Popular Culture

AP Human Geography

Popular Culture:Popular Culture:A wide-ranging group of heterogeneous people, who stretch across identities and across the world, and who embrace cultural traits such as music, dance, clothing, and food preference that change frequently and are part of the cultural landscape.

Madonna wearing a red string Kabbalah bracelet.

How is Pop Culture Determined?

By everyday interactions, needs and desires, the “cultural moments” that make up our daily lives

Forms of Pop Culture

Television Music Fashion Food Sports

Toys Comic books Film Advertising Cyberspace

Characteristics of popular culture

Constantly changing Based in large, heterogeneous groups of

people Based mainly in urban areas Material goods mass-produced by machines

in factories Prevailing money economy

Characteristics of popular culture

More numerous individual relationships, but less personal

Weaker family structure Distinct division of labor with highly

specialized professions and jobs Considerable leisure time available to most

people Police, army, and courts take the place of

family and church in maintaining order

Popular culture

If a single hallmark of popular culture exists, it is change Words such as growth, progress, fad, and

trend crop up frequently in newspapers and conversations

Vast majority of people in developed countries belong to the popular culture

Popular culture

If a single hallmark of popular culture exists, it is change Contributions to the spread of popular culture

Industrialization Urbanization Rise of formal education Increase in leisure time Increase in technology

Cyberspace

Perhaps the personal computer and Internet access have created another new type of place

Certain words we use imply it has a geography—”Cyberspace”

The information superhighway connects not two points, but all points, creating a new sort of place

Encourages and speeds cultural diffusion

Internet Connections

Food and drink

What we eat and drink differs markedly from one part of the country and world to another

Difference in alcoholic drink consumption in the United States Beer has highest per capita consumption levels in the

West Least beer is sold in the Lower South and Utah Whiskey, both legal and illegal, has been a traditional

southern beverage Californians place more importance on wine

Food and drink

Foods vary across North America In the South, barbecued pork and beef, fried

chicken, and hamburgers have greater than average popularity

More pizza is consumed in the North Focus of Italian immigration Pizza diffused to the southern states only in the

mid-1950s

Food and drink

Importance of fast food restaurants varies greatly within the United States Stronghold is in the South — 57 percent in

Mississippi Northeast has lowest rate of such eateries —

27 percent in New York and Vermont

Popular music

The many different styles of popular music all reveal geographic patterning in levels of acceptance

Elvis Presley, a generation after his death retains an important place in American popular culture

Sports

Abundant leisure time has allowed North Americans to devote time watching or participating in sports

Few aspects of popular culture are as widely publicized as our games

From Little League through professional contests, athletics receive almost daily attention from members of popular culture

Even fantasy sports now are increasingly important in pop culture

Sports

The nineteenth century gave us football, ice hockey, baseball, soccer, and basket ball—our major spectator sports

Our folk ancestors played games, but most were limited to children and little time was spent on them

Concept of professional athletes and admission-paying spectators is not found in folk culture

Advertising

Most effective device for popular culture diffusion

Commercial advertising of retail products bombards us visually and orally

Using psychology, we are sold products we do not need

Advertising

Modern advertising is very place-conscious Products and services are linked to popular,

admired places Example of the “Marlboro Man” and the

romanticized American West

Communication barriers to diffusion Spread can be greatly reduced if access to the media is denied To control programming of radio and television is to control

much of the diffusion of popular culture Government censorship can also provide barriers to diffusion

Islamic fundamentalist regime in Iran during 1995 Long opposed Western popular culture as a corrupting

influence Outlawed television satellite dishes to try and prevent citizens

from watching programs broadcast in foreign countries

Consumerism and the link to Pop Culture Consumerism propels the insatiable belief

that we need what we do not have A fundamental frame of reference for relating

to oneself, to others, to the environment as a whole

Consumerism and the link to Pop Culture

Ideas propelled by the culture industry: Last season’s fashions are so last season Shopping completes us

Average adult – 48 new pieces of clothing a year, child – 70 new toys

We can all live like celebrities We evaluate our consumption in reference to groups that

live financially beyond our own means (rather than our neighbors)

Average household credit card debt is $15,799

Beauty and the link to Pop Culture

Our self-worth is determined by our looks and cultural norms of sexual attractiveness Airbrushed images of perfected

bodies normalize an unattainable expectation of beauty.

Brands and the link to Pop Culture

Brands matter

McDonald’s coffee beats Starbuck in unbiased Consumer Reports taste tests.

Ramones t-shirts have outsold their cds and records 10 to 1

People just want to be cool

Folk Culture

Refers to cultural traits that are traditional, no longer widely practiced by a large amount of people and generally isolated in small, often rural areas

“TV and the Cloning of Culture” Close Reading Activity You will have the next 12 minutes to close

read and annotate this text.

“TV and the Cloning of Culture” Close Reading Activity In Elbow Partners, answer the following questions in your notebooks: •1. In what ways did the arrival of the television hurt the culture of the Inuit? •2. Why did the Canadian government want the Inuit to be exposed to television? •3. How did men and women appear to be affected differently by the arrival of television and other aspects of “modernization”? •4. What does Jerry Mander think should be done about the destruction of indigenous culture? •5. What do you think should be done? •6. Mander attributes the decline of traditional culture to the arrival of television. What other factors could it be? •7. Mander discusses the values that people learn from tv. Think about the last time you watched tv (with commercials) and write down what it is that people on TV appear to value.