Chapter 8 Popular Culture Encompasses the immediate and contemporary activities of our lives Terms include common culture pop culture mass culture mass leisure Defined by its typicality What most people are doing now Driven by the media contains the primary fund of ideas that informs our daily lives Common topics of conversation o Sometimes exerting more influence than family friends school or work Delivers messages we internalize and act on later Common characteristics o Popular o Inclusionary What we engage in most often The way we use free time Allows large heterogeneous masses of people to identify collectively serves an inclusionary role in society provide opportunities for communal bonding o Commercial o Trendy Doesn t last long o Specific to age groups Largely determined by interests of young people Our best selling music movies foods etc are largely determined by Popular Music young groups o Mark of the adolescent student pre established adult o Buying and listening to music is a leisure activity o Nature of music listening has changed over the years o Dancing trends The bump twist twerking dougie o Most changeable form of popular culture o Pluralistic not just one form o Barometer of cultural character Motion pictures o Significant impact on society s views and attitudes o Reflect norms and problems o Superstars of our society are typically movie stars or sports figures o Movie stars endorse political candidates and causes o Long term picture is one of slight decline Down 10 since 2002 o Average moviegoer attends a film in the theater less than once per month o Moviegoers tend to be educated young female urban and affluent o Trends Restaurants and bars IMAX Larger screens Love seats Theme Parks Middle ages Needed a new concept theme parks Criticisms of Disney Following the Great Depression huge drop in amusement parks o Overstep their entertaining role o Highlight the moral and economic superiority of the American way of life o Distort history and present American society as free of conflict o Controlling The language How the visitor is handled called guests Physical appearance Popular Culture and Entertainment We crave entertainment to have someone or something amuse us this comes primarily through media Good and Bad o Addicted to fluff expect life to be in small disconnected and amusing chunks o Makes us smarter need to remember lots of information fill in gaps and make learned guesses to understand what is going on good storytelling likable characters positive role models o We need to be more critical selective in how we allow ourselves to be manipulated by the media