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Popular culture, sometimes abbreviated to '''pop culture''', consists of widespread Cultural elements in any given Society . Such elements are perpetuated through that society's Vernacular language or an established '' Lingua Franca ''. It comprises the daily interactions, needs and desires and cultural 'moments' that make up the Everyday Lives of the Mainstream . It can include any number of practices, including those pertaining to Cooking , Clothing , Consumption , Mass Media and the many facets of Entertainment such as Sports and Literature . (Compare Meme .) Popular culture often contrasts with a more exclusive, even Elitist " High Culture ,"1, that is, the culture of Ruling Social Group s.Bakhtin 1981, p.4 Pop culture finds its expression in the mass circulation of items from areas such as Fashion , Music , sport and Film . The world of pop culture has had a particular influence on Art from the early 1960s on, through Pop Art . According to popeducation.org, when modern pop culture began during the early 1950's, it was harder for adults to participate. Today, most adults, their kids and grandchildren "participate" in pop culture directly or indirectly. CONTESTED DEFINITIONS OF POPULAR CULTURE The meaning of popular and the meaning of Culture are Essentially Contested Concepts so it is not surprising that there is more than one definition of popular culture and that any definition is problematic. John Storey , in "Cultural Theory and Popular Culture", discusses six definitions: 1. The obvious, Quantitative definition, of culture that is widely favoured. This has the problem that much "high" culture (e.g. television dramatisations of Jane Austen) is widely favoured. 2. The culture that is "left over" when we have decided what " High Culture " is. However, many works straddle or cross the boundaries e.g. William Shakespeare , Charles Dickens , Puccini - Verdi - Pavarotti - Nessun Dorma . Storey draws our attention to the forces and relations which sustain this difference such as the educational system. 3. Mass Culture. This is seen as a commercial culture, mass produced for mass consumption. From a U.K. (and European) point of view, this may be equated to American culture. 4. An "authentic" culture of the "people". However the 'scare quotes' surrounding authentic and the people draw attention to the problems in defining and identifying what authenticity is and who the people are. 5. Definitions 1 to 5 above may have hinted at a political dimension to popular culture. Storey's fourth definition makes this explicit. He spells out that ''neo-Gramscian hegemony theory'' sees popular culture as a site of struggle between the 'resistance' of subordinate groups in society and the forces of 'incorporation' operating in the interests of dominant groups in society. 6. A postmodernism approach to popular culture would "no longer recognise the distinction between high and popular culture' Storey emphasises that popular culture emerges from the urbanisation of the industrial revolution, which identifies the term with the usual definitions of 'mass culture'. Studies of Shakespeare (by Weimann, Barber or Bristol, for example) locate much of the characteristic vitality of his drama in it's participation in Renaissance popular culture, while contemporary practitioners like Dario Fo and John McGrath use popular culture in its Gramscian sense that includes ancient folk traditions (the Commedia Dell'arte for example). POPULAR CULTURE IN THE 20TH AND EARLY 21ST CENTURIES Popular culture changes constantly and occurs uniquely in place and Time . It forms currents and eddies, and represents a complex of mutually-interdependent perspectives and values that influence society and its institutions in various ways. For example, certain currents of pop culture may originate from, (or diverge into) a Subculture , representing perspectives with which the Mainstream popular culture has only limited familiarity. Items of popular culture most typically appeal to a broad spectrum of the Public . Institutional promulgation The News Media mines the work of Scientist s and Scholar s and conveys it to the General Public , often emphasizing " Factoid s" that have inherent appeal or the power to amaze. For instance, Giant Panda s (a species in remote Chinese woodlands) have become well-known items of popular culture; Parasitic Worms , though of greater practical importance, have not. Both scholarly facts and news stories get modified through popular transmission, often to the point of outright falsehoods. Folklore Folklore provides a second and very different source of popular culture.On the Ambiguity of the Three Wise Monkeys A. W. Smith Folklore, Vol. 104, No. 1/2 (1993), pp. 144-150 In pre-industrial times, Mass Culture equaled Folk Culture . This earlier layer of culture still persists today, sometimes in the form of Joke s or Slang , which spread through the population by Word Of Mouth and via the Internet . By providing a new channel for transmission, cyberspace has renewed the strength of this element of popular culture. Although the folkloric element of popular culture engages heavily with the ") spread by Word-of-mouth , and become modified in the process in the same manner that folklore evolves. SELF-REFERENTIALITY Owing to the pervasive and increasingly interconnected nature of popular culture, especially its intermingling of complementary distribution sources, some cultural anthropologists have identified the use of "popular culture within popular culture" as a distinct phenomenon. Literary and cultural critics have identified this as following the well-recognized but variegated concept of Intertextuality . Examples from American television According to some critics, self-referentiality in mainstream American television, especially comedy, both reflects and exemplifies the type of progression characterized previously. Extreme examples literally approach a kind of thematic Infinite Regress wherein the distinctions between art and life, commerce and critique, ridicule and homage become intractably blurred.(Dumain) Examples include:
ALTERNATIVE USAGE The phrase '''Pop' culture'' may also refer semi-humorously or euphemistically to Physical Punishment . ''Pop'' can express Onomatopoeically a Swat or lick given with an implement, as in the title of this newspaper article on CorPun . SEE ALSO
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