PP 1 & Audio: Characteristics Of Culture Flashcards
Sociological Imagination:
Coined by C. Wright Mills
A way of looking at the world
Pop Culture is Learned: Enculturation
(Coined by Edward C. Hall)
-Chronemics: Chronemics- Cultures and Time
-Monochronic: Time is linear, is money, is structured
-Polychronic: Time is cyclical, relationships more important, not as structured
Chronemics
is: Cultures and Time
Monochronic
is: Time is Linear, is Money, and is Structured
Polychronic
is: Time is cyclical, relationships are more important, not as structured
Proxemics
Being influenced by Intimate, Personal, Social, & Public Space
Symbols: Pop Culture consists of symbols
Something that stands for something else
Example: Currency Language
Characteristics of Culture:
Patterned
& Integrated
-Patterned Culture :
demonstrates patterns
Example: Behaviors within similar situations we witness due to shared beliefs, values and norms that become steady over time.
-Integrated Culture:
is a system with different parts working together
Example: Posters, things that society influences and teaches you to accept
Characteristics of Culture:
Shared
& Adaptive
Shared: Example: A handshake
Adaptive: Example: Society adapts to survive and reproduce
5: Adaptive
=Plasticity
Characteristics of Culture:
Innovates
& Diffuses
-Innovation:
New pattern replaces an old one.
Then it becomes the norm
-Diffusion: Cultural Exchange
Beliefs
tenets or convictions that people hold to be true
Culture
the shared beliefs, practices, and material objects of a group of people
Ideal Culture
the standards a society would like to
EMBRACE
and
LIVE UP TO
Real Culture
the way society really is based on what actually occurs and exists
Sanctions
rewards or punishments for accepted behavior; a way to authorize or formally disapprove of certain behaviors
Social Control
a way to encourage conformity to cultural norms
Values
a culture’s standard for discerning what is good and just in society
Popular Culture
-Broadly defined as whatever is popular with the masses
-Not a complete definition
-Pop culture encompasses many things
Medieval Entertainments:
Church influenced a lot and with money because?
1) Social changes in entertainment
2) Shift from religion based to SECULAR based Music-Neutral
5TH to 15th century
The Carnival & Circuses were popular before Lent
“Freak Shows”
Date back to antiquity
-Not Religious
-Voyeuristic or “freak” shows
-Popular before Lent
-Predecessors of modern-day amusement parks
Opera- Italy made it popular
Upper Class-Opera
Italy
Ballet between acts
Defied moral status quo- promiscuity and love entanglements
Audience could participate
Considered a form of high culture today
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Years: 1760-1850
New upper Class
Economic gap
The rich distance themselves
Who coined SOCIAL DARWINISM?
What did he believe?
HERBERT SPENCER
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST MOTHERFUCKERS!
The wealthy do better
And Are better
Widely supported
Industrial Revolution made it: Affordability and Curiosity
Industrial Revolution= Cheap books, magazines, and newspapers
Rise in movie making due to technological advances
Nickelodeon – 5 cent movies
Prime characteristics of pop culture
Pop culture To End of 20th Century: Jazz became popular
Jazz becomes popular
Different from the more “boring” and “stodgy” Victorian era music
1920’s- records are cheap Radio emerges Jazz spreads
Flapper culture starts
Flappers & Pop Culture Influence
“True” emergence of popular culture
-Freedom for women to express themselves sexually
-Flouting conventional standards of behavior
-Introduces a robust nightlife
-Influences fashion
Pop Culture To The End of The 20th Century- WWII & Teenagers
World War II- extra jobs more working teenagers with money
1948 – Life magazine realizes the impact of “Youth Culture”
Teenagers + Money= Marketing takes over
Shows produced for younger people
**Women had access to birth control
**voting
**Access to cars
CULTURE TRIANGLE
High & Folk=LOW
Popular=High
Describe what is High Culture:
Impractical & Super Expensive
It’s Upper-Class Culture
They usually have a Small audience
“YOU CAN’T SIT WITH US”
Elite had:
1)Goals to Create timeless culture
2)Break boundaries
3) Create the new and unusual
Like those stupid fashion dresses that are ridiculous
Low Culture: FOLK CULTURE
Created communally based on tradition
To preserve tradition
——Rural areas
Creator and audience belong to the same small society
Audience is small
Not considered a threat to high culture
Examples: home remedies, oral history, superstitions
POPULAR CULTURE= Follows a Formula!
(Think of Pop Culture today)
Audience is large
Blurs lines between high and low
Aims to please a large number of people
Industrialization made this culture possible= Cheap entertainment
Formulaic
Anticipated elements
Know what to expect
Ex: SHOWS OR MOVIES. YOU KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT-
EX: 2 high school sweethearts are separated, years later they meet again and marry.
Same old type of story -Like “The Notebook”
CRITICISMS OF POP CULTURE
NOT NEW MATERIAL
Mass culture is a hollow imitation of “true” culture
It is not intellectual
“Bastard form of mass culture” – Barthes
“Humiliated repetition”
“New” books, programs, and films but with same meaning
DEMOCRATIC
WHAT IS LOVE?
Open social forum
Creative outlet
Source of recreation and entertainment
Constantly changing to appeal to audience
FIVE (5) CHARACTERISTICS OF POP CULTURE
1) Well-liked
-Commercially= Money
-Non-commercially= Number of likes and how much they are talked about
2) Globally recognized/ubiquitous: Icons or media products which are globally ubiquitous and easily recognized
Do not have to be liked or respected
Ex; The Kardashians
3) Commercial media- tacky and trivial
Commercial media- seen as tacky and trivial
Pitched to the lowest common denominator
For general consumption
EX: Gangnam Style, it was stupid and funny
4) Belongs to the Masses of the people-
Culture considered to belong to the people
5) Media events simultaneously experienced by people in real time
MEDIA EVENTS SIMULTANEOUSLY CONSUMED
Media events simultaneously experienced by mass audiences in real time
Review- What particular institution faced the loss in power that led to a very kind of culture in art?
Secular: The Catholic church & the Vatican. It shifted from religious to SECULAR.
Art form from Italy that had a hand in pop culture creation:
Opera
T or F: Today Opera is considered low Culture:
False
Opera was different from other art forms because it encouraged the audience to do what?
To participate and interreact with the performers.
This kind of entertainment that was very popular before Lent:
Carnivals & Circuses
