POPULAR CULTURE

Popular Culture

Popular Culture

Introduction

For the survival of humans culture has played a vital role, yet it is a phenomenon that is fragile in nature. Culture is something that is in a state of continuous changes and can easily be forgotten as it only exists in our thoughts. Everything that surrounds us comes from the culture that is prevailing in; the society like buildings, governments and various other things are nothing but a product of culture, however, they are not the culture but just a product of it.

The totality of ideas, attitudes, memes, perspectives, images and other phenomena to favor an informal consensus within the mainstream of given culture especially the early mid 20th century Western culture and the emerging global mainstream of the early 21st and late 20th century is commonly known as Popular culture. The routine, day to day life of society is infusing by the ideas that are greatly influence by the media. Popular culture is commonly considered to be less important and frequently is dumped in concern of finding the consensual agreement globally. As an outcome; of it, popular culture concept is greatly criticized by the religious and countercultural groups which take it as sensationalist, superficial, corrupted and consumerist.

In the 19th century, the term "popular culture" was coined which refer to the general and educational "culturedness", specifically of the lower segment. The expression turn out to be the explanation of the culture of the lower segment separated from the education by the end of the century. Every meaning was created in relation with the social systems, which are dominated by a particular sect of people who are relatively more resourceful than the others.

Discussion

Though all the ideologies are in state of fluctuation and sexism and racism are both in the phase of decline, this group was dominated by the capitalists, white and patriarchal. The Corporate capitalism has risen in influence and is the dominant force in today's ideology of our community.

John Fiske on Popular Culture (Rutledge notes)

Making a culture is a social process. It is the continuous method of developing, creating and sharing definitions from our experiences socially; we continuously produce and create ideas, things, etc. This all results in the emergence of our social distinctiveness. According to Fiske, popular culture is a creation of different groups in a social setting who are secondary or do not carry much power in the social system. Popular cultures stem from the societal groups that are not powerful / privileged (Fiske, 1989, pp. 254-289).

The dominant or the mainstream culture reflects the definitions and the level of interest of the groups that have the highest authority in society. The Elite classes have the means to ensure that the values and ideologies they believe in are the basis of the entire community. The conventional beliefs and values of the society can be a link to the elites and are reflected in the Mass culture. It is essentially connected to the elites in the context of their power and influence and their ...