Known as 'popular culture' and 'mass culture'.
All of these terms are loaded with 'value judgements'.
What is culture?
Raymond Williams: One or two or three of the most complicated words in the English language.
As these processes of general imancipation grow culture exists. Describes a way of living. For example, a sub-culture- certain values, ways of thinking about the world.
Culture can be describing really important works within society. At various points institutions decided that these things are of certain significance, to the point where they can describe culture. For example, Shakespear.
Base:
Culture emerges from the base.
Superstructure:
'Popular Culture'
4 Definitions.
- Well liked by many.
The idea of popular culture quantificly measured- music. The problem with this analysis is that it leads to unreliable results. i.e Shakespear- not classed as popular culture
- Inferior kinds of work
Inferior kind of culture. Mass produced work. Works that aspire to be important and for whatever reasons, fail. A value jusdgement has to be made.
- Work deliberately setting out to win favour with the people.
The tastemakers of culture. Anything that aims to be populist becomes popular culture. Trying to
make something understood by everyone. 'Work that is easy and bored of
people' makes it popular culture
- Culture actually made by the people themselves.
Made by people for the people. I.e. working class popular culture.......EG---->
Work on left is an example of high culture. Left- supposed to make you reflect about the transience of life. Right- supposed to be popular culture. Not supposed to make you contemplate your relationship with the universe. Interesting to ask why??????????? --------> Why wouldn't people ask these questions?
Such judgements and attitudes exist everywhere in life.
E.G. Quality Newspapers, and Popular Newspapers.
Cinema vs Art/ Independent Cinema
The latter is always aimed at the elitist in society. Testament to popular culture as peoples culture- for everyone to speak to everyone.
Look into 'Folk Archive'-interesting.
By the people for the people.
Why is it funny?
They look rubbish...like a poor attempt to create something that looks arty. We feel we could do better than that. We are taght to think a certain way about how art should look and be presented. Where does this institutionalised idea come from?
Created by people who haven't been institutionalised by the elitist thought of the way art should be. Self taught.
What happens when popular culture enters high culture. E.G. Graffiti. What happens when it is translated to mainstream Western culture and is exhibited in galleries? Bought and sold art. Popular culture can start as representing the masses to then move to 'culture'.
Working Class/ proletariat:
'The making of the English working class'.
Condensed together is factories as a mass, and clearly separated from the Bourgeouisie- the owners of the factories.
Bourgeouisie:
Physical distiction between the rich and the poor. Start to create a cultural separation also. Working class start to create their own cultural forms and activities. Own forms of literature and music. Before this moment, the only people in charge of deciding these things were the higher class. Suddenly two opposing voices. Start thinking about how they should be organised, how their society should be run- politicial undercurrents.
CHARTISM- campaign for working class to vote.
Matthew Arnold was the first person who tried to define what culture/ popular culture was.
Disinterested writing- unbias- no hidden agenda. Culture is the force that can minister the diseased spirit of our time. The opposite to clture that is anarchy- this emerging working class culture, that seeks to have it's own voice heard. 'If we teach them how to appreciate our culture we can get them in line'.
Leavis.
'Culture has always been in monority keeping'.
His role to defend culture and its minority keeping.
Harpring back to old times.
Their reading of culture as 'dissmissed' is entirely the opposite. Totally interested and bias.
Form of snobbery. i.e. Eastenders.
Most people talk about popular culture in this way.
Frankfurt School:
What they described as to what was happening in America was the 'Culture industry'. Culture produced in a factory. FORDISM. Equated that process as a process of culture. These 'cultral factories' spew out masses at a time. E.G. People feel like they already understand something about films because they follow certain rules and criteria...it means you know the ending before it had even started. Society wanted these things- MASS CULTURE.
Culture that is spawned out for the masses. The idea of art/culture under capitalism has become mass produced, with all that is created under the guise of culture, with a real undertone of money and profit.
- Bleak.
Depoliticises the working class.
Hollyoaks- sexualising women in education, one dimensional view, propels the view/ mentality that women in education should be sexualised.
Ultimate lesson. Your interest in life, your solution, is to go on these shows and be judged by middle class who tell you that you, plummer/ cashier/ bin man actually have the skills to do well.
Start
to identify our culture by the things that we are surrounded by. If we
are surrounded by this shite then we will be identified by it.
You never end up doing anything about it, just involving yourself with the problems, relating to anything that agrees, or a dream that you want to become a reality- music.
Adorno:
'ON POPULAR MUSIC'.
-all popular music is standardised.
Because everything is standardised and your choice is lateral/ non existent, it acts as a form of 'social cement', to keep you in your place. "Makes you passive and makes you adjust your behaviour in
Relationship between factory and dance music. Slave to the beat. "Mindlessley dance to the' rythm of their own opression"
For Adorno: Culture under capitalism is totaly lost.
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