Defining Popular American Culture

Popular culture is culture found in a large, heterogeneous society, that shares certain habits despite differences in other personal characteristic. Popular culture can consist of: a popular song, performer,movie or tv show, comic trip, “super hero”, etc.

Pop culture, or popular culture, is knowns as a term appeared in mid 20 century. It is defined as the categories of entertainment, politics, sports, fashion, technology, and have a way to influence a person's opinion to a certain topic.

Culture is the complex whole including customs, law, morals, belief, knowledge, arts and other abilities and habits that man acquires as a member of society. Culture occurs naturally in an individual's interactions in the society building his/her identity right from time of birth. Culture is acquired by people through interactions in the society ADDIN EN.CITE Lopes2006458(Lopes P., 2006)45845817Lopes P.,Culture and Stigma: Popular Culture and the Case of Comic BooksSociological ForumSociological Forum387-4142132006Springer08848971http://www.jstor.org/stable/4540949( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_1" o "Lopes P., 2006 #458" Lopes P., 2006). Popular culture includes social life aspects engaged in the public sphere. The determination of a popular culture is possible through interactions between people's everyday activities. Popular culture is influenced in the modern day by mass media that portray different aspect of the society including dressing style, greetings, eating habits and slang among others ADDIN EN.CITE Williams J.M.2010460(Williams J.M. & Rodgers J.S.,

In the first chapter of The Rhetorical Power of Pop Culture by Deanna Sellnow, the author defines popular culture and explains the importance of studying the subject. Sellnow begins with a short explanation of ethics to convey that the influence popular culture has is not always used ethically. Secondly, Sellnow compares the different contexts of culture, elitist and diversity, to explain what popular culture is not. Popular culture is compiled of everyday things that influence people through subtle messages such as what is appropriate and inappropriate, good and bad, and so on.

Popular culture is a fusion of interest and activities that groups of people share. merely, anything that has to do with entertainment is popular culture, such as Movies, TV shows, actors, singers, toys, games, sports, clothes and the list continues. In many ways, popular culture touches every aspect of our lives. It plays such a major role in how our society views the world and how we perceive everyday things. Pop culture has a way of effect our lives no matter what we do to thwart its’ influence.

Culture is one of the diverse and quick changing phenomena. The American culture has been changing with time. However, despite the change and evolution of the culture, the rich elements of the culture have been passed through the generations (Colby, 597). In late 19th Century and early 20th Century the American culture was more concrete and focused on ethnicity background. The whites, the blacks, the natives, and the Latinos all brought their culture in their lives. The American people then tried to incorporate these cultures which by mid 20th century became synonymous with the American people. The blend of these cultures became rich and inspiring. During the time, the American became so much involved in overseas activities. In that way the American culture began to spread (power of persuasion, 7). Looking back at the time and the current times, the culture can be stated as relatively correlated. America is currently involved actively in overseas activities. The American culture is still blended just like the culture of the late19th Century and early 20th Century. American culture still influences other cultures in the world because America has a strong involvement in overseas activities.

“Pop culture shapes our ideas of what is normal and what our dreams can be and what our roles are […]” quoted by Gloria Steinem. Culture has a great influence on the way people view the world and others as seen in the stories By any other name by Santha Rama Rau, Everyday Use by Alice Walker, and Two Kinds by Amy Tan.

As the influence of print wanes, the content of politics, religion, education, and anything else that comprises public business must change and be recast in terms that are most suitable to television. I also believe that the media of communication available to a culture are a dominant influence on the formation of the culture's intellectual and social preoccupations. What we see on television has a big impact on our lives, on how we act and what we like to do. Media learnt how to influence the masses and now they could actually change a countries culture if they want to. What we see on television is what we talk about, so it’s really easy to change the perception of things based on television.

What lies in the hearts of the American people is what sets them aside as an unusual people, a new and indefinitely unique type of culture. The culture of this people is not only what makes them who they are, but is used in order to create, innovate, thrive, as well as drive them to success. According to Margaret J. King PhD, the first in history to hold a graduate degree in Popular Culture, who studies the effect of culture as a driving force for thinking, behavior and decision-making “In American culture, the individual is the basic unit, the prime mover in our thinking, the heart, mind, and soul of American values. Our belief that individuals control, or should control, so much of what happens to them explains a great deal about American life, and its differences from other culture ways.”(King). The people of a culture are directly inspired by it and America is no stranger to this concept. People act, think, and choose in similar relation to those they surround themselves and in doing so define the word trends. Trends in style, trends in thought, and trends in values all are what

Popular culture continually mutates and occurs uniquely in place and time. It represents a complex of equally interdependent points of view and values that influence society and its organizations. It also influences people in various ways: this is important because it creates balance between certain societies in our everyday lives, but can also have a negative impact as it creates inequality which may lead to conflict.

Pop culture is defined as a product of a culture that has a mass audience (Zeisler 2008:1). Pop culture is considered dependent on advertising, depicting women and people of colour in a problematic way and discriminating manner (Ziesler, 2008:2). Popular culture has become our common knowledge, and to understand it is a key part in understanding society as a whole. According to Beamish (2016), popular culture is a form of symbolic communication between humans. Symbols can be anything that can be recognized by a culture and often presented in the forms of language, values, norms, and material culture. The use of language is a powerful tool that allows for the media to relay particular messages to the rest of society. The imposition of certain concepts as a result can be argued as having a direct affect on the daily lives of those who are exposed. Whereas material culture allows the population to see these messages visually through advertisements, film, and television. Some basic forms of pop culture include television, film, music, news, and advertising. Popular culture is rooted in mass culture, and deemed for those who could not afford the means to participate in high culture activities. Those who subjected to the popular culture were assumed to be uneducated and unworthy of “real art” (Ziesler, 2008:1). The mass media

There has never been a time when popular culture has been more pervasive and influential in American society. With advances in technology and creative innovation, outlets for popular culture have expanded greatly and are virtually innumerable. Through the consumption of television, music, magazines, movies, newspapers, blogs, and memes to name a few, American citizens and others around the globe are inundated with ideals and images that work to mold their collective psyche by impacting every facet of their daily lives and by providing a critique of modern-day society. Perhaps much of the influence of popular culture lies in the fact that its primary function is to appeal to the masses;

Popular culture in America has visibly had an immense impact in other countries. It has created superheros such as Superman and The Avengers, invented cartoons that symbolize the childhoods of the youth such as Mickey Mouse and Scooby Doo, and globalized figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. There is no doubt that these idols represent positive images that spread influential ideas to other countries, but these positive ideas are only a small fraction of what American popular culture is. American pop culture invades other cultures and societies and to evade these intentions is nearly impossible. Many of these countries tend to look at the United States with disgust because of the way their culture is shadowed by them. The popular culture

Popular culture was first noticed in the 19th century. Popular culture to a lot of people had to do with their personal religion or beliefs. The word “popular” refers to the people. It also has to do with peoples ethnic backgrounds and regional

This can be felt through miscellaneous ways such as diffusions of beliefs and values, Tv Series, fast food restaurant, and a new globally connected form of professionals etc.( Levin institute, 2015).All of these aspects can project either good and bad effects, opinions, and influences from people. However, most Americans do not agree the idea that US popular culture is a menace to foreign cultures. “In October 1999 PIPA asked, "How much of a threat, if at all, do you think American popular culture, such as music, television and films, is to the cultures of other countries in the world?" Just 24% said American popular culture was a "very serious" (7%) or "serious" threat (17%) to other countries. By contrast 33% considered it only a minor threat, and a plurality (41%) said it was not a threat at all” (Princeton survey research,1999).Needless to say, American pop culture is the most overt way as to show how it has a tremendous impact on people on visceral levels. For instance, As American tv shows and movies which are part of the entertainment industry, are being broadcasted around the world, they end up having a striking impact on the lives of people, more especially teenagers all over the world who tend to feign their favorites actors/actresses in many ways. Too, The inception of the well known US fast food restaurant, McDonald, is another pristine example as how it tends to impact the eating habit of many people on a global