Popular American Culture Yuliana Diaz SOC/105 Dr. Cheryl Y. Avant Popular American Culture Currently, people cannot turn to the right without being influenced by technology, it can be said that the popular American culture in 2011 is mainly leaded by technological devices and their products. Oxford University Press defines culture as “the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group” (“culture,” 2011) there are many factors that affect the different cultures around the world such as trends, which are elements of popular culture. Popular Culture and Trends “Popular culture encompasses the most immediate and contemporary elements in our lives.” (Petracca & Sorapure, 2007, para 8) although it does not give a specific definition, it states that popular culture is contained by the everyday elements people use, for example the Internet, which has become a powerful tool for anything thinkable in peoples’ lives. Another powerful “element” is the telephone, it became more than a useful communication tool, (the main reason it was invented for), it is used as a productivity, organizational, and recreational tool in the American popular culture. Popular culture also can be a term that refers to what other cultures look up to, from a personal experience, people who grew up in another country always say how the American culture has the most influential trends around the world.
The popularity of television shows like American Idol, X Factor, and America Got talent revealed that Americans are infatuated with music icons. For example America is obsessed with Beyoncé, Lil Wayne, Michael Jackson, The Beatles and Britney Spears. What these artists have in common is that they are wealthy, famous, and have amazing talent. This is what it takes for American’s to become interested in music icons. If you ask a young child who they want to be when they grow up they will say these following names; Beyoncé, Lil Wayne, Michael Jackson, the Beatles and Britney Spears and not both senators Bachman and Obama.
While with television shows, you may not look up to or be influenced by the actor, you are influenced by the character in which they play on television. The way America visual media has shaped is because it is relatable and we are influenced by what we see. Entertainment media has many benefits and has brought many challenges as well. American culture has changed the way we interact with others. Throughout the many years of entertainment media, things have changed for the positive.
The dictionary basically states that pop culture is, “cultural activities or commercial products reflecting, suited to, or aimed at the tastes of the general masses of people.” (http://dictionary.reference.com). Popular culture is everywhere. You know it when you come to the Internet, listen to music, watch television or go to a movie, concert or stage show. You know the artists, the actors and actresses, sports personalities and the games they play. Today, anything with a buzz is deemed pop culture.
From an abstract panoramic point of view, the upper classification of high culture and the lower being folk culture, both are micro cultures in comparison to the colossus of pop culture. Although pop culture is considered a micro culture based upon the concept of individuality, in true life the perception does not correspond with what is real and due to sheer size, is a macro culture. To further illustrate, those that live in Holmby Hills just outside of Los Angeles are considered high culture and those of lower economic proportions such as Shakers and Mennonites, are part of the folk culture subdivision in which both oppositions are low in group size. However, pop culture takes bits and pieces from both minority cultures, along with its own compositions of ideas, myths and material objects, thus creating an inter-working society (more like an insanitarium) that is widely embraced. Pop culture is rather complex because all cultures have certain ideas and attitudes that are deemed popular within their own culture.
Some people may think that American pop culture lacks depth and wouldn’t be popular for long. They are also afraid that it may have a bad effect on the youth. We must admit that there are some pop cultural products that are superficial indeed and soon are forgotton. But we should not ignore that some are still popular from generation to generation. And they finally become classical.
Popular American culture can be defined differently from one person to the next; there is not a set standard definition of popular American culture. Popular American culture is spread through word of mouth, media, Internet, e-mail, and recently through social networking websites like twitter and Facebook. Three Major Trends in Popular American Culture Trends in popular American culture have a wide array to work with. Television, music, and technology have changed what society views as a trend. Our culture is changing constantly, adding new ideas, styles, and customs, but some things never change.
Also, if parents smoke or drink, their children are more likely to choose to smoke or drink because they would regard smoking or drinking as a normalcy and because they have seen it every day. Just as how parents influence us, celebrities can also influence our choices of lifestyle. Since celebrities are often in the public media, we are able to know a lot of information about them, positive or negative. The influence from parents and the influence from celebrities are both shown through people’s imitation of them. Human beings are talented in mimicking.
Viral ads, which are also known as guerrilla marketing more often nowadays, are the newest way to get media messages out to the public through the spread on the internet. Many of these are over the top and very innovative. Music is used widely here to make their messages memorable and to keep audience members entertained and intrigues as these messages are fairly longer than normal TV advertisement spots. “The goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to identify individuals with high Social Networking Potential (SNP) and create viral messages that appeal to this segment of the population and have a high probability of being passed along,” (http://fasttrack2business.com/). One popular viral ad that can be looked at for this discussion would be for the new Cherry Chocolate Dr. Pepper.
Every day when we wear or see something with a brand name or a logo boldly printed on it, we are subjected to pop culture. As McKinney puts it: Common Culture, a pop cultural reader, defines it as "the shared knowledge and practices of a specific group at a specific time […] pop culture both reflects and influences people's way of life […] pop culture is transitory, subject to change, and often an initiator of change" (4). Thus when I say "pop culture," I mean the culture of the masses, including popular music, television shows, commercials, brand names, advertisements, sports, the Internet, movies, fashion, etc. (McKinney). Common Culture, a pop cultural reader, defines it as "the shared