishes between 'primary' and 'secondary' popular culture, defining primary popular culture as
mass product and secondary popular culture as local re-production.
Popular culture changes constantly and occurs uniquely in place and
time. It forms currents and eddies, in the sense that a
small group of people will have a strong interest in an area of which the
mainstream popular culture has only partial awareness; thus, for example, the electro-pop group
Kraftwerk has "impinged on mainstream popular culture to the extent that they have been referenced in
The Simpsons and
Father Ted."
Items of popular culture most typically appeal to a broad spectrum of
the public. Some argue that broad-appeal items dominate popular culture because profit-making
companies that produce and sell items of popular culture attempt to maximize their
profits by emphasizing broadly appealing items (see
culture industry). But that may over-simplify the issue. To take the example of popular music: the
music industry can impose any product they wish. In fact, highly popular types of music have often first evolved in small,
counter-cultural circles (
punk rock and
rap provide two examples).
Since
World War II a significant shift in pop culture has taken place: from the
production of culture to the consumption of culture. Commentators have noted that those in
power exploit
consumers to do more of the work themselves (for example,
do-it-yourself checkout lines), and
advertising on television, movies, radio, and in other places helps those in power to guide consumers towards what those in power consider needed or important.
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.
Popular culture has multiple origins. In conditions of
modernity the set of industries that make profit by inventing and promulgating cultural material have become a principal source. These industries include those of:
*
popular music*
film*
television*
radio*
video games
*
book publishing*
internetFolklore provides a second and very different source of popular culture. In pre-industrial times,
mass culture equalled
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.
A different source of popular culture lies in the set of professional communities that provide the public with facts about the world, frequently accompanied by
interpretation, usually as
vulgarisation, i.e. adapted for consumption by the public at large (which may lack the training to appreciate academic language). Such communities include the
news media, and
scientific and
scholarly communities. 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.
Given its wide availability, popular culture has attracted much criticism.
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 have acquired a reputation for pushing popular memes in order to generate the mass
consumption of their products and services. Some
Marxists complain that popular culture â€" and its implied insistance on a necessary causal relationship between consumption and
self-actualization â€" 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).
*
Popular culture studies*
Christian pop culture*
Fashion*
Fads*
Low culture*
Pop-culture tourism*
Dumbing Down and Popular Culture
