What Is Popular Culture Short Definition

After the end of World War II, innovations in mass media led to significant cultural and social changes in the West. At the same time, capitalism, especially the need to generate profits, played the role of marketing: newly invented goods were marketed to different classes. The importance of popular culture then began to merge with that of mass culture, consumer culture, visual culture, media culture and the culture created by manufacturers for mass consumption. According to the postmodern sociologist Jean Baudrillard, the individual is instructed in the duty to seek the implacable maximization of pleasure so as not to become antisocial. [41] Therefore, «pleasure» and «pleasure» no longer depend on the need to consume. While the Frankfurt School believed that consumers were passive, Baudrillard argued that consumers were trained to consume products in some form of active labor in order to achieve upward social mobility. [42] Thus, consumers under capitalism are trained to buy products such as pop albums and consumable fiction to signal their dedication to social trends, fashions and subcultures. Although consumption may result from active choice, choice is always the result of social conditioning of which the individual is unaware. Baudrillard says: «One is permanently governed by a code whose rules and limits of meaning — like those of language — far exceed the understanding of the individual.» [43] In his highly successful textbook «Cultural Theory and Popular Culture» (now in Grade 8). British media scholar John Storey offers six different definitions of popular culture. Although the folk element of popular culture works a lot with the commercial element, communities in the public sphere have their own tastes and they cannot always accept all cultural or subcultural items sold. In addition, certain beliefs and opinions about the products of commercial culture can spread by word of mouth and be altered in the process and in the same way that folklore develops.

[ref. needed] Once upon a time, popular culture functioned analogous to the popular culture of the masses and nations. [10] Popular culture is generally distinguished from popular culture and high culture. In some ways, popular culture resembles pop culture because of mass participation. However, popular culture represents the traditional way of doing things. Therefore, it is not as changeable and much more static than popular culture. So, in a way, popular culture has returned to its simplest sense: that`s what a lot of people love. The short form «pop» for «popular,» as in «pop music,» dates back to the late 1950s.

[21] Although the terms «pop» and «popular» are sometimes used interchangeably and their meanings overlap to some extent, the term «pop» is narrower. Pop is specific to something that contains qualities of mass appeal, while «popular» refers to what has gained popularity, regardless of its style. [22] [23] In the 20th century, the end of World War II led to huge cultural changes, mainly caused by mass media innovations, and the importance of pop culture began to intertwine with mass culture or culture for mass consumption. The changes were first the most significant in the United States. In the 1950s, people began to use the abbreviated form for popular — «pop». Another source of popular culture lies in the amount of professional communities that provide the public with facts about the world, often accompanied by interpretations, usually in the form of popularization, i.e. adapted to consumption by the general public (who may not have the necessary training to understand academic language). These communities include the news media and scientific communities. The media exploits the work of scientists and academics and communicates it to the general public, often focusing on «facts» that have inherent appeal or the power to surprise. For example, giant pandas (a species found in remote Chinese forests) have become well-known objects in popular culture; Parasitic worms, although of greater practical importance, do not.

In Cuba, its cultivation began in 1580, and large quantities were shipped to Europe from this and other islands. The term «popular culture» was coined in the mid-19th century and referred to the cultural traditions of the people, as opposed to the «official culture» of the state or ruling classes. In widespread usage today, it is defined in qualitative terms – pop culture is often seen as a more superficial or less artistic form of expression. After its launch in 1998, Pfizer`s famous diamond-shaped product quickly became a star, becoming a pop culture object and a flashy money generator. Companies and advertisers have earned a reputation for pushing popular memes to generate mass consumption of their products and services. Some Marxists complain that popular culture—and its implicit insistence on a necessary causal relationship between consumption and self-realization—perpetuates harmful and deep-rooted social and economic divisions that alienate the working class from the ruling professional and leisure classes and lead to widespread discontent and a decline in the quality of life and enjoyment of life for all (cf. Situationism). The predominant indigenous culture in a given society, including art, cuisine, clothing, entertainment, films, mass media, music, sports and popular style culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are found in the mainstream of a particular culture, especially Western culture from the early to mid-20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the late 20th and early 21st century.

Century. Heavily influenced by the mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the daily life of society. Popular culture is often seen as trivial and watered down in order to gain consensus acceptance throughout the mainstream. As a result, it is heavily criticized by various unconventional sources that consider it superficial, consumerist, sensationalist and corrupt. For decades, popular culture has intervened where science could not answer questions. Popular culture is constantly evolving and unique 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 mainstream popular culture is only partially conscious; For example, the electro-pop band Kraftwerk «influenced mainstream pop culture to the extent mentioned in The Simpsons and Father Ted.» The most influential critics of popular culture came from the Marxist theorists of the Frankfurt School during the twentieth century. Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer analyzed the dangers of the cultural industry in their influential book Dialectics of the Enlightenment based on the works of Kant, Marx, Nietzsche and others. Capitalist popular culture, as Adorno argued, was not an authentic culture of the people, but a system of homogeneous and standardized products produced in the service of the capitalist domination of the elite. Consumer demand for Hollywood movies, pop songs, and consumable books is influenced by capitalist industries such as Hollywood and the elite, which decide which products are promoted in the media, including television and print journalism. Adorno wrote, «The industry bows to the vote it manipulated itself.» [31] It is the elite who commodity products according to their narrow ideological values and criteria, and Adorno argues that the public is becoming accustomed to these stereotyped conventions, making intellectual contemplation impossible. [32] Adorno`s work had a considerable influence on cultural studies, philosophy, and the New Left.

[33] Urbanization is a key element in the formation of popular culture. People who once lived in small villages or homogeneous farms found themselves in crowded cities characterized by great cultural diversity. These different people would consider themselves as «collectivities», following common or popular expressions. Thus, many scholars attribute the beginning of the phenomenon of popular culture to the rise of the middle class caused by the Industrial Revolution. Popular culture or pop culture (literally: «the culture of the people») includes the cultural elements that prevail (at least numerically) in a given society, mainly by using the most popular media, in the vernacular of that society and/or an established lingua franca. It results from the daily interactions, needs and desires and cultural «moments» that make up the daily life of the mainstream. It can include a number of practices, including those related to cooking, clothing, mass media, and the many facets of entertainment such as sports and literature. (Compare memes.) Popular culture often contrasts with a more exclusive, even elitist, «high culture.» There are many sources of popular culture. As noted above, mass media, especially popular music, film, television, radio, video games, books and the Internet, are a primary source. In addition, advances in communication allow for greater transmission of ideas by word of mouth, especially via mobile phones. Many TV shows, such as American Idol and The Last Comic Standing, provide viewers with a phone number so they can vote for a candidate. This combination of pop culture sources represents a new way to increase public interest and advance the mass production of goods.

Storey`s texts on popular culture helped bring the study of popular culture into college and university classrooms. This book applies a number of social and literary theories to the analysis of popular cultural objects as texts. Graziens, David.