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I: PC DEFINED: STOREY II: HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF PC AND CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS (Cawelti) I: DEFINING PC: THREE TERMS: -CULTURE 1) Way of life 2) Texts and practices whose principle function is to signify, to produce meaning 3) Norms
and Values -IDEOLOGY: Crucial concept in the study of popular culture -Introduces a political dimension to concept of culture -Concept Suggests that the study of popular culture is something more than a simple discussion of entertainment and leisure—political S6 -Five competing Meanings: 1) Systematic body of ideas articulated by a particular group of people 2) A certain masking, distortion, concealment -Cultural texts and
practices present distorted images of reality 3) Refers to ideological forms: all
texts implicated, political -Intends to draw attention to
the way in which texts always present a particular image of the world -POPULAR CULTURE: -Culture that is widely favored or
well liked by many people S7 -Culture that is left over after we
decide what is “high” culture -Mass culture (draws from previous
definition) -Culture that originates from “the
people”
-Definition that draws on concept of Hegemony
-PC as a site of struggle between the forces of ‘resistance’ of subordinate -Not imposed culture of mass
culture theorists nor the culture of the people, it is a -Texts and practices move within a ‘compromise equilibrium’ -CULTURAL STRUGGLE IS THE KEY IDEA -Postmodern culture: No longer
recognizes the distinction between high II: HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF PC AND CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS (Cawelti) -1850-1900: POPULAR CULTURE, ASSIMILATION, EXCLUSION: -CULTURAL MOVEMENT: -Assimilation: to industrialism/consumption, to White American -Exclusion **-ROLE OF PC: -Popular culture increasingly played a part in the process of assimilation -The assertion of WASP dominance or cultural hegemony -Taught hegemonic values; demonstrated shortcomings of alternative traditions -Through PC, Being
American, people learned, was to turn from traditional -THE JAZZ AGE: early 1900s (1920s): New PC, Brows, and Study of PC, Access -Growth of “mass” audience and
new media like sound recording, movies, ***ROLE OF PC –SYNTHESIZING, EXCLUSION
BUT: NEGOTIATION/TRANSFORMATION OF TRADITION & CULTURE— -BROADENED INCLUSION -SOME CULTURAL PLURALISM -1900+: YOUTH[HUGE CULTURAL SHIFT] -Discovery of youth and adolescence: PROTRACTED PHASE -Secondary public education -Child labor laws -Rising affluence of middle class -Young people socialized that they would live in different way than parents -Exemplify progress and patterns of cultural development -SEE PATTERNS CONTINUE TODAY -Media began to change its offerings—Pander to youth culture -Phenomenon of General Revolt -Generation of the 20s -Rebellion against the past; quest for liberation, experimentation with new behaviors; immersion in PC àSet up TENSION/DEPENDENCY relationship -BETWEEN WARS: -Confluence, synthesis, transformation -New modes of Production organization: Media corporations and consolidation -Hollywood studios -Radio-television networks -Publishing syndicates -CONTENT: -Became more responsive to interests of diverse audience -MARKETING strategy -Not one of broadening hegemony -1) Generic traditions tailored to variety of interests -2) New Genres with special appeal—e.g. women, young -DIALECTIC: -In synthesizing imagery, representation, cultural formation: -Synthesis with INCLUSION or with EXCLUSION -NEW IMAGES OF MULTICULTURAL UNITY (Post-WWII) -UNIFIED CONSTELLATION INCLUDING MINORITIES -VS. PREVIOUS IMAGES OF
ANGLO-AMERICAN HEGEMONY (Pre- -YOUTH CONTINUED: Post-WWII: -*PC as synthesizer and transformer of American culture -POPULAR CULTURE MOVEMENT
DEVELOPED: LATE 1960s -BUT, PC (and culture in general) began another shift 60s-70s: CULTURAL MOVEMENT: -SEPARATISM: MULTICULTURALISM, PLURALISM, BILINGUALISM: -Separatist cultural movements -PC Followed pattern 90s +: CULTURAL MOVEMENT: -UNIFICATION (recognize equal validity of diverse cultural forms/expressions/practices) & OVERLAPPING (various combinations, movements between, conscious choice): Latest cultural development: -Ethnic Postmodernism -Diversity of production and distribution -BUT Media consolidations QQQ: Are they likely to foster increasing diversity (as he claims) as they are homogenization? -Critique of Cawelti -Diversity in forms—target specific audiences, identities -Conformity: -Capitalism profits -Consumption -Hegemony: Gender, racial strat; ideology; labor org., etc.
POP CULTURE ANALYSIS: -Description↔Analysis↔Theory -Context (Socio-cultural and historical analysis) -Economic context (H): -Political Economy (K) -Production/consumption, political economic analysis -PC reflects, reinforces
values/ideology of dominant--resistance- -Broad context of History of PC -Context and
history of other social patterns/systems of meaning -Content/Text (Textual): -Close textual readings -Content Approaches: See meaning inherent in text -General approaches: Semiotics, Psychoanalytic, mythological, other -Critical approaches: -See dominant Culture’s ideology stitched into texts -See subversion stitched into text -OR See texts as OPEN-àTurn to audience -Ideological textual
analysis (K): -History and Identity of Item -Relationship to particular
social patterns/meaning systems/ideologies: -Audience -Get to consumers
construction of meanings and pleasures (H); -Ethnographic research (Radway) -Process of Creating identities and meanings, community -Can base on close textual read, or actual audience data—Practice -Recombinant (H) -Process of recoding or recreating CONTEXT—creating folk culture (H) -Entertainment:
(Vs. Political elements) (Mahon) -Resistance and Cultural Challenges: In Message, Meanings and Practice -Representations and uses,
demographics (producers, players, consumers), -Dependency Relationship (see Cullin) -Still can contain
Subversive component -Transformative alternatives -Look for structural or personal subversion -Outright oppositional forms: Tend to not be as commercialized -Polysemic Nature of texts: -Dialectical process of World Construction: PC always implicated -Reflection: as mirror reflecting society -Construction: as forms constituting society CRITICAL APPROACH: Perspectives: Apply to Context, Content & Audience -Dominance/Resistance -Active production—cultural made by the people (Culturalism) -Marxism & Hegemony -Psychoanalysis -Gender/Race -Reality considerations (post-modernism)
RATIONALIZATION AND DISENCHANTMENT (WEBER) -IRON CAGE OF RATIONALITY: BUREAUCRACY -MCDONALDIZATION -Efficiency -Calculability—Quantitative, standardized -Predictability—Rules and Regulations -Control through non-human technology
SUPER BOWL READINGS: -CONTEXT OF POPULAR CULTURE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION: ANALYSIS -SPECTACLE: A USEFUL DESCRIPTIVE CONCEPT (RITZER) FRAMEWORK: HEGEMONY AND THE CORPORATE ORDER: CONSUMPTION -CULTIVATING CONSUMPTION THROUGH ILLUSION OF ENCHANTMENT -STORYTELLING ONE MEANS OF ENCHANTMENT -BUT NARRATIVE ALWAYS HAS A FORM AND MESSAGE -CORPORATE ORDER CULTURAL PATTERN: NEW MEANS OF CONSUMPTION -RATIONALIZATION & DISENCHANTMENT -HOW CONSUMPTION IS FORMED, MANIPULATED TODAY -NATURE OF CONSUMPTION ALTERED -CATHEDRALS OF CONSUMPTION -SPECTACLE: KEY—Dramatic public display -EXTRAVAGANZAS—Put on a show—Niketown, Casinos, theme restaurants -SIMULATIONS -HIGHLY RATIONALIZED, ENCHANTMENT (MYTH-STORY-THEME) SPECIFIC SPECTACLE: SUPER BOWL (MULLEN) BALANCE: PLEASURE (WHANNEL) Power Vs. Pleasure -Utopian Sensibility::
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