Popular culture and postmodernism are two topics that John Storey elaborates on in his fifth edition book "Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction". Understanding popular culture and postmodernism is important when it comes to the discussion of popular music celebrities. When referring to popular culture to understand popular music celebrities, 'signifying practices ' is a key term. Know what signifying practices mean will allow you to understand why celebrities do what they do. Storey says, "Culture here means the texts and practices whose principle function is to signify, to produce, or to be the occasion for the production of meaning". What he means is that popular music celebrities know that they have to make music that sells, …show more content…
Knowing the difference between masking, distorting, concealing and ideological forms, and myth. Knowing the difference between masking, distorting, concealing and ideological forms will help decipher what is intended to change you view and what is not. Masking, distorting, and concealing are meant to change you view; for example, advertising. While ideological forms can change your view on situations but are not intending to; for example, reality TV. To tie this into popular music celebrities Taylor Swift’s ad campaign for Keds can be used as an example of masking, distorting, and concealing; it is meant to make you want to buy Keds. While Lil Jon 's song "Turn Down For What" is an example of ideological forms, making getting wasted seem like a fun, normal thing to do. Myth is an important idea because it allows celebrities to bend the truth. Celebrities tend to bend the truth because it allows them to persuade their audience to see only what they want them to see. Some key terms to keep in mind when discussing popular music are mass culture/consumption and culture that is widely favored. Mass culture/ consumption can also be described as popular culture, it is what the present society want to see and hear, and it is the demands of the buyer. One hit wonders are examples of mass culture/consumption; they tend to be popular only for a short time while they are still in demand. The opposite of mass culture/consumption is culture that is widely favored. Culture that is widely favored are the music industry legends, they are always remembered and tend to be considered high
Though The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz was written years ago, the idea of materialism, and measuring one's success by their possessions is also a prominent theme in pop culture in the West. Luxurious and excessive lifestyles are in, perpetuated by "blinged out" rap artists and rock stars who own multiple houses, and drive unnecessarily large and expensive sport utility vehicles and sports cars. Pop music has evolved throughout the 20th Century, and has now gotten to a point where it's not just music, but an industry. Singers are actors and vice versa. To make it big in the music industry you not only have to have talent, but a strong business sense, and your own clothing line, of course.
The star text of a celebrity can help to decipher their image and transitions they may undergo. In order to better understand these transitions, one must know the definition of a star text. A star text is the sum of everything we affiliate with celebrities, which includes their body of work, promotion, publicity, and audience participation (Jackson, 08/09/16). One must note that “celebrity doesn 't happen because someone has extraordinary qualities – it is discursively constructed by the way in which the person is publicised and meanings about them circulate” (O 'Shaughnessy and Stadler 424). Destiny Hope Cyrus, “an American singer and actress, became a sensation in the television series
Have you ever wondered what the differences are between the modernism and post modernism? It seems like it would be easy to describe what they are by the words and what they are usually associated with. Yet, it’s actually a lot different then your thinking. Modernism is the movement in visual arts, music, literature, and drama, which rejected the old Victorian standards of how art should be made, consumed, and what it should mean. Modernists want the absolute truth in everything. While on the other hand, Post Modernism is relating to, or being any of several movements (as in art, architecture, or literature) that are reactions against the philosophy and practices of modern movements and are marked by revival of traditional elements. By explaining a few things in detail I hope to show you a few things in contrast between the two in order to help you understand better.
In contrast, today’s popular music is of a secular origin. Some types of contemporary music mirror the decline in our value system. The “pop” or “hip-hop” culture is characterized by explicit sexuality, habitual use of profanity, and depiction of extreme violence in music and all other forms of entertainme...
The term ‘pop culture’ refers to the ideas, style, and images that are popular and familiar in today’s society. Different things such as clothing, cars, music, technology and decorative accessories are considered pop culture. All of these things have changed throughout the decades. Guys now like to drive big trucks and sports cars and wear pants that look as if they are about to fall of. Girls are obsessed with being thin and need to have to latest style of clothing whether it be UGG boots or baggy sweaters. Besides for all of these, music is one of the biggest things in pop culture. Music is what influences the youth in a drastic way whether it be rock music or rap music.
A celebrity is not a person known for his/her talent or achievement, but an individual recognized for his/her reputation created by the media. The phase of stardom is slippery, and media may choose to represent celebrities varying from exaggerated admiration to mockery. The three texts chosen, movie "Sunset Boulevard", feature article "Over the Hilton" and television show "Celebrity Uncensored Six" are texts presenting different perception of celebrities than their usual images - either corrupted by the encircling media, overloads oneself with self-indulgence, or just mocks celebrity in a broad spectrum. Such media items empower and impresses the audience by perceiving celebrities as people who pay the price of privacy to gain well knowness, signifying the vanity of stardom from the commonly accepted images.
January 6, 1973, famous anthropologist Margaret Mead published an essay in TV Guide in which she addressed her view of PBS’s series “An American Family.” This series was groundbreaking during that time because is followed the Loud’s, a California family who were neither actors nor public figures just average middle-class family, which was unheard of at the time. The Louds were filmed for seven months and the product was twelve one-hour episodes which showed everything from the monotony of their everyday life to the corrosion of Bill and Pat Loud’s marriage. Meade called this series “a new kind of art form” and marveled at the shows ability to show the drama and entertainment value of the average human condition. Forty years later, as Meade had predicted, reality based television and films have become more understood, respected and prevalent in our modern culture. Extreme success stories of documentaries such as Justin Bieber’s 2011 “Never Say Never” and countless reality shows indicates that a celebrity’s presence , musicians particularly, on reality media channels can change audience’s perceptions, promote new material and help them to stay relevant in the public eye. These “reality” documentaries and TV shows present the audience with carefully edited material that conveys only a fraction of that individual’s personality and character yet has profound effects audience perception and acceptance. The British boy band One Direction is a prime example of how using the model of framing in reality television shows and documentaries effectively promotes projects, molds the opinions of audiences, allows artist to appear more open and relatable and leads to extreme monetary success.
Popular culture is often referred to as being produced by the mass media ‘for’ the public, who are seen as consumers. An example of this would be the television programme ‘The X Factor’. The X Factor is produced by a large television company which is owned by a multi millionaire music mogul. The programme is shown extensively throughout the winter months, when people favour staying indoors to going outside. The concept of the show is that it entices people in during the first couple of week. This is done by showing the contestants’ auditions. The reason for t...
Although some may say that music doesn’t directly affect the way a person acts, there has been evidence to prove that it does in fact change emotions and the way people act. Music heavily influences a person’s mindset by shaping what they place value on in the world or what they might hold dear. Music also tends to affect people’s persona and how they portray themselves to the world. Certain types of music are associated with certain demographics of people. For example, hip hop music is usually associated with the black community, and black men and women have strong connections with its songs and lyrics. Objectifying hip hop music
We are part of a generation that is obsessed with celebrity culture. Celebrities are distinctive. Media and consumers alike invented them to be a different race of super beings: flawless, divine and above all the real moral world. In a 1995 New York Times article “In contrast, 9 out of 10 of those polled could think of something
There are many ways to define popular culture. Many individuals have grappled with the question what is popular culture? And how to critically analyze and deconstruct the meanings. Looking at the root words of popular culture is where to begin. Raymond Williams states ‘popular’ means: “well liked by many people" or “culture actually made for the people themselves (Storey, p.5). This is part with the word ‘culture’ combine to look at how the two words have been connect by theoretical work within social and historical context. John Storey approaches popular culture in six categories, they are as followed: “Popular culture is simply culture that is widely favoured or well liked by many people”, Popular culture is “the culture that is left over after we have decided what is high culture”, Popular culture is “mass culture”, “Popular culture is the culture that originates from ‘the people.” and “Popular culture as a site of struggle
With the music being the highly profitable, capitalist enterprise that it is today, it is no wonder that it is controlled and regulated by a few large conglomerates that exist is today’s world. It is important to make clear that although evidence is being presented of the positive aspects of globalization through music that there is overwhelming evidence that cultural imperialism is more than it seems on the outside. One must keep in mind that cultural imperialism, globalization and the creation of a global village is a business. People are profiting at other people’s loss of cultural identity, they are sold a culture and heritage. With the every growing N’Sync fan clubs and Britney clones, the world is turning into a stage for pop culture and its glamorous unattainable standards.
Pop culture is a reflection of social change, not a cause of social change” (John Podhoretz). It encompasses the advertisements we see on T.V, the clothes we wear, the music we listen to, and it’s the reason Leonardo DiCaprio has not won an Oscar yet. It defines and dictates the desires and fears of the mainstream members of society and it is so ingrained into our lives that it has become as natural as breathing. Moreover, adults never even bat an eyelash at all the pop culture and advertising that surrounds them since it has become just another part of everyday life. Pop culture is still somewhat seen as entertainment enjoyed by the lower class members of society but pop culture standards change over time.
It incorporates the daily interactions, needs, desires and cultural moments that make up the everyday lives of the society. It finds expression in day to day practices such as cooking, fashion, newspapers, magazines, television, mass media and the many facets of entertainment such as sports, music, dance and literature. Thus popular culture becomes “culture actually made by people for themselves” (Williams 111). In the essay “Notes on Deconstructing the Popular”, Stuart Hall defines popular culture as all the cultural activities of the people, or their “distinctive way of life” which is considered as popular within social context, and is popularly accepted within the society in any particular period (449). Popular Culture also accommodates cultural texts and practices which fail to qualify as the high or elite culture. This residual nature makes it a site of struggle between the marginalized and the dominant groups in society, where forces of incorporation and resistance against them come into
What popular culture and mass culture are, their significance to society and how they are consumed are very multifaceted questions that have been subject to wide debate is the fields of Sociology and Cultural Studies. Many theorists have chimed in on the debate to answer these questions. Two notable theories on this topic are that of Dwight MacDonald in his work “A Theory of Mass Culture” and John Fiske in his work “Popular Culture”. MacDonald argues that mass culture is a phenomenon that is detrimental to society. He believes that although mass culture is something that produced “by and for human beings” that is ultimately is what leads to the loss of individuality and individual thought and expression in favor