It's time to talk about everyone's favorite thing: pop, or popular, culture by answering these common questions about popular culture. What is popular culture? What makes something a part of popular culture? Is there some weird hierarchy to it?
"What is popular culture?" is my favorite question. The correct answer is "what isn't popular culture?" That makes you think, right? Pop culture as a whole is more than Beyonce's 'Formation' and David M. Hoffman's book "One Hundred Knuckled Fist." Think of the common sources of popular culture. Television shows, movies, music, books, and YouTube videos are all part of popular culture. Newspaper and magazine articles and even sports count as popular culture too. Things are considered to be part of popular culture for different reasons.
Most of the time, things become part of popular culture for three reasons. Shows like 'The Big Bang Theory' are part of popular culture because so many people like it and watch it. Other things like paintings become part of popular culture because they are talked about a lot. For instance, the time a senator was speaking on national news, and he took a long pause to drink some water; it was a small moment that became part of popular culture because people kept talking about it.
Some things are designed to seem popular. The term is popular aesthetic, and it will look or sound like something that's already out there that people like. Sometime this tactic works, but most of the time, it doesn't work at all. If you don't believe me, look at Katy Perry. She is pop singer, and there are many other pop singers like her already before she was famous. Or look at the two dollar CD or DVD bin at stores like Walmart or Dollar General.
Now this is where the weird hierarchy sort of comes in to play, because there are six concepts of popular culture.
1. Popularity With Numbers
Culture that is well liked by many people, like the "Big Bang Theory."
2. Not Difficult Or Scarce
Culture that is available to every person no matter his or her economic status is not difficult or scarce. If paintings are high culture, then folk music is low culture. Low culture is not difficult or scarce.
3. Mass Commercial Culture
It is mass produced culture. Media producers just keep "churning it out," as the host of Idea Channel said on YouTube. He used the the 'Transformer' series as an example.
4. Postmodern Culture
Postmodern culture basically says everything is popular culture. Take a look at Andy Warhol's work to help you understand this concept. He did a portrait of the same shoe in nine different frames.
5. Folk Culture
Folk culture is created by the people. "People" in this context means average people, not famous people. An example would be the graffiti you see on train cars. It was made by average people that the world doesn't know. Consider also a genre of music that only exists in a certain part of the country, like Zydeco or Cajun French music.
6. Hegemonic Struggle
It is a process between the audience and the culture industry. This is business that produces culture as an industry. However, it is not a set of media products, so don't think of it as a line of movies or books.
Popular culture is quite fascinating. If you are interested in hearing more things about popular culture, you can go on YouTube and search Idea Channel. The host criticizes and discusses different aspects of popular culture all the time. He also will put people's comments in his videos too, so you can hear other people's thoughts about a particular topic.
