(A difference in culture by Franco Folini. Shared Under CC BY-SA 2.0. Web Source: Flickr)
The ideology of pop culture was proclaimed by its significance of categorizing movements or shifts in society's way of living that is believed to be non-traditional or unique. When I think of pop culture I think of the rap music, skinny jeans, or Justin Bieber fever, just to name a few. These ideologies signified society's change in beliefs and followings related to previously known ideas. This statement was summed up nicely by the readings discussion related to the effects of pop culture. It stated that "pop culture has been the primary driving force behind social evolution," and it will continue to dominant our ideology in the future (Danesi, 2012, pg. 2). Furthermore, pop culture has changed the way we perceive and discuss art, entertainment, fashion, friend groups, etc. Additionally, these changes in perception and discussion of ways of life occur rapidly and has forced historians to classify eras based on the effects it has marked on society. For example, historians don't necessarily say the era of 1960's, or the era of the 1980's, etc. Rather they would state the hippie era, or the hip-hop era, etc. To me, this is great as it helps people foster an image or realization of what the people from that time period acted or believed in. However, there are things to be careful about when discussing eras, as not all people from those eras acted or believed in the activities that others were going on. For example, in the hippie era there was a lot of drugs and rebel like activity going on during that time; however, not everyone acted in that fashion.
Furthering away from the past and staying more current, the world-wide web has had the biggest effect on our way of life and ever changing thought of pop culture. The world-wide web has allowed for quicker changes to ideologies of pop culture due to instant videos streaming off of Instagram, YouTube, Snap Chat, etc. The reason for this is the greater ability for information to be streamed to thousands and millions of people in a blink of second. This change will create for a never ending cycle of the changes of pop culture. However, one thing we do know is that history does repeat ourselves. Even if it is not the biggest fad, one day it will be.
References:
Danesi, M. (2012). Popular culture: Introductory perspectives. Link:
Pop Culture
Hi Ryan,
ReplyDeleteI like how you summarized pop-culture. You did a great job at puling out the main points and the important quotes. My favorite quote that helps me to understand pop-culture is the one you mentioned, "pop culture has been the primary driving force behind social evolution". You then went on to acknowledge how the internet is not impacting pop-culture in a brand new way and I think this is a very important point to make. The internet has likely changed how quickly popular culture can evolve because of our ability to share new trends with hundreds of people at record speed. Great post!