American Pop Culture Research Paper

In this essay, I will be discussing about a social group that took fashion to the next level and create a huge impact in British history were the punks culture during the late nineteen seventies. The punk cultures were to rebel against the government during the great depression and were all about the attitude of the younger generations. During the late nineteen seventies was the time of unemployment and social unrest, a lot of the young white kids felt outcast from the British culture, foreseeing their lives with little prospect and so called “no future”. It was also a DIY “Do it yourself” movement. Younger generation that adopted the punk look often create their own garment by wearing safety pins,

Teen culture in the 1950’s took off with the introduction of “Rock ‘N Roll”. An estimated 13 million teens spent $7 billion in 1956.(5) Teens felt free to do whatever they wanted, but that was not totally true. There were many common rules for the teen society in the 1950’s. Some of the rules were: Obey authority, control your emotions, and don’t even think about sexual intercourse.(Silverman 6)

     In comparing the sixties and the nineties, my first thought was how much popular culture has changed since then and how different society is today. The strange thing is, the more I tried to differentiate between them, the more similarities I found. Both the sixties and the nineties were about youth, creativity, free-thinking, and expression. With the nineties coming to a close and the popularity of anything ?retro," I decided to compare the fashions, people, music, and issues that defined pop culture in the 1960?s and its influence on pop culture in the 1990?s.

Throughout American history and the 1900’s, fads have been a hugely successful form of self expression. From fashion, to recreation, to dumb and sometimes dangerous things that youths do, fads are a way to distract from the troubles of the world and find something else fun to do.

Popular culture is consumed through interaction in the social media that includes television programs, movie theaters and virtual social networks. From the media, interests lie in the political developments and discussion concerning governance. These media satisfy appetite for political information while guiding an understanding on the national issues and choices made.

The 1950’s was a time of great social change. The word, ‘teen-ager’ was recently coined and applied to people aged thirteen to nineteen. During this decade, people’s perception of youth and adolescents drastically changed as children became more rebellious. Previous to 1950. society consisted of two main stages of human development: children and adults. When the Baby Boom started in 1946, producing more babies, a new era of music, attitudes, practices, and dance began to appeal to kids that did not feel socially accepted by adults in society. This was the start of the teenage rebellion. With increased teenager presence came more disapproval because of rebellious behaviour. Teenagers were pitted against media, parents, and local authority. Teenagers started disobeying parents, getting expelled from school, and fighting back against authority. Indeed, the ‘50s were a time that saw upheavals towards the impact of the music, change of attitudes, new fashions, and new dances developed children into teenagers.

The 1920’s was a time when many trends started to appear that we see in today’s American culture and society. One trend that is still well-known today is adolescence appearance and behavior. During this era it was a surprise to see a shift in how teens were acting and dressing back then, but now it seems to be the norm. Little did they know that these trends would revise society as we know it.

Once upon a time there was a young prince named Peter and he was the prince of Egypt. when his father got sick he couldn’t take care of the kingdom anymore, it was his job to take over the kingdom but his father wanted him to find a wife so he wouldn’t have to do it alone other than the fact that he was only 16. So, he decided to go around the world to find a wife he needed oh so bad. He first started off in hawaii, Once he got there he realized how different it was from Egypt and realized he wasn’t dressed appropriately for it was less hot there and they spoke very fluent english for he can barely speak a paragraph “aloha” said the weird man looking man with a smile. Confused you turn to walk away, Until the man shouted “You must be Peter”

In The Cool Kids, Waldman shares common interests with her audience concerning the ideas of cool. The audience that Waldman addresses is adults around there 20’s and is interested in popular culture. Waldman first begins her article with her own experience of what was considered cool throughout middle school. She utilizes examples of different television series that were once considered cool, as well as different fashion trends that only cool kids wore throughout those years. Through her own experience, Waldman is able to draw a connection to her audience as her audience has most likely experienced scenarios that were similar. Since her audience is people who are concerned about the current events regarding popular culture, it is guaranteed that they have all gone through the struggle of trying to keep up with popular culture, whether it is trying to keep up with the latest television

How did clashes relating to immigration, religion & alcohol use illustrate the conflict between modern & traditional values in 1920’s American society?

The stereotypes of a teenager haven’t changed much over the years; nevertheless, the fads have. The fun, lively 1950s era brought poodle skirts, jukeboxes, hot rods, and Elvis Presley; things we don’t normally see unless it is Halloween. Teenagers danced at sock hops, where there was never a night upbeat dance moves such as the twist and the jive weren’t danced. The seemingly large predicaments of the world today were insignificant back then. Life, as it seems, was simpler. Today, many people swoon over the idea of living in the 1950s era; however, I would prefer to live in the time period that I live in now because of fashion, schooling, and technology.

Once Rock N’ Roll became more popular during the evolution of the genre, adolescents began to act in ways never before seen or expected from adults. A new hive-mind mentality started to form among youth of all ages of 12 and older, with all of the youth dressing the same way that many parents would not approve of. All of the girls tended to wear tight and revealing skirts and skin-tight pants while

If you have been following the current trend of nerd pop culture, you've probably seen a blog post, YouTube video or a live stream of someone playing a video game you haven't seen since the days of getting up at the crack of dawn every Saturday morning to eat sugar cereal till you were sick. Now that gaming has become a ubiqutous hobby of our current generation, long forgetten classics are seeing the spotlight shone on them once again. The itch to sit down and play courses through your veins, ready to relive the thrill of finally beating that one boss after months, if not years of trying.

Photographic evidence (Russell 1955, Mayne 1956) depicts female Teddy Girls, and Horn’s research into post-war youth culture shows similar strong female presence: “A mass observation diary from 1949 described a London dance hall […] where there was an equal split between male and female” (2010: 118). Although how widespread this was, is hard to say. The location and dates of the photos show that the women were early-to-mid-1950s London East End Teds, but Russell’s photographs were uncovered in 2006, which demonstrates how lack of resources caused disproportionate attention to Teddy Boys, further cementing the trend as male. The academic neglect of women in subcultures has been addressed by Garber and McRobbie (2000). The invisibility of women in popular culture could originate from Hoggart’s Uses of Literacy (1957), which situates interest in music and socialising outside home as a male pastime. Teddy Girls also attract less commentary because, unlike ted boys, the method of transmitting identity (clothing) did not differ from middle class young women. The violence and aggression of Teddy Boys in marking working class territory (Jefferson 2006: 68) attracted attention, because it directly conflicted with middle class behaviour. So, females were unnoticed and continued to use consumption of popular culture through clothing and music, to exert cultural identity. Mungham’s work focusses on the generational and class aspects within popular culture and acknowledges

Post-World War 2 the world was steadily resetting itself from the aftermath of war. This was a time where a new generation was coming through, determined to change the world and bring radical transformation, avoiding the mistakes of the previous generation. With this we saw historical movements namely the African-American Civil Rights Movement, the Second-Wave of Feminism and the boom in Consumerism that have shaped the world we live in today. This new way of thinking brought the 1960s design era, also known as the POP! Movement, with the aim to challenge what makes good design and blurring quality art with low culture sources. I will focus on the ideas of Feminism and Consumerism during the POP movement and how the Poster Dresses by Harry Gordon and BG66 by Bonnie MacLean reflect the two concepts through their design.