Pop Culture Exam 1

Popular culture

modern popular culture transmitted via the mass media and aimed particularly at younger people

Folk Culture

(Pop culture’s predecessor) Includes the routine conventions (art, rituals, traditions) of everyday life in rural, isolated areas

• with the rise of mass culture in social media, this creates popular and high culture by its traditional, localized nature

• folk culture is tied to originating landscape and location 

• found in small groups 

• stable through time but highly variable across space 

Mass Culture

the cultural common ground shared by a large population

• distinct from folk culture and emerged by prior cultural groupings defined by local neighborhood, or religious affiliation were displace by nationwide culture as the result of mass communication 

Mass culture and mass media

• Print

• Radio

• Film and tv

Theory (general)

tries to explain facts by application of universal laws

Critical Theory rejects objectivity

• Knowledge is inseparable from history and social processes

Critical theory

refers to a specific perspective in philosophy and social theory (sociology)

• Horkheimer explains: one’s understanding of an object is determined by both one’s understanding of the historical qualities of the object and one’s personal history

3 criteria for critical theories

1. Explanatory- explain what is wrong with current social reality

2. Practical- identify the actors to change it

3. Normative- provide clear guidelines for criticism and achievable practical goals for social transformation

High culture

the cultural objects and activities preferred by “high-status” people and with which they distinguish themselves from lower-status people

• Symphonic/orchestral music

• Visual arts

• Serious literature

• Stage plays

Formal ideas about these cultural divides span back to 16th, 17th, 18th centuries

Criteria that can determine if an artifact is high culture

• Complexity- art forms often require training to enjoy

• Originality or innovation - has an artist improved upon the work of their predecessors?

• Sustainability- art has stood the test of time or is considered to be “timeless”

• Morality- high culture art forms should strive away from common or base desire (sex and violence)

Why do people cling to the boundaries between high and low culture?

• Class signifier/status distinction

• Demonstrating moral superiority

• Preserving a national culture

Visual literacy

a group of vision-competencies that a human being can develop by seeing and having other sensory experience

• when developed, they enable a visually literate person to discriminate and interpret the visual

Karl Marx

German scholar who worked in philosophy, political theory, economics, and more

Critiques capitalism

• Capitalism is a form of economic organization that began and developed in a specific historical context

What is the central, defining aspect of humanity?

Labor

• Labor leads to class divisions through modes of production

Mode of Production

the way in which a society is organized (slave, feudal, capitalist) to produce the necessities of life– food, shelter, etc

• A society’s mode of production determines the political, social and cultural shape of that society and its possible future development

Antonio Gramsci

socialist activist, cultural commentator and communist party leader in Italy

• Gramscian theory centers on cultural hegemony

• Remembered most for The Prison Notebooks- 3,000 pages of history, philosophy and political strategy written over 11 years

Ideology

a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group, especially ones which inform policy or economic theory

• A system of ideas that aspires both to explain the world and to change it

Hegemony

power or dominance that one social group holds over others 

• Political power

• Economic power

• Cultural power

• Social power

Hegemony implies a willing agreement by people to be governed by principles, rules, and laws they believe operate in their best interests, even though in actual practice they may not

Nostalgia

a fond longing for the past that has been shown to increase feelings of meaning, social connectedness and self-continuity

• Personal

• Cultural

• Collective/social

Counter-hegemony

active opposition to a dominant power structure, its cultural norms, and ideologies, aiming to disrupt the consensus that upholds the status quo and to create alternative ways of thinkin and being

• Hegemony is fragile: it requires renewal and modification through the constant assertion and reassertion of power

Cultural Imperialism

imposition of a dominant culture’s values, beliefs and practices on another, often by a more powerful nation or group, leading to erosion of local cultural identities