Cool Through The Phases Of Pop Culture

What is cool? I still remember when I was a kid, I always try to be difference compare with other kids, in that time, to be cool is to be different. David Brooks, a New York Times Op-Ed columnist, in his article “How Cool Works in America Today”, he tried to find what cool meant in this country. From his research, cool is not only a style, but also has social meaning. David Brooks gives us some people he believes to be cool, like Miles Davis , an American jazz trumpeter, Billie Holiday, an American jazz musician, Audrey Hepburn, a British actress, Jimi Hendrix, an American rock guitarist. The cool person has some same character like stoical, emotionally controlled and great ability to deal with hard situation. The cool people not concern

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.

In ours’, it’s everything from MTV hits, to Breaking Bad to Miley Cyrus. But historically, pop culture derived from the lower classes and the “low” culture, the exiled counterpart to “high” culture. High culture was considered to compose of art, literature, and classical music created by and for the most prestige. Over time “pop culture” slowly began to replace the phrase “ low culture,” pop culture or low culture was defined by what it wasn’t; elegant, refined, high culture, than rather by what it was. Mass culture. The masses looked for entertainment and distraction, soon enough it was assumed for pop culture to simply just amuse. However, pop culture can never be dismissed as being “just” entertainment or for “only” amusement.

In the past, there have been countless princess movies or so-called “Cinderella” films. However, the general message that each one of these movies have given has changed as time has progressed. With this change, expectations placed on the princesses have been modified as well. This change in expectations has been thoroughly discussed by two authors, James Poniewozik and Peggy Orenstein. Poniewozik, a media and television critic for Time magazine, wrote an article entitled “The Princess Paradox” where he discusses this evolution of expectations. As well as him, Orenstein, a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, wrote an article with the title of “Cinderella and Princess Culture” where she also discusses the development of the expectations on girls. Even though Poniewozik and Orenstein discuss the evolution of expectations portrayed on girls, Orenstein is able to illuminate the more complex ideas that Poniewozik is attempting to express based on the expectations of girls.

The iconic release of Amy Heckerling’s production of Clueless (1995), dramatized the struggles of a typical, rich American princess Cher Horowitz. Her story is set in Beverly Hills, California where she comes from an affluent home headed by her father who is a lawyer. Being in high school, Cher is popular amongst her peers and that in addition to her wealthy background are big parts in upkeeping her lavish lifestyle. Cher is obviously intelligent, yet still so naive; most of her focus and energy is spent in hopes to achieve meaningless goals such as getting the boy she likes in the moment or having designer clothes. Though she does maintain the egocentric, sort-of superficial mindset throughout most of the

Our second essay is a response to the readings from the Chapter “Is Pop Culture Actually Good For You?” and should include specific references to the text when appropriate. You may also develop the essays with examples from your own lives or other courses you may have taken that covered similar themes. In other words, personal experience is o.k. to use as evidence in your essay, but keep in mind that this essay is primarily a response to a text. You must use at least one of the texts as the “they say” to your “I say.”

In today’s society, is the media mirroring our behavior, or are we mirroring the media’s portrayal of us? That question was posed in the documentary “The Merchants of Cool”, narrated by Douglas Rushkoff. This program examined the teenage culture and how the media is used to manipulate and portray our generation. With examples from Sprite, MTV, WB, and other massive media outlets, evidence is shown that our media-teenager relationship is tainted with sex, music, rebellion and a broad image of what it is to be “cool”. Most of the images portrayed of teenagers aren’t the best. With TV shows such as “MTV Spring Cruise”, teenagers are shown as sex-driven, reckless kids. TV corruption is just one of many examples of the blurred line between reality and perception in media and advertising.

This way of positioning deliberately substantiates the ideology that “male are active subjects who look upon female characters as passive objects (Ott & Mack, 2010).” Females are not able to escape this gaze, for they are situated similar to a circus performer being displayed to amuse the viewers of the show. Satine is being contained in this inescapable world where she is responsible to please those around her. Men use their gender to their advantage, for they know their role in the society is more superior to those of the females. They take pleasure in gazing at Satine’s immaculate curves and remarkable good looks. Fetishism, which is the “psychic structuring of an object or person as a source of sexual pleasure (Ott & Mack, 2010)”, is prevalent during the entire scene. Satine recognizes this power of manipulation she has on those fetishizing over her beauty. In the past, the male gaze is also apparent in the media. Madonna uses the male gaze to manipulate men to supply her with material objects. Material Girl becomes an anthem of women who are willing to be objectified for the sake of actualizing their luxurious desires. Both Madonna and Satine utilize beauty and glamour to their advantage. Although Satine’s position of having superiority as opposed to the other female characters may be apparent, this frame of reference is entirely fallacious. The objectification of Satine by

It is sad to see how these teenagers think of themselves as being cool because of the activities they choose to do, when they each see how it is making them live a shorter life and none of them are doing a thing about it. Life is worth more than feeling cool. Proverbs says, “Since they hated knowledge…the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them” (Proverbs 1:29a, 32). The teenagers in “We Real Cool” have an image of their selves as being cool on the outside because of the badly behaved things they are taking part in and want others to think them as being cool. These teenagers want to think that they are cool for doing the things they do, but they know that the destructive life they live will soon be a factor to their deaths. Brooks demonstrates in “We Real Cool” that even though people acknowledge their own behavior and think of themselves as being cool, their destructive ways will be a part of their short lives and none of their coolness will ever matter again.

The PBS video, Merchants of Cool is about the merchant and media outlets that target the teenage population with their estimated $150 billion annual spending power. The video looks at how these merchants, through both pop-culture and teen surveys (i.e. cool hunting), give the impressionable teenage market what they want and what today’s top five enormous companies push them to want. Newscorp, Disney, Viacom, Universal Vivendi and AOL/Time Warner are responsible for selling nearly all of youth culture; they are the true “Merchants of Cool”.

There are a lot of trends in today’s generation that are new and have never been seen before. Social media is a huge one. However, there is a specific aspect of our generation that started from the generation before us. This is a huge part of the culture of young adults today and means a lot to many teens. That part of the culture is music. Music has this weird way of bringing together people from all walks of life. Music sensation, Rihanna, has her own song titled “Please Don’t Stop the Music”, which talks about how music gets people grooving. Within the music category, the focus will be hip hop and the culture of hip hop. Many people believe that hip

What pops into your mind first when you think of popular culture in today’s day and age? The latest dirt on celebrities or the latest iPhone release? The latest controversial issue or the latest iTunes hit? Regardless, pop culture encompasses all four of these concepts and many more, which consume the world we live in each and every day. Think about education. At first thought, your mind may not make the connection between the newest Taylor Swift song and the highest ACT score, but the linkage between the two becomes undeniable when you dive deeper. Ponder this: each day millions of kids walk into school buildings across the United States, each of them glued to a little slice of pop culture, a.k.a. their phone. And each day these millions

The study of popular culture is useful in many ways. To be more specific, this course has reached its three intended main ideas: what it means to be American, how to be more 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 use 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, as well as how these themes relate to the course goals.

Before Marie Antoinette married Dauphin Louis XVI in 1770, the situation in France was already beginning to become disordered. The peasants, which made up about 90% of the population at the time, were treated unfairly and began to feel frustrated and upset with the Monarchy. At the time, Marie Antoinette was distrusted because of her foreign birth and many of the peasants saw her as the source of their problems and disliked her. She was often seen in the past as a bad Queen due to her careless spending and seemingly frivolous lifestyle, now with more evidence and sources, opinions have shifted. Many see Marie Antoinette as a victim of her own circumstances, as it can be seen by the state of affairs in France before her arrival, her upbringing and public opinion before her death during the French Revolution. This essay will illustrate that Marie Antoinette was indeed a victim of her circumstances.

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).