Popular Culture Vs. High Culture

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Vazirnia 1 A Look into Popular Culture in Contrast to High Culture For quite some time now the world has been divided into a two way road, that often times, may determine ones social standing, or level of education. One of these two forms is called “Popular Culture” which is usually affiliated with icons in the music, or movie industry, and it can even be determined by what you eat or what you wear. On the other hand “High Culture” is affiliated with the visual art, opera, high end clothing, or pretty much what some might say the finer things in life. Although throughout history there has been a gap between low class and the higher, ultimately the 21st century has proved otherwise, as far as people from different social standings all mixed in between popular culture because of the influence the media has engraved in their brains. A perfect image to picture of the two different cultures is the 20th century sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”. There was Will Smith who was influenced by popular culture such as rap, basketball,and 90’s hip hop clothing. Of course there was his cousin Carlton who was inspired by the arts, and opera and everything that is considered classy. High culture is often known to watch the news channels, such as CNN or MSNBC, and even older movies like Casablanca. In other words media has a control over our minds and can sometimes be a major influence on how humans live their daily lives. Influenced by the culture’s mainstream, popular culture effects people of all different ages. Though some things may be much more expensive than necessary, popular culture influences people and buy the things necessary to fit into mass media. Those affected by these trends tend to shop in the high-end stores, such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Barney’s as opposed to Forever 21, H&M, and Gap. Some only shop at certain stores and pay more,

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