Transcript File

Folk & Popular
Culture
Why is Popular Culture Widely
Distributed?
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Popular culture varies more in time than in place
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What does this mean???
Material Posessions
Unlike folk culture, pop culture does NOT reflect the
local environment; looks the same everywhere
Some regional differences in MDCs, but much less
than in past;
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Food
Clothing
Shelter
Popular Housing Styles
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Influences of shapes, materials, detailing etc.
Modern house styles (1945-60)
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“Family room” added in 1950s
Neo-eclectic house styles (since 1960)
Clothing Styles
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Clothing habits as reflection
of type of work rather than
environment (suit vs. jeans)
Higher income = up-to-date
wardrobe (especially
women)
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Communication speed,
manufacturing
Diffusion; Travel, TV,
Internet
Can you think of a clothing
style that was adopted from
folk costume?
Jeans
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Became mainstream in US in 1960s
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Price of jeans??
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Used to be associated with low status, manual
laborers
$10-????
Value of Levi’s around the world
What do jeans have to do with communism??
Popular Food Customs
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Consumption patterns of alcohol & snack-foods
Fast-food/Restaurants
Variations within US much less significant than
differences between US & LDCs
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Regional Differences within the United States
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Americans may choose beverages or snacks
based on what is produced, grown, or imported
locally.
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Wine consumption relatively high in California where
most of the U.S. production is located.
Cultural backgrounds affect the amount and types
of alcohol and snack foods consumed.
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Relatively little alcohol is consumed in Utah because
of the strong presence of the Church of Latter-day
Saints that advocates against drinking alcohol.
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High consumption in Nevada where resorts located.
Texans may prefer tortilla chips in greater numbers
because of strong Hispanic American presence.
Alcohol Preferences in the U.S.
Fig. 4-12: Per capita consumption of rum (top) and Canadian whiskey (bottom)
show different distributions and histories of diffusion.
Popular Food Culture
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Differences among Countries
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Cola preferences can be influenced by politics.
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Soviet Union: Pepsi permitted for sale in country
Russia: Many former Soviets switched to Coke,
because Pepsi was associated with communism.
Cola preferences can be influenced by religion.
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Southwest Asia: Predominantly Muslim countries
boycotted products sold in Jewish Israel—e.g., Coke
Diffusing Popular Culture
Through TV
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Significant pop. custom for 2 reasons
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Most popular leisure activity in MDCs
Most important mechanism for diffusing culture
Diffusion from the United States to the rest of the
world = 50 years
Internet follows similar pattern
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More rapid pace
Diffusion from the United States to the rest of the
world = 10 years
Diffusion of TV, 1954–1999
Fig. 4-14: Television has diffused widely since the 1950s, but some areas still have
low numbers of TVs per population.
Diffusion of the Internet: Late
Twentieth Century
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In 1995, Internet users in the United States
accounted for more than half of the global
users.
By 2011, 77 percent of the U.S. population
accessed the Internet.
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Accounted for 10 percent of the global users.
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Global share decreased by roughly 40 percent in less
than 10 years.
Diffusion of Social Media:
Twenty-First Century
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Same diffusion pattern as TV and Internet
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Facebook
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In 2008, Facebook users in United States consisted of
1/3 of all global users.
By 2011, global share decreased to 1/5.
Twitter
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United States was source of 1/3 of all tweets in 2010.
Second leader of tweets is India.
Diffusion of Facebook
Figure 4-21
Gov’t Control of TV
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Private corporations vs.
Government owned
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How do they make $$
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CTV, CityTV, VS. CBC,
TVO
Ads, licenses
Satellites banned
(China, Saudi Arabia)
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Gov’t censorship