GE 6222 / Philippine Popular Culture

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Defining Popular Culture

Module 1: Defining Popular Culture

Course Learning Outcomes:

Popular Culture

The word 'popular culture' has different significances depending on who defines it and the sense of use. It
is widely known as the vernacular or culture of people at one point in time predominating in a society. As
Brummett discusses in Popular Culture's Rhetorical Terms, pop culture encompasses the facets of social
life that the public most actively engages in. Popular culture, as the 'culture of the people,' is defined by the
interactions between people in their daily activities: clothing styles, the use of slang, greeting routines, and
the food that people consume are all examples of popular culture. The mass media also keeps popular
culture updated.

There are a number of elements commonly accepted which include popular culture. Popular culture for
instance encompasses the most important and current facets of our lives. These aspects are often subject
to rapid change, especially in a highly technological environment in which omnipresent media is taking
people closer and closer. The pop culture represents those expectations and widely held beliefs. Pop
culture represents and affects daily life of people due to its commonality (see eg Petracca and Sorapure,
Common Culture). In fact, brands can gain an iconic pop status (e.g. the Nike swoosh, or the golden arches
of McDonald). Like with many facets of popular culture, however, iconic brands will rise and fall.

With these fundamental aspects in mind, popular culture can be characterized as the products and modes
of expression and identity that are frequently encountered or generally embraced, commonly liked or
approved, and characteristic of a particular society at a given time. Ray Browne gives a similar concept in
his essay 'Folklore to Populore': "Popular culture consists of the aspects of behaviors, habits, values,
practices, and tastes that characterize the people in any society. Popular culture is the culture of the people,
in the historical usage of word.”

The popular culture enables the collective identity of large heterogeneous masses of people. It plays an
egalitarian function in society, as it unites the masses on principles of appropriate behavioral types. Along
with forging a sense of identity that connects people to the larger society, the consumption of pop culture
objects also increases the reputation of an person in their peer group. Furthermore, popular culture, unlike
folk or high culture, provides an incentive for individuals to alter the dominant attitudes and behavioral
norms as we will see. While mainstream culture appeals to people as it offers opportunities for individual
satisfaction as well as for social bonding.
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Defining Popular Culture

Examples of Popular Culture

Examples of mainstream culture come from a range of genres including popular music, print, cyber culture,
sports, entertainment, leisure, fads, advertisement, and television. Sports and television are arguably two
of mainstream culture's most commonly viewed examples, and they also represent two examples of mass
culture with a strong staying power.

Representatives of all social groups play and watch sports but (tautologically) the majority are responsible
for the immense popularity of sports. A global culture celebrates such sporting activities, such as the World
Cup and the Olympics. For most cultures, sports are common and form a large part of the lives of many
people. A typical behaviour, displaying allegiance to a team as a means of self-identification. Furthermore,
as I and Tim Madigan describe in our new book The Sociology of Sport, cheering for a sports team or a
favorite athlete is a way any person can become part of the popular culture.

Many people watch several hours of TV everyday. This is such a pervasive feature of popular society that
without it life can hardly be imagined. There are those who claim that television is responsible for society's
dumbing down; that children consume too much television; and that couch potato syndrome has led to the
childhood obesity epidemic. The internationally famous television series The Simpsons gives viewers an
fascinating TV viewpoint. Sideshow Bob is a tv critic in the episode 'Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming' (# 137),
as he is serving time in prison. While he once was a guest on The Krusty the Clown Show, Bob has become
fascinated with the negative impact that television has had on society. Bob believes that if television were
done away with, the lives of everyone would be much better. Consequently, he designs a plan to detonate
a nuclear bomb until all television in Springfield is abolished. Unable to find Bob, City officials from
Springfield meet to discuss Bob's requests to eradicate television. A panicky Krusty proclaims, "Is it really
worth living in a world without TV? I assume that the survivors will hate the dead. While there are people
who agree with Sideshow Bob, the majority will most definitely agree with Krusty: that it is not really living
in a world without television. The world without popular media is much harder to picture.

Folk and High Culture

Common culture is typically distinguished from traditional culture and from high culture. Folk culture is
similar to pop culture in several respects, because of the presence of mass participation. Nevertheless, folk
culture stands for the conventional way of doing things. As a result, transition is not as modifiable, and is
much more stagnant than popular culture.

Folk culture is a simpler lifestyle, which is typically traditional, predominantly self-sufficient, and mostly
reflective of rural life. Commonly, disruptive creativity is discouraged. Group participants are required to
comply with standard group styles of behaviour. Folk culture is focused locally, and non-commercially. In
short, folk culture promises continuity, while mainstream culture typically seeks something new or fresh.
Popular culture therefore also poses an interference and a threat to traditional culture. Folk culture, on the
other hand, seldom interfers with popular culture. Often certain elements of folk culture (e.g., Turkish rugs,
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Defining Popular Culture

Mexican blankets and Irish fairy tales) find their way into the pop culture world. Typically, as the popular
culture appropriates and markets objects of folk culture, the folk objects slowly lose their original shape.

Her openness to the public is a central feature of mainstream culture. It is people's history, after all. On the
other hand, high-culture is not produced by nature, nor is it intended for mass consumption. This belongs
to the social elite; the higher socioeconomic classes associate the performing arts, music, theatre, and high
intellectualism. High-culture objects also require significant expertise, preparation or contemplation to be
appreciated. These things rarely extend to the realm of pop culture. Consequently, as opposed to the
sophistication of high culture, popular culture is typically viewed (down) as shallow. (This does not mean
that the social classes are not interested in mainstream culture, or that leaders of the people are not active
in high culture.)

The Formation of Popular Culture

The masses have been influenced for much of human history by dogmatic forms of law and customs
determined by the local popular culture. Many of the inhabitants were scattered around small towns and
rural areas – circumstances that were not conducive to a 'normal' community. With the advent of the
Industrial revolution (late eighteenth century), the rural masses started to move to towns, leading to most
Western communities becoming urbanised.

Urbanisation is a central component of mainstream culture creation. In crowded cities marked by great
cultural diversity, people who once lived in homogeneous small villages or farms found themselves. As a
result of common, or mainstream, forms of speech, these diverse people will come to see themselves as
'collectivity.' And several historians trace the beginning of the emergence of mass culture to the rise of the
middle class brought on by the Industrial Revolution.

Industrialization has also introduced mass production; innovations in transport, such as steam
locomotives and steamships; advances in construction technology; expanded literacy; changes in
education and public health; and the advent of effective types of commercial printing, which is the first step
in the establishment of mass media (eg the penny press, magazines, and pamphlets). Both of these factors
helped the popular culture grow. At the beginning of the twentieth century, illustrated newspapers and
periodicals, as well as serialized novels and detective stories, were mass-produced by the print industry.
Newspapers have acted as the main source of knowledge for an growing informed public in social and
economic matters. The ideas articulated in print offered a point of departure for public dialogue on all kinds
of topics. Popular culture, fueled by more technological development, was profoundly influenced in the
20th century by the new forms of mass media. Films, radio, and television broadcasting have had a
tremendous impact on society.

And urbanization, industrialization, mass media and continuous technological development since the late
1700s have all been important factors in popular culture creation. Those are still factors which form the
pop culture today.
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Defining Popular Culture

Sources of Popular Culture

Sources of popular culture are various. A primary source, as mentioned above, is the mass media,
particularly popular music, film, television, radio, video games, books and the internet. Advances in
communication also allow for greater word-of-mouth transmission of ideas, especially through cell phones.
Most Television shows, such as American Idol and the Last Comic Standing, provide viewers with a
telephone number for a contestant to vote for. The fusion of sources of pop culture reflects a innovative
way of growing public attention, and further fuels mass consumer production.

Professional agencies which provide knowledge to the public often influence popular culture. Such outlets
include the news media, science and academic journals, and the opinion of 'experts' from people
considered to be authority in their profession. For instance, a news station reporting on a specific subject,
say the effects of playing violent video games, may seek out a noted psychologist or sociologist who has
published in this field. This technique is a useful way of influencing the public and can form their collective
opinions on a given subject. For instance, a news station reporting on a specific subject, say the effects of
playing violent video games, may seek out a noted psychologist or sociologist who has published in this
field. This technique is a useful way of influencing the public and can form their collective opinions on a
given subject.

Individualism is an appearingly contradictory cause in popular culture. Not only did urban society provide
a common ground for the masses, it promoted concepts of individualistic ambitions. In the United States, a
nation founded on the basis of individual rights, legally there are no limits on what an individual might
achieve. An person may choose to engage in anything that is 'normal' for the sake of popularity; or they
may choose a course of action off the beaten track. At times, their personality influences these 'pathfinders'
of popular culture. Of course, if someone adopts a particular theme, it ceases to be original. It is becoming,
famous.

Reference and Supplementary Material

Online Supplementary Reading Material