The Popular Culture And The Theory Of Pop Culture

     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.

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.

As America headed into the 1980s, two decades of social and political upheaval have left the nation rattled and the economy weakened. The Iran hostage crisis shook America's confidence and many looked for a new kind of leader to steer the country into the new decade. Ronald Reagan led America into a new era of prosperity leaving the soul-searching of the 60s and 70s behind. The nation was ready to enjoy itself and with plenty of new toys to play like VCRs and video games, Americans spent more time at home and soon something called cable TV would make it even harder to leave the living room. With the new innovation of the TV, one of the ideas for a channel was a marriage between music and television. This new idea for a channel devoted to something called music videos would end up revolutionizing and often scandalizing an industry that had no choice but to embrace the fact that music in the 1980s had to have a face with videos. By having these music videos, they would change the way we look at music and the way we look at the world. This cutting- edge idea was a new medium perfectly suited to a new generation and that idea was called, MTV. This leads to the question: How did MTV influence pop culture of the 1980’s? This topic is worthy of investigation because the coming of MTV has had a significant impact on the way people see pop culture. Before researching the topic, the writer had limited knowledge on MTV and only knew about the music itself. In the paper, the writer was

The United States is renowned for its title as a melting pot for a variety of different cultures, and is very unique in the fact of having many different people in one place. The diversity of the beautiful nation that will call home is one of the very aspects that makes America the great nation that it is. The United States, albeit influenced by many different cultures and a vast array of continents, is most influenced by the country of England. The most widely spoken language in the United States is English, and the second most widely spoken language is Spanish. The most prevalent religious denomination is Protestantism with over 51%, then Roman Catholicism at 24%, then Mormonism at 2%, and Jewish at 1.7%. The United States is a very pop culture

Pop Culture permeates our society and is now the first and last thing we think about every day. Almost every waking moment includes pop culture in some way, as society has embraced this new way of life. Parents use electronics to entertain their children and keep them out of the way, and children use them to avoid their parents. Escapism, guilty pleasures and popular culture define each other in ways that they didn’t in the past and now our world is trying to reconcile it.

Everywhere we look, we are surrounded by pop culture, whether it is present on the computer, magazines, or on the radio. In the 40’s and the 50’s comic books were blamed for corrupting the younger generation, and in the 90’s the public began to blame rap music for various violent atrocities. Recently, there have been a few articles that have been written discussing TV’s influence on society. Two such articles are “Watching TV Makes You Smarter” by Steven Johnson, an article written for the New York Times, and “Thinking Outside the Idiot Box” by Dana Stevens, a movie critic for Slate Magazine. These two articles only touch on other outlets for pop culture, but look at a major source that is disseminating pop culture into most American’s lives, television. While looking at these articles, it is important to note how some parts of pop culture have value to them and others can contain a no discernable value.

The media influences how people experience social life. Media such as newspaper, television and film, are important sources of information, education and entertainment. It can be used to learn more about the world and the people in it. In this regard it can be said that the media represent, interpret and endorse aspects of social experience (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler, 2005). The media are also implicated in social regulation, or in other terms, the government of society. The media are implicated in government and politics in an obvious way because modern systems of democracy are conducted through the media. But the media have a bigger role to play in government by structuring how society is controlled and maintained.

Since its publication in 1954, J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy The Lord of the Rings has embedded itself in popular culture. From influencing other fantasy works to being referred to in television, there is no doubt that The Lord of the Rings is here to stay. The Lord of the Rings is one of the best-known book series of all time, which is reflected by the impact it has had on pop culture. Among the areas of popular culture that had influence from The Lord of the Rings is music. Many different rock bands such as Rush and Led Zeppelin used themes and allusions from The Lord of the Rings in their songs. However, it was not only rock music that was influenced by Tolkien’s work. Folk music and even rap music today include associations to the trilogy. By discussing Led Zeppelin’s song “The Battle of Evermore”, Sally Oldfield’s series of songs entitled “Songs of the Quendi”, and Vision’s “5 AM in Toronto (Freestyle), this paper will show the ways in which The Lord of the Rings has influenced music across generations and genres, as well as its larger pop culture influence throughout the years using music as a jumping-off point.

Popular culture has an undeniable influence on how society perceives itself. When examining mass culture, one must keep in mind the equilibrium between how much we, as a society, affect the way popular culture is constructed and to what extent popular culture influences the way we view ourselves and shapes our ideologies. An aspect of popular culture that may serve to greatly exemplify this theory of society as both the affecter and the affected is the genre of magazines targeted at young women. Though these publications are targeted as the representation of our society’s adolescent females, they actually have a great influence over the ways in which teens view and construct

Popular culture seems to change with each era; from the environmental movement of the 70s, to the grunge music era of the 90s, each generation has their own ‘pop culture’. However, some people believe that popular culture, regardless the generation or era, consistently focuses on music, fashion, expressions and values.

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.

This phenomena describes a new style of artistic work by including symbolic aspects from popular culture, pop artists employing this style in promoting and designing news product, comic books, also in advertising. Pop artists are very originating, and their style is very acute and bright. ‘‘pop modern style is an adaptation of a famous pop art movement popular during the 50s and 60s’’ (Yuni,2006, P:51).

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).

Throughout the world, popular culture has made an impact, especially on especially to people living throughout the world. The impact of popular culture has several benefits on both individuals and society. Several of the benefits that popular culture has on society are entertaining, informing, and interactions.