Lecture 4:

Introduction to Popular Culture

 WHY STUDY POPULAR CULTURE?
• Popular culture is an integral part of culture in the world as a
whole;
• It allows us to recognize and draw on their already existing
literacies and the cultures they know in order to analyze and
think critically;
• It provides an approach for us to become informed
consumers of technologies;
• It will close the gap between the elite class (holding
knowledge) and the rest to “develop a kind of knowledge
and critical practice that all could share”
 WHY STUDY POPULAR CULTURE?
Culture refers to “one’s whole way of life (ideas, attitudes,
languages, practices, institutions, structures of power) and a
whole range of cultural practices: artistic forms, texts, canons,
architecture, mass-produced commodities, and so on.

Culture, in other words, means not only ‘high culture,’ what we

usually call art or literature, but also the everyday practices,
representations, and cultural productions of people and of
postindustrial societies.
 POPULAR CULTURE
• Consists of large masses of people who conform to and
prescribe to ever-changing norms
• Large heterogeneous groups
• Often highly individualistic and groups are constantly changing;
media-influenced
• Pronounced division of labor leading to establishment of
specialized professions
• Police and army take the place of religion and family in
maintaining order
 POPULAR CULTURE
• Pop culture is never the product of a solitary artist but always
emerges from a collective activity generated by interlocking
networks of cultural creators;
• Popular culture is produced, consumed, and experienced within
a context of overlapping sets of social relationships.
• Popular culture refers to the aesthetic products created and
sold by profit-seeking firms operating in the global
entertainment market.
• Popular culture = popular + culture
 POPULAR CULTURE
How does one measure Popular Culture?

1) Culture that is well-liked (demonstrated through sales)

2) Icons or media products that are globally ubiquitous and
easily recognized the world over
3) Commercial media that is thought to be trivial, tacky or
lowest common denominator; mass culture
4) Belonging to the people; folk culture
 REGULAR VS. POPULAR CULTURE
• Popular culture
• Money-based economy prevails
• Replacing folk culture in industrialized countries and many
developing nations
• Folk-made objects give way to their popular equivalent
• Item is more quickly or cheaply produced
• Easier to use or time-saving
• Lends prestige to owner
 Diffusion of Popular Culture
Popular culture diffuses (usually hierarchically) through rapid
electronic communications and transportation networks.

Folk culture diffuses through relocation diffusion.

Give examples
 Role of TV in Significant custom because:
diffusing Popular • Most popular leisure activity
Culture • Most important means by which culture is diffused
 Globalization
The expansion of
economic, political,
and cultural
processes to the
point that they
become global in
scale and impact.
The processes of
globalization
transcend state
boundaries and have
outcomes that vary
across places and
scales.
1. Restaurants
2. Food
3. Television
4. Music
5. Beauty/Fashion
6. Gadgets and Appliances
 Cultural Hegemony and Consumerism
• Ideas propelled by the culture
industry
• Last season’s fashions are so
last season
• Planned obsolescence
• Shopping completes us
 Cultural
Hegemony and
Consumerism

• We can all live like celebrities

• Our self-worth is determined
by our looks and cultural norms
of sexual attractiveness
• Airbrushed images of perfected
bodies normalize an
unattainable expectation of
beauty.
Cultural Hegemony and Consumerism

• Brands matter = Connote status

McDonalds Around the World