Popular culture... What is it?

ME: "Dad, what would you consider to be popular culture?"

DAD: "I don't even know what popular culture is..." 😂

ME: "Perfect answer!"

Popular culture is the set of practices, beliefs, and objects that embody the most broadly shared meanings of a social system. It includes media objects, entertainment and leisure, fashion and trends, and linguistic conventions, among other things. - oxford bibliographies

In other words, popular culture is basically the main topic of conversation in todays society, also created by, well, todays society.

It isn't the culture you may think, religious, beliefs, traditions, etc...

This culture is a type where people's opinions, beliefs and thoughts are shared and combined. It is a culture created by society. An obvious starting point in any attempt to define popular culture is to say that popular culture is simply culture that is widely favoured or well liked by many people. - what is popular culture. For example, a generous amount of people all love listening to Coldplay, so we could track the attendance records between a Coldplay concert and a Bruno Mars concert. Coldplay's concert would have a much higher attendance rate than Bruno Mars so therefore it is more popular and has a wider spread. Popular culture.

A key theory that is sought to make popular culture what it is today is close proximity.

Close Proximity

This doesn't necessarily mean that we have physically become closer as humanity. Moreover, it is surrounded by the fact of social media. Social media has allowed the whole world to become closer, allowing popular culture to become a main factor of our lives.

We can find out what is going on in people's lives from Australia to almost every single country in the world. We can talk about popular culture such as music and share it to someone who is on the other side of the world in seconds.

Mindblown.

This video explains how close our global proximity has become over the years. Humanity is closer than it ever has been before, the video above also asks is this a good or bad thing? It is now so easy for a video to become viral in seconds, even if its a video of a cat. TikTok is one social media platform that has allowed consumers from around the globe to post videos on absolutely anything. TikToks most viral video was posted in 2021, Zach King, a magician using special effects and tricks to illuminate crazy practices. His video got 2.2 BILLION views and 19.5 million likes, for dressing up as Harry Potter and riding on a broom, which later showed to just be a mirror.

It's platforms like this that have allowed popular culture to become such an important factor in our lives that it is almost every conversation starter. Discussing fashion, trends, entertainment such as music or movies, etc. Almost everyday there is something new to talk about. However, popular culture wouldn't be existent if it wasn't for how close our proximity has gotten.

The world is getting smaller and smaller...

Is this a good thing?

I'll leave that for you to decide...

XOXO, Charli

Austin Kidd. (2017). Popular Culture. [Online]. Oxford Bibliographies. Last Updated: 8/2/2021. Available at: https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756384/obo-9780199756384-0193.xm l [Accessed 19 August 2022].

Storey, J.. (2015). Cultural Theory and Popular Culture. [PDF]. Unknown Publisher. Available at: https://moodle.uowplatform.edu.au/pluginfile.php/3600575/mod_resource/content/1/W2%20BCM111%20Storey%20-%20What%20is%20 P [Accessed 21 August 2022] .