Hello, my name is Geneva Mays. I am a 21 year old Junior English Literature major at California State University, Northridge. I live in Chatsworth. This is my first post to a blog created for my Pop Culture class. I love reading, watching television, and watching movies. I hope to learn a lot from this experience and from other students' blog posts every week. Pop culture as always interested me because it is ever changing and says so much about society which changes just as much. Pop culture can be used as an identity for some people, and a source of loathing for others. No one can deny, however, that it will always be a part of our lives.
"The Politics of Culture" describes how pop culture affects and is used by the upper and lower class. The piece states that culture is a structure of hierarchy and is dealt with differently among the lower and higher castes, so to speak. It says that the higher class uses culture as a form of domination over everyone else, controlling the media and what people spend money on. Conversely, lower class uses culture to rebel against the higher class and everyone else. In having control of public consumption, presidents of media outlets are able to monitor what is popular and what people will buy. This phenomenon can be seen in everything from music to fashion to merchandise. I have seen it happen with name brands being worn by celebrities and revenue for the brand going through the roof. If the public is shown a celebrity such as Megan Fox wearing a band t-shirt or a brand maybe sold at Target, everyone is going to go buy the exact same thing, making more money for those who own the brand. Merchandise is also a very huge medium of finance. Movies play a significant role in creating trinkets and figurines for people to buy. An example could be Pixar's latest film "Cars 2." Considering the sequel was an unexpected blunder in the line of successful and highly reviewed series of computer-generated masterpieces, it is believed that the movie was made primarily for the purpose of selling new merchandise for the Disney Corporation. To look at it that way it seems a bit insincere, but it definitely works and people fall for it, making millions for Disney and Pixar.
The text says that the lower class use culture to both rebel against the higher class, and further their social standing at the bottom. It says their view of culture gets them ready for their lives at the bottom of the social ladder. This can be seen in kids adopting the same things their peers like in order to fit in, instead of adopting the same cultural fads in higher class in order to increase their social standing. Lower class searches for culture themselves, rather than having the media feed them the things they should buy. They control their own habits and view the higher class as greedy and false. This can be seen in music cultures that glorify urban and poorer environments, showing that they don't need materialistic ventures to be happy with themselves or the things around them.
