Chapter 1: The Social Organization of Popular Culture

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Chapter 1 The Social Organization of Popular
Culture

• Robert WonserFall 2011

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Social Organization of Pop Culture Lesson Overview

• The Sociological Imagination
• Some notes about pop culture
• What is popular culture?
• Popular?
• Culture?
• 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

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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 relationsindeed
  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.

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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?

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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 ones 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.

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What is Popular Culture?

• Popular culture refers to the aesthetic products
  created and sold by profit-seeking firms
  operating in the global entertainment market.
• Popular culture popular culture
• So, what does popular mean?
• So, what does culture mean?

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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

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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.

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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 societys
  members.
• Finally, for culture to be sensibly understood it
  must be embodied in some kind of recognizable
  form.

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The Importance of Culture

• Cultures importance cannot be overstated
• It is the lens through which we view the world
  around us
• Is represents humanitys unique ability evolve
  not just biologically but on its 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)

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Levels of Culture
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• 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 dont 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

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Popular Culture as Collective Activity

• Howard Beckers 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 Meads terms
• ex jazz as improvisational
• Division of labor
• Ex closing credits on a movie

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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.

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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.

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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

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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 rb 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

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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

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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, its 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

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• 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 cultures 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

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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 creators control of how enterprising
  consumers actually make use of cultural objects
  in the real world is diminishing

1966 Adam Wests portrayal of Batman was
intended to be serious, not campy.
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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 ritualshs football
  games, local parades and pep rallies, award
  ceremoniesforge 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

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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?
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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?
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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.?