Critically define ;popular culture'
Contrast ideas of 'culture' with 'popular culture' and 'mass culture'
introduce cultural studies and critical theory
discuss culture as ideology
interrogate the social function of popular culture
WHAT IS CULTURE
- 'one of the two or three most complicated words in the english language'
- a general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development of a particular society, at a particular time
- a particular way of life
- works of intellectual and especially artistic significance.
INSERT MARX'S CONCEPT SLIDE
Culture can be the sight of political conflict
4 definitions of 'popular' (Raymond Williams 1983)
- well liked by many people
- inferior kinds of work
-work deliberately setting out to win favour with the people - anything that aims to be populist, and aims to be understood by everyone. Suggests that work that is for the people is somehow flawed in certain ways. Very elitist statement.
- culture actually made by the people themselves, for eg brass bands made by mining communities - by the people and for the people. A much less elitist statement.
A lesser form of real/high culture. Works that aspire to be important but fail.
This kind of thing relies on someone to make a Value Judgement.
INSERT CASPAR SLIDE
left = high culture, right =popular culture.
INFERIOR OR RESIDUAL CULTURE
popular press vs. quality press
popular cinema vs. art cinema
popular entertainment vs art culture
who are these aimed at? what content do they contain?
The latter is always aimed at speaking to the elite stratas of society, the former is always concerned with speaking to the masses.
INSERT JEREMY DELLER SLIDE
examples which would fall outside of traditional ideas of pop/high culture
look like poor attempts at art...why could we all do better, and why are we making these judgementsts?
we are coded into a certain way of judging what is correct and what is not. where do these institutionalised ideas come from....
Look into Belfast political murals. Inexperienced paintings by self-taught ex-cons. Lack in ability, but there is still no reason to laugh. etc...look into this
INSER GRAFF SLIDE
what happens when one subculture translates into a westernised culture??
eg south bronx graff and banksy in cov garden.
a popular culture can begin as representing people, and become incorporated to involve the interests of a very few.
INSERT BOURGEOIS SLIDE
change in culture at the time of industrialization and urbanization
for the first time people are condensed physically, but also physically separated. In factories as a mass, but clearly separated for the owners of the factories (bourgeoisie). A physical separation between classes.
This physical separation begins to create a cultural separation. the working class begins to offer up their own culture. eg. going to the pub, singing their own songs etc. The emergence of an organic working class culture. At this time, the only people in charge of what was culturally correct were the ruling class, and the working class were not considered eligible to vote etc.
INSERT MATTHEW ARNOLD SLIDE
probably the first to write about culture in itself. The book is about 'Arnoldism'. He wants to define what culture is: the most important things that humanity has achieved - attained through disinterested reading, writing and thinking - any culture that has an agenda is not truly a culture.
Culture can 'Minister the Diseased Spirit of our Time'
INSERT SECOND MATTHEW ARNOLD SLIDE
The ruling class becomes threatened by an emerging working class culture.
Today there are still attempts to defend high culture and mock working class culture.
LEAVISISM. still forms a kind of repressed, common sense attitude to popular culture in this country. For Leavis, there was a certain time when culture was perfect. Everyone was agreed, and everyone could do what they wanted. However he says that the 20th century brought a decline and dumbing down in popular culture though.
He says there is still an elite.
ORIENT EXPRESS SLIDE
suggests high culture is empowering and uplifiting whilst popular culture is addictive and distracting.
a form of snobbery that is still visible today - the way people dismiss programmes such as big brother is in some ways a hangover from this Leavisism.
However both cultural forms are equally biased and both have an agenda.
FRANKFURT SLIDE
Marxist thinkers - shut down by Nazi's. Relocated to NYC for a bit.
Studied pop culture, mass culture..wrote a lot of stuff on radio/tv. Once moved to america they entered what was potentially the most developed society on the planet at the time, far more so than Germany.
FRANKFURT SLIDE 2
FORDISM - stems from the economical systems that Ford had put in place. Mass production on a production line, who can generate numerous identical cultural artifacts.
i.e Mass Produced Culture.
people begin to expect the same things from different films. eg in a horror film, it is predictable who will die first. In a romantic comedy, the guy will inevitable end up with the girl. We begin to want those happenings, however.
i.e all mass culture is identical, all art is gone and replaced by mass produced rubbish
HERBERT MARCUSE SLIDE
capacity for multi dimensional thought is reduced.
eg we lose the idea of Che Guevara as a revolutionary.
the peculiarity of the culture industry is that it basically does the thinking for you. less independence and free thought. SOCIAL CEMENT.
In dreaming about something you end up doing nothing about it.
AUTHENTIC CULTURE
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