Pop Culture can be interpreted in many different ways. To some people, it just means the entertainment industry that focuses on movies and music, but there are many other definitions. One standard definition of pop culture is the artifacts that transmit the traditional folkways and values of a society. It includes books, cartoons, music videos, posters, T-shirts, etcetera. Other expressions make up pop cultures, such as religion and community customs, that don’t necessarily involve media products.
What are The Characteristics of Popular Culture?
1. Culture is shared.
The masses create popular culture. A small group of high-brow intellectuals does not create it. All culture is created by humanity. Culture can be defined in two different ways: art and literature, pop culture, and mass culture.
2. Pop culture is mass-produced and mass-consumed.
Popular culture cannot be separated from the masses of people. People don’t buy books anymore, they borrow them from their libraries or download them into their hard drives, but they still consume popular cultural content; music, magazines, DVDs, etcetera.
3. Pop culture is dynamic.
Famous culture changes every year, and new trends and fads come along. Pop culture is constantly evolving. Like other cultural products such as books or paintings, it is not fixed in time. Mass culture changes continuously through innovations, imitators, or fad trends, and different people may enjoy the same popular cultural content at different times.
4. Pop Culture reflects the dominant values of a specific time and place with a historical continuity extending over centuries.
Today’s pop culture is the same as the pop culture of the past. It has changed over the years, but one can trace it back to its roots.
Why is Pop Culture Important?
Popular culture helps define and interpret culture. It reflects the famous views and attitudes of a specific place and time. It gives an insight into the values and ideology of a community, tells stories, gives life to characters, provides humor, and reflects social attitudes towards everything from politics to religion or sex. Pop culture helps us understand other cultures.
How Does Media Influence Pop Culture?
The mass media is integral to the study of popular culture because it is a vital part of pop culture. Media has a significant influence on the development of popular culture and vice versa. For example, media provides a platform for creating pop cultures, such as books or newspapers, and helps promote and re-construct reality by specific means.
Popular culture is a way to find out about other cultures. It helps us understand the social developments of society, including the people’s values and attitudes toward specific issues. We can learn about things from different cultures by studying their pop culture.
