Popular culture

Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art or mass art)[1][2] and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a society at a given point in time. Popular culture also encompasses the activities and feelings produced as a result of interaction with these dominant objects. The primary driving forces behind popular culture, especially when speaking of Western popular cultures, are the media, mass appeal, marketing and capitalism; and it is produced by what philosopher Theodor Adorno refers to as the "culture industry".[3]

Heavily influenced in modern times by mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday lives of people in a given society. Therefore, popular culture has a way of influencing an individual's attitudes towards certain topics.[4] However, there are various ways to define pop culture.[5] Because of this, popular culture is something that can be defined in a variety of conflicting ways by different people across different contexts.[6] It is generally viewed in contrast to other forms of culture such as folk culture, working-class culture, or high culture, and also from different academic perspectives such as psychoanalysis, structuralism, postmodernism, and more. The common pop-culture categories are entertainment (such as film, music, television, literature and video games), sports, news (as in people/places in the news), politics, fashion, technology, and slang.[7]

  1. ^ "popular art". Britannica. Archived from the original on 2022-12-10. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
  2. ^ Tavinor, Grant (2011). "Video Games as Mass Art". Contemporary Aesthetics. 9. hdl:2027/spo.7523862.0009.009. ISSN 1932-8478. Archived from the original on 2023-06-30. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
  3. ^ Lane Crothers (2021). Globalization and American Popular Culture. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 48. ISBN 978-1538142691. Archived from the original on 2023-06-30. Retrieved 2021-10-02.
  4. ^ McGaha, Julie. "Popular Culture & Globalization". Multicultural Education 23.1 (2015): 32–37. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 5 Aug. 2016.
  5. ^ Strinati, D. (2004). An introduction to theories of popular culture. Routledge.
  6. ^ Storey, J. (2018). Cultural theory and popular culture: An introduction. Routledge.
  7. ^ West, Gary. "What Is Pop Culture?". Mr. Pop Culture. Archived from the original on 2016-08-29. Retrieved 2015-03-17.