A Study on American Popular Culture

A culture can be defined as a way of life of a group of people- their behaviors, beliefs, values that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next. It also includes the customs, arts, literature, morals/values and traditions of a particular society or group (Virginia Encyclopedia). Culture can also be considered as a way of thinking, behaving, or working that exists in places or organizations. This topic is of huge importance to our society mainly in the state of

What is culture? According to Dr. Dennis O’Neil from the Behavioral Sciences Department at Palomar College in San Marcos, CA, “ culture is the full range of learned human behavior” and includes morals, traditions, and beliefs (1). First morals could be opinions rather than facts. Opinions on what is right and wrong, L.G.B.T ( Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender), and abortion. Many people have different perspectives on morals. Not everyone agrees with others peoples opinion on these certain perspectives. Next, every culture has some sort of tradition. In America, a huge celebration would be the Super Bowl. Families and friends gather together to watch the largest football game of the year, and to barbecue. Lastly many people

Culture conditions shape the style and content of our stories in many interesting ways. One example is how American movies always portray the United States as a big “hero. Two example of this are shown in the movies “Independence Day” and “Armageddon”. These two movies are one of the few that show the United States as being the only nation with the power to save the whole planet, sometimes from an alien invasion like in the first movie or big catastrophes in the second one. I believe all this heroism comes from the American idealism of always fight for what is best for their nation using all resources possible.

It would be in order to first examine the connotation and exact meaning of culture. Sociologists differ wide in their perceptions in explanting culture and its inter-related concepts. The best definition from the military view point is given by Leslie A. White, who quotes famous sociologists Frank Boas and Melville J. Herskovits. He writes “culture may be defined (as per Boas), as the totality of the mental and physical reactions and activities that characterise the behaviour of individuals composing a social group….”. He further quotes Herskovits and says, “When culture is closely analysed, we find but a series of patterned reactions that characterise the behaviour of the individuals who constitute a given group. Another writer Sapir quoted by Leslie white classified culture as the mass of typical reactions.’ Culture is best summarised as a way of life of the people. It is manmade part of environment. Cultures includes beliefs, ideas, religion, art, customs and other habits which the people acquire while living in a society. Another very important aspect of culture is that it is ever changing by learning and transmitting from one generation to other through a

America's culture has overwhelmingly changed – movies, art, and politics – therefore sparking a debate on whether these changes are positive, and do these changes influence our lives? With this growing debate, some great works have adapted and allow the audience to make a conscious decision in his or her everyday life. Ever since Batman was released in 1966, the producer, William Dozier, constructed the series in a way that "made an immense impact on American popular culture in a relatively short time"(Gould 271) through his innovative portrayal of "pop art utopia" (268). This impact has led to social and political change throughout American society, therefore causing many Americans to see the injustices that they face in everyday life. In

These products along with many other popular children’s products influence and shape the young minds of our children. Utilizing the positive aspects of popular culture can help teach today’s youth morals and values, but it is important for parents to realize that there are negative influences in popular culture, and it is there responsibly to teach their children to take advertising at face value, and as a form of entertainment.

Chapter 3 in Major Problems with American Popular Culture discusses the meaning and purposes of popular culture in the 19th century American society. The text presents a variety of materials attributed to America popular culture of that time, such as accounts of Fejee Mermaid exposition, extracts from the 19th century Shakespeare's adaptations and the eyewitness testimony of the Astor Place Riot in 1849. Furthermore, the YouTube video sources discuss the concept of imagined community, first suggested by Benedict Anderson. Imagined community is discussed in the light of popular culture, which becomes an alternative instrument of imagining communities with the emergence of different types of media, it being film, theatre, news or internet.

Culture is a collective word that depicts a particular kind of advancement mainly in arts, customs, groups and beliefs within a society in a given run of time. It is also a guide for what is considered to be acceptable, wrong or morally recommended. Culture affects a person in various ways including fears, worries, views and even values hence being an important tool in the lives of many.

According to Rethinking Popular Culture and Media, popular culture is the Polaroid snapshot or Facebook photo page that documents our lives in the social world; it is the backdrop of day to day life. The role of web/technology provides all the shared popular culture experience. Children are the targeted audience. Children ages 2-11 see at least 25,000 advertisements on TV alone, a figure that does not include product placement. (Marshall, Sensoy, Para 3,2011) Whereas media of previous generations may have referred to newspaper, magazines and books, today’s media includes an explosion of online/global networking systems (Twitter, Facebook, Bebo, YouTube). With society having numerous ways to see and share popular culture, access through so many

Through years of going to English classes in city colleges in the United States I become familiar more with characters and concepts that I haven’t heard them before. My English learning experience was engaged with American pop culture, simply because that is the most dominant topic that came from instructors. It is remarkable that pop culture icons are important in contemporary society and most of teachers trying to use them in curriculum for educational direction. It help to understand the culture in the country but at the same time it was confusing for an international student and a English learner since the language shortage mixed with concepts and general knowledge shortage and made it more confusing for me. This case is not only limited for me, due to limited intensity of English skills and lack of mutual cultural activities, international and ESL students’ engagement in class might often be not equal as native speakers.

The term popular culture, or pop culture, often refers to the ideas, values and goods that arise from mass media. This mass media includes books, magazines, movies, and television. In American popular culture two themes are prevalent: a materialistic one and a simplistic one. The materialistic one, that is popular in times of prosperity, stresses that happiness comes out of material goods, while the simplistic one says that happiness comes out of modesty and spirituality. While researching popular culture however this and certain other trends become apparent.

The study of popular culture is useful in many ways. To specify, this course has reached its three intended main ideas: what it means to be an American, how to be consumption-conscious, and how to apply these studies in our own lives. Jim Cullen puts this in a less specific sense, arguing that the study of popular culture can “afford valuable clues – about collective fears, hopes, and debates” (Cullen, The Art of Democracy, 2). We study these clues to understand the world around us, as well as why we do what we do as Americans and as humans. I will be touching on themes that relate to this quotation by Cullen, escapism, exploitation, and globalization, and how these themes relate to the course goals.

Second to patriarchy, American Popular Culture proves to be a dangerous threat to finding and discovering true romantic love. Popular culture poses a threat to this joyful emotion because we let it dominate a tantamount part of our life; it is the sum of attitudes, customs, values, and beliefs that distinguish one group of people from another. Popular culture is defined as the “cultural activities or commercial products reflecting, suited to, or aimed at the tastes of the general masses of people” 1. In other words popular culture tends to reflect what are the modern and most popular trends at the moment, because it is what most people all agree on to be popular. In the book All About Love (2001), bell hooks argues that American popular culture is individualistic, narcissistic, materialistic, patriarchal, promotes dishonesty and manipulation, violent, workaholic, and cynical. People follow popular culture in order fit in because they care about what others think, and how others perceive them. Hooks states that in American culture being narcissistic in that “the worship of individualism has in part led us to the unhealthy culture of narcissism that is so pervasive in our society”(hooks, pg.214). In being narcissists, people act in a manner in which they focus on themselves and lack empathy for others, therefore lack the ability to see from the other person’s perspective. This leads people to believe that they are the happiest on their own and “if [people] truly don’t care

Popular culture is made by the mainstream to influencing minds to like something. It describes the life style and tastes of the majority of mostly younger people. Some random popular culture these past few years would be; The Hunger Games, dubstep, raving, Illuminati theories, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Gucci, Polo, and these are just a few things from popular culture these past years. Popular culture affected me in many ways. I would say comic books and super hero movies impacted me the most.

Popular culture is a term that holds various meanings depending on where it 's being defined and the context of its use. It is usually recognized as the language or people’s culture that prevails in a society at a point in time. As social researcher Brummett explains in his book “Rhetorical Dimensions of Popular Culture”, pop culture reflects the characteristics of social life, where the publicly are most actively involved. Popular culture is known as the ‘culture of the people’. This culture is determined by the interactions between people within their daily activities, for instance, dressing styles, use of language, greeting rituals and the ways that people behave in public, etc. are all examples of popular culture. Popular culture is also diverted by the mass media (Abbott and Sapsford, 1987).