terms

pop culture

broadly – widely shared beliefs,  

• Subcultures 

• Trendy, fashionable 

• Paradox 

  • Invest time, money but consider superficial 

cultural phenomena

When something or someone gain widespread popularity  

• Song, logo (easily recognizable) , script/quotes (very "quoteable"), character design (slimer, stay puft), costuming (uniform -> halloween costume)/set design/props, language ("buster" suffix)

codes

A rule-governed system of signs, whose rules and conventions are shared by members of a culture, and which is used to generate and circulate meanings in and for that culture 

signs

nostalgia

technical codes

How messages are packaged in relation to the affordances of a communicative medium 

conventional representational codes

Familiar conventions of narrative shaped by elements such as character, narrative, dialogue, action, and setting 

ideological codes

A rule-governed system of signs, whose rules and conventions are shaped by members of a culture, and which is used to generate and circulate beliefs and principals for that culture

capitalism

An economic system in which private actors own and control property in accord with their interests, and demand and supply freely set prices in markets n a way that can serve the best interests of society 

nostalgia

nostalgia bait

intertextuality

"relationship between texts"  

• Acknowledges how the connection between texts can inform readings and interpretations 

context

allusion

quotation

textual afterlives

What happens to a text after its initial print (/publication), once it becomes part of the popular consciousness/imagination? 

high culture

Elite culture: the material practices of the upper classes within a given culture 

• Need to have money, leisure time, education 

• Wine, opera, art house film, ballet, country club 

low culture

Mass culture: a dismissive way to refer to the material practices of the lower classes 

• Beer, mass released movies, hip-hop/rap, fast food, horror media 

• Criticized by elite culture for not reaching a certain quality and taste 

pulp

Comes from cheap wood paper

• Pulp magazines produced 1890s-1950s 

  • Cheap 

  • "trash stories" 

  • Not fit to be called literature 

• pulp fiction – cheaply produced, "lower quality" "low fiction" paperbacks, mass-market 

• Pulp-horror (subsect) 

  • Horror fiction genre – rebranded as "thrilling" 

  • Gothic romance saved the genre 

focalization

satanic panic

"moral panic" 

[baseless] Conspiracy theories about cults committing mass child abuse 

cultural (mass) hysteria

a phenomenon that transmits collective illusions of threat, whether real of imaginary, through a population and society as a result of rumors and fear 

gender expectations/roles

gender roles in society means how we're expected to act, speak, dress, groom, and conduct ourselves based upon our assigned sex

stereotypes

[female] bildungsroman

A type of novel that follow the development of the protagonist from childhood or adolescence into adulthood, through a troubled quest for identity 

empowerment

repression/expression

fads

Intense and widely shared love for something, short lived, not based in object quality, a craze 

mall culture

The social gatherings and activities that take place in the mall, usually focusing on adolescents or teens 

dead mall

the third place

A community hub, the place that is not home, and not work, but the third place 

fitness culture

iconic

Denote something __ era, place, fad 

aesthetics

the study of beauty and taste in art (formal study of art) 

As a set of principles used in a particular artistic movement 

The particular style of appearance that something or someone has 

music video

A short film that integrates a song with imagery and is produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings

performance MV

the band performs; it’s a recording of them playing on their instruments 

• Dancing, lip-syncing 

narrative MV

a music video where the artist(s) are trying to tell some sort of story 

• Not lip-syncing or musical performance usually 

• Illustration 

  • Video direct interpretation of lyrics 

• Amplification 

  • Might be more thematic than lyrics or meaning 

• Disjuncture 

  • Narrative becomes detached from the lyrics, director gives it new meaning 

concept MV

video without a storyline and typically have no relevance to the lyrics to themselves 

• Usually the artist's "vision" 

• Nonlinear storytelling 

lyric MV

just the lyrics on the screen 

animated MV

everything from 2D animation to stop motion or CGI

queer theory

An approach to literary and cultural studies that emphasizes the social construction and maintenance of ideas of normalcy and deviancy, especially in relation to gender and sexuality

queering

To look at something in which a way that it becomes strange; often this involves questioning the foundations on which a belief or idea rests or reading a text or practice "against the grain" 

gender performance/performativity

The argument that being born male or female does not determine behavior. Gender is a learned performance, behaviors designed to allow the individual to fit into society 

heteronormative/heteronormativity

magic realism

The inclusion of fantastic or magical or mythical elements into a seemingly realistic fiction 

metaphor

symbolism

metatextuality

staging

roles

queer futurity

Ability to image a future from a queer perspective 

• Attn to illness, violence 

mainstream

Culture representing the ideas, attitudes, or activities that are regarded as "normal" or "conventional"; the dominant trend in opinion, fashion, or the arts 

subculture

A group that differentiates itself within the broader culture by having a set of beliefs and/or practices that are to some extent at variance with prevailing norms or beliefs 

drag

Practice of dressing as the opposite gender and adopting their mannerism's

camp

Artifice, stylization, theatricalization, irony, playfulness, and exaggeration rather than content 

Afrocentrism

• Presents history from the perspective of Africans 

• Reclaims the cultural identity of people of color who were impacted by western colonialism 

postcolonialism

breaking

Styles of improv reflect a long history of black art (dance) 

hip hop

A cultural and artistic movement 

graffiti

Text to illustrations; second colors, bubble outlines, and block lettering 

cultural appropriation

DJ

the person who actually mixes the music

MC

the person who speaks (master of ceremony)

conscious rap/political hiphop

A subgenre turning hip hop into political activism and protest 

motion/action lines

word/thought balloons

Ben-Day dots

flow

the rhythm and rhymes and how they interact 

• Ability to adjust: 

  • rhythm, speed, pitch of voice, etc. 

• Which are based on: 

  • Fluidity, clarity, intricacy, rhythmic 

rap poetry

free verse poetry

Does not have a consistent rhythm or pattern 

rhymed poetry

Where the rapper spontaneously comes up with verses 

narrative poetry

contains a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end

meter

the number of syllables and patterns of emphasis on those syllables  

feet

rhyme scheme

the pattern of sounds that repeats at the end of a line or stanza 

shoot

When a wrestler or personality deliberately goes off-script 

work

Scripted; anything that has already been planned to happen 

kayfabe

Production of maintaining the spectacle 

• Saying anything that reveals wrestling is pre-scripted  

promo

Promotional spots, or "promos" are in-character interview or monologed 

(baby)face

A wrestler who is heroic, who is booked to be cheered by fans 

heel

A wrestler who is villainous, who is booked to be booed by fans 

gimmick

The character portrayed by a wrestler

rock ‘n’ wrestling connection

long term stroytelling

angle

to bury

(to go) over

toyesis

Saturday morning cartoons

panels

word/thought bubbles

gutter

world-building

the Cold War

nuclear war

doomsday clock

geopolitics

nihilism