Transcript Chapter 1: The Social Organization of Popular Culture

Chapter 1: The Social
Organization of Popular Culture
Robert Wonser
Fall 2011
Social Organization of Pop Culture
Lesson Overview
• The Sociological Imagination
• Some notes about pop culture
• What is popular culture?
– Popular?
– Culture?
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Why culture is important
Pop culture as a collective activity
Interpretive communities
Producing and consuming popular culture
Three Approaches to the Sociology of Media
and Popular Culture
The sociological imagination
• Sociology examines how diverse forms of sociality
take place. It is the study of what people do together
• Studying music is no different from studying collective
organization or labor relations—indeed we could
study these things in the context of music production!
• The sociological study of popular music has not
always been common.
• After the “cultural turn” sociologists began to follow
the advice of the Frankfurt School and the urban
ethnographers of the Chicago School, who were
pushing for a wider definition of culture as a broad
way of life.
• The “sociological imagination” refers to the ability to
connect, individual and social forces, and
biographical and historical issues.
It follows
• In linking the study of pop music with the study
of society we ought to focus on three questions:
– What is the structure of a particular musical social
world and how does it differ from and compare to
other actual and possible forms of social
organization?
– What are the key features of this musical social world,
and what is its unique position and relation with
greater historical processes?
– What are the defining characteristics of men and
women engaged in these musical social worlds and
what goes on in their day to day lives?
Sociological theory and music
cultures
• Culture is intended as a way of daily life, not “high”
culture.
• Contemporary ways of life are called by some
constructionists “postmodern.”
• A postmodern culture is one in which one’s way of
life is less grounded in traditions and certainties and
more in choices and doubts.
• Postmodern culture is marked endless availability of
choice, endless stimulation, the explosion of
consumption and consumerism, and the increased
interconnectedness of the globe.
• Music cultures reflect these characteristics and their
study allows us to understand greater cultural and
social trends.
What is Popular Culture?
• Popular culture refers to the aesthetic
products created and sold by profitseeking firms operating in the global
entertainment market.
• Popular culture = popular + culture
• So, what does popular mean?
• So, what does culture mean?
Popular
• 1) culture that is well-liked (demonstrated
through sales)
• 2) icons or media products that are globally
ubiquitous and easily recognized the world over
• 3) commercial media that is thought to be trivial,
tacky or lowest common denominator; mass
culture
• 4) belonging to the people; folk culture
Culture
• To the Humanist:
– works and practices of intellectual and artistic
activity
• To the Social scientist:
– a particular way of life, whether of a people, period,
a group, or humanity in general
• To the Sociologist:
– a mode of living in the world as a social being, as
represented by the practices, rituals, behaviors,
activities, and artifacts that make up the experience
of everyday life.
Culture
• Culture then is richly symbolic, invested with
meaning and significance.
• The meanings attributed to culture are never
simply given but are the product of human
invention, socially constructed and agreed upon
among a demonstrably large number of society’s
members.
• Finally, for culture to be sensibly understood it
must be embodied in some kind of recognizable
form.
The Importance of Culture
• Culture’s importance cannot be overstated
• It is the lens through which we view the world around us
• Is represents humanity’s unique ability evolve not just
biologically but on it’s own terms through the use of
symbols, arts, technologies and other artifacts humans
make
• Culture is a memorate (memory template) of the artifacts of
a particular group of people have made in their history and
continue to make in order to evolve.
• We create an emotion (rather than rational) connection to
the memorate itself which is used as a template for
evaluating life and people.
• Culture is the primary template through which our worldview
is formed, where does this template come from?
• Culture shapes thoughts and behaviors (Sapir-Whorf
Hypothesis)
Levels of Culture
Level
High
Examples perceived to Occur at Each Level
Shakespeare, James Joyce, Emily Dickinson, Bach, Mozart, opera,
symphonies, art galleries, Chanel perfumes, Frontline, NPR, PBS
Mid
newspapers, Harry Potter, Oprah, CNN, public museums,
jazz, Bob Dylan, Time
magazine
Low
tabloids, Jerry Springer, American Idol, Howard Stern, infomercials
Budweiser, 50 Cent
• Pop culture is intrinsically linked with youth culture
(often used as a synonym)
– Youths had more free time, cars to be mobile and schools
separated youths from their parents and allowed them to
associate with each other and create their own culture.
– A post-war affluence, subsequent baby boom, considerable
buying power  the ability to shape trends in fashion, music,
and lifestyle through such power.
– Became a widespread social reality in the 1950s
– Popular trends makers’ were usually young
– As youths age they don’t discard their pop culture; it
becomes cultural nostalgia
– Main difference: pop culture trends carry over and become
pop culture more broadly and no longer only considered a
part of youth culture
Popular Culture as Collective
Activity
• Howard Becker’s Artworlds (1982)
• Artworlds are networks of participants whose combined
efforts create movies, novels, musical compositions,
comic books, advertising and so forth.
• ‘scenes’
– ‘When an artist creates they create with the
conventions and modalities of a scene in mind
– This is learned, sounds like a ‘generalized other’ in
Mead’s terms
– ex: jazz as improvisational
• Division of labor
– Ex: closing credits on a movie
Some notes about pop culture
• Pop culture is never the product of a
solitary artist but always emerges from a
collective activity generated by interlocking
networks of cultural creators.
• Popular culture is produced, consumed,
and experienced within a context of
overlapping sets of social relationships.
So, which opinion is correct?
• Bieber is Awesome! Nah, Bieber sucks!
• Meaning, interpretation and value are not
ultimately decided by the creators of
media and popular culture (though they do
have some input), but by its consumers.
• Cultural objects are multivocal because
they say different things to different
people.
Interpretation
• Audiences draw on their own social
circumstances when attributing meaning and
value to popular culture.
• These meanings are patterned according to
persistent systems of social organization
structured by differences in socioeconomic
status, nationality, race, ethnicity, gender,
sexuality, religion, or age.
• These are called interpretive communities
• Though, often a dominant ideology reigns
Interpretive Communities
• Shape our tastes, likes and dislikes
• For example: many African Americans (not all of
course) are more likely to report listening to jazz,
blues, soul, and r&b music than whites who are
more likely to attend classical music concerts,
opera performances and arts-and-crafts fairs.
• Do you like the same stuff as your parents?
– 38% of senior citizens (65 and older) go online or use
computers, but 95% of teenagers do
• What are the reasons for such differences?
– Ex: digital divide
Media, with other people
• Remember, most media is consumed in
the presence of others as collective
activities
• Could you imagine a concert, movie, etc
with no one else present?
• Ex: book clubs, televised events,
MMORPGs, viewing
parties
Collage, Bricolage, and Pastiche
• Collage – a term taken from the domain of modern
painting, describing a picture or design made by gluing
pieces of paper or other materials onto a canvas or other
surface.
– By clever arranging of materials the artist can create strange or
witty effects not possible with traditional painting techniques
• Many pop culture spectacles from early vaudeville to The
Simpsons are created by a collage technique
– In Vaudeville, it’s a collage of acts – from skits to acrobatics
– The Simpsons uses diverse elements from different levels of
culture in the same episode to create similar effects of a collage
• Bricolage – a type of collage that emphasizes
disproportion, parody, and irony
– The Goth lifestyle is an example, featuring implicit references to
themes of horror, difference and vampirism in an essentially
ironic juxtaposition against the mainstream culture
• Pastiche refers to an admixture of elements in a
work or spectacle intended to imitate or satirize
another work or style
– Pastiche describes pop culture well, which is
essentially a pastiche of spectacles, fashion, fads,
and other accouterments that together give pop
culture its distinct character.
• Finally, nostalgia allows pop culture to sustain
itself because of pop culture’s emotional nature.
• People react nostalgically to the pop culture
symbols and works of their eras.
– Ex: Elvis, Disney movies, Beatles, disco dancing,
Barbie dolls, punk clothing etc.
• By clinging to their memories people have made
it possible for pop culture to perpetuate itself
Producing and Consuming Popular
Culture
• Who does what?
• Distinctions between cultural
consumption and production
are blurring (ex: youtube
mashups)
• The tools of pop culture making
are being democratized
• The creator’s control of how
enterprising consumers actually
make use of cultural objects in
the real world is diminishing
1966: Adam West’s
portrayal of Batman
was intended to be
serious, not campy.
Three Approaches to the Sociology
of Media and Popular Culture
• Functionalist approach illustrates how culture
“functions” as the social glue that generates
solidarity and cohesion within human groups
and societies
• Contemporary collective rituals—hs football
games, local parades and pep rallies, award
ceremonies—forge emotional bonds of
recognition, identity, trust, commonality within
communities and other social groups
• Pop culture provides the source material for
consumers to communicate with strangers
– Band T-shirts
Three Approaches to the Sociology
of Media and Popular Culture
• Critical approach maintains
that the ascendance of certain
kinds of popular culture can be
explained primarily in terms of
their ability to reflect and
reinforce the enormous
economic and cultural power
of the mass media industry
(and broadly capitalism itself).
• A top-down form of domination
that we actively seek out and
enjoy in our subjugation
Have you ever
wondered why movies
or music seem
derivative and
predictable?
Three Approaches to the Sociology
of Media and Popular Culture
• Interaction approach
emphasizes the power
that informal processes
like word-of-mouth and
peer influence enjoy in
the cultural marketplace
• Consumer tastes are
deeply affected by those
around us
Why were initial Friday
ticket sales high but low
later Friday and
Saturday?
Conclusion and Reflection
• Understanding pop culture is a way of
understanding society.
– For example, in what ways do your musical
choices highlight your social position in terms
of things like class, age, race, gender, identity,
etc.?