-define popular culture
-contrast ideas of 'culture' with 'popular culture' and mass culture
-introduce cultural studies and critical theory
-define ideology
-interrogate the social function of the mass media
What is culture
-1 of the most complicated words in society
-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
Marx's concept of Base/Superstructure
-from a base merges a superstructure
-culture emerges from the base were the initial struggle between slave/ruler, rich/poor
(Quote 1)
-culture is determined by the ideas of individuals
-their ideas are determined by the society they are brought into
-see the world through the lens of your society
(e.g. communism, capitalism)
Ideology
-system of ideas/beliefs produced by the dominant people in society, which disguises itself as the interest of us all - fasle consiousness (Quote 2)
Pyramid of Capitalist System
Yamond Williams (1983)
-4 definitions of 'popular'
-well liked by many - defined by quantity
-inferior kinds of work - mass production kitsh - high culture e.g. traditions
-work deliberately setting out to win favour with the people
-culture actually made by the people for people - traditions
Inferior of Residual Culture
2 images - one is seen as superior and one inferior, but toeh representative
Graffiti - Banksy piece exhibited in Covent Garden gallery
E.P Thompson (1963) 'The Making of The English Working Class'
-working class (excluded from high culture, so have their own culture - popular culture)
-Bourgeois
Matthew Arnold (1867) (Quote 3) 'Culture and Anarchy' Book
-cultue is the best that has been and said in the world
-study of perfection
-attained through disinterested reading, writing, thinking
-the pursuit of culture
-seeks to minister the disease
-Anarchy - is what he means as popular culture
-they shouldn't set their own culture, they should strive to be like us
Leavism - F.R Leavis & Q.D Leavis (Quote 4)
-sees mass culture as a threat to culture
-says 20th century - culture hasn't developed it has declined (cultural decline)
-standardised and levelling down
-culture has always been in minority keeping
Collapse of traditional authority comes at the same time as mass media
Frankfurt School - Critical Theory
-Institute of Social Research, uni of Frankfurt 1923-33
-Uni of Collumbia New York 1933-47
-Uni of Frankfurt - 1949
Theodore Adorno
-reinterpreted Marx, for the 20th century - era of capitalism
-defined 'The Culture Industry' - 2 main products - homogeneity and predictability
-all mass culture is identical
-films - predictable (Quote 5)
-pretend to be art - but is just a business made into an ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce.
(Quote 6)
Product of the contemproary culture industry
-buying a product - rather than striving to develop own culture - buying in capitalism
(e.g. X Factor, Big Brother)
Authentic Culture vs Mass Culture
-Adorno on popular music
-standardisation
-social cement
-produces passivity through rhythmic and emotional adjustment
-pre-digested - enjoyment of music - if you like one song as that style, you will like other songs with that style - decision already made for us
-rhythmic
-repetitiveness (days, dancing)
-emotional adjustment
-music is an escape from reality
Walter Benjamin (1936) 'The Work of Art in the Age of mechanical Reproduction' (Quote 7)
-Aura - qualities of works of high culture
-e.g. Mona Lisa - we know its improtant because society tells us it is, in the Louvre behind bullet proof glass, like a religious pilgrimage, peopel go to the Louvre to see it, and that makes it more important than what it is. The reproduction of the Mona Lisa in text books, t-shirts, democratic/revolutionary, making our own meanings of the Mona Lisa - doesn't have the same Aura
-mass culture allows for revolutionary possibilities
The Centre fro Contemprary Culture Studies - CCA (1963-2002)
=Birmingham School
Conclusion
-Culture and civilisation tradition emerges from and represents anxieties about social and cultural extension
-They outcast mass culture because it threatens cultural standard and social authority
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