Introduction - Pop Culture-General Impressions
Thesis Statement – Pop culture a snowball of shared emotions created by its receivers
Body - A Closer Look to Pop Culture Formation
Body - A Closer Look to Pop Culture Formation
The integrated approach of pop culture
Pop culture in “Twilight” – an example of integrated approach
Michael Jackson – the development of a pop culture icon
Pop culture in social networking
Pop culture in applications and video games
Conclusion - Pop Culture-a Fun Industry
Pop Culture Now
Introduction - Pop Culture-General Impressions
Pop culture is vibrant, is permanently actual, is constantly defining the moment, what goes and what does not go, what is in fashionable and what is not. For me pop culture represents a lifestyle, a way of acting and it also influences my behavior and attitudes.
Thesis Statement – Pop culture a snowball of shared emotions created by its receivers
This essay elaborates about what I consider that pop culture is, how I see it forming, how I see it developing, growing, how I consider it influences me and other people, how media is using an integrated approach for engaging masses into pop culture, and I will offer personal examples related to pop culture.
Body - A Closer Look to Pop Culture Formation
Promoting and sharing pop culture values
The integrated approach of pop culture
In other words, pop culture is highly influential and this powerful influence and the strength of pop culture, as I see it, stands in the cultural mix that it generates, as it uses an integrated communication to “catch” us, to lure us into a world where everybody is cool, happy, forever young, beautiful, wearing fancy clothes, while always having fun and permanently prepared for going to a party with fun and beautiful people.
Pop culture in “Twilight” – an example of integrated approach
Therefore, the integrated communication is what actually delivers the pop culture, as I see it. As I go to see a “Twilight” movie, I hear the soundtrack that I will eventually hear in some other place or situation, associating it immediately with the movie. Next thing, I see “Twilight” t-shirts and an unspeakable desire to go and purchase one “Twilight” t-shirt appears. Connected to this movie, I see events and various happenings promoting the vampire look-like appearances and I know I want to be there because all my friends will be there also and we will have the opportunity to have real fun, while acting as vampires, whom we consider really cool and sexy. All this integrated communication regarding “Twilight” phenomenon has made it a part of my life, and of the lives of many others like me. The fact that this movie has developed into a phenomenon, generating similar reactions regarding whatever symbols that it brings to society (events, vampire teeth, dark clothes, t-shirts, music, etc.) is how pop culture develops and it acts like a snowball, becoming bigger and bigger, attracting others into this phenomenon as they are exposed to the movie and other types of media that promotes it. Twilight is in fact just an example of pop culture, indicating how a media product (a movie in this case) can grow, defining one’s lifestyle.
Michael Jackson – the development of a pop culture icon
Another example of integrated communication is Michael Jackson phenomenon. I remember that some time ago, when I was younger, Michael Jackson was the number one trend and he initiated a colossal pop culture. People wanted to sing like Michael, they wanted to dance like Michael, they wanted to dress like him and even to copy his attitude, his behavior, his likes and dislikes. I know in fact people that started drinking Pepsi Cola because Michael Jackson promoted this refreshing drink as “the choice of a new generation”, and he himself would drink it, while dancing in the streets, wearing his cool outfit. This is how Michael Jackson entered the social mental as a “must-have look” and people would curl their hair, use make-up, wear “Michael Jackson” outfit and dance in the streets, as this was a lifestyle that Michael Jackson himself promoted for fun and for spending time with peers. This phenomenon reached a collective mental and everybody tend to associate break dance moves, pop music or Pepsi drink with him and this phenomenon easily developed into a global hysteria, making people around the world Michael Jackson-wannabees, as Michael Jackson was everywhere: on TV, on radio, on the streets, as there were people imitating his dance moves, in stores (CDs, t-shirts, badges, trinkets, scarfs, etc.) in people’s behaviors, becoming a philosophy of life. Michael Jackson is still a part of the pop culture, the classical pop culture, from which everything started. People are still dancing on the streets imitating the “King of Pop” and artists seem to be themselves entrenched in a pop culture of worshiping Michael Jackson, as there can be felt clear and visible influences in their music coming from him. To name a few, Usher, Pharell, Justin Timberlake or Beyoncé, who represent the nowadays artists of the moment, drag their records based on the tempo, rhythm and music style of Michael Jackson.
Pop culture in social networking
In regards to the integrated communication that delivers pop culture, nowadays media, which generates pop icons, includes the emergence of the social media, as most of us become fans of artists on Facebook, or like popular songs, cool fashion, shoes, glasses, we to cool events or send or share various ironic e-cards, as this is the specificity of our generation. I am one of the millions of people who use Facebook for seeing what is new and what is cool, and there are so many other people that share my interests and my likes, which indicate that this is pop culture. Short tweets, comments or status updates, sharing funny videos, photos or e-cards is what most of us do and this is how we, the users, generate pop culture in social media. Social media actually contributes heavily in promoting what is trendy and what is in fashion, along the other media channels. As such, as I am a Pharell fan, I listen to his albums on YouTube, I follow the news about him on his Facebook page, but I also hear his music on radio, on TV, in the clubs, in the cars that pass by me.
Pop culture in applications and video games
Moreover, there are also modern applications and video games that contribute to defining the integrated communication regarding pop culture symbols, engaging people to dance like their idols, telling them how to dress, and so on, which together with the other media contribute to creating from an artist, a movie, a movie character, a cartoon, a fashion brand, a drink or a fast food brand a fashionable phenomenon that people want to associate with. As people are exposed to the same types of media, promoting similar content, this facilitates the formation and development of pop culture, encouraged by a complex pop culture industry.
Conclusion - Pop Culture-a Fun Industry
Overall, pop culture is everything that is fashionable and it is generally accepted by the public as cool and engaging, creating waves of popularity, generating a snowball phenomenon, by which others are absorbed into the social phenomenon that is increasing its popularity as it gains more adepts. How vampires become cool and teenagers develop a whole trend based on “Twilight”, on engaging video games or on various music performers is simply a matter of taste, which is depicted by media producers precisely for engaging masses into what is called pop-culture. It is ironically that we, the pop culture followers form and develop in fact the pop culture, which shapes our behaviors, attitudes and the way of thinking or of speaking and which feeds with our emotions and at a more pragmatic level, with our money. What can one do to change this? Why change it as long as it is fun? Indeed, there are media producers, media corporations gaining heavily from pop culture, but it is offering people a sense of identity, a feeling of belonging to a group, since we are in fact sharing similar values and ideas as defined by pop culture.
