Pop Culture

Pop Culture Inventory

Pop culture finds its expression in the mass circulation of items from such areas as fashion, music, sport and film. According to Education @ Turner house (2006), the world of pop culture entered art in the early 1960's, through Pop Art.

In a recent inventory, compiled by myself, mass media is out there and influencing Americans daily. Some of the things that were observed, on a daily basis, were music, advertisements (geared mainly towards the younger crowds), film and print media.

Starting with music, which ahs evolved from a simple forty-five record to MTV has a very strong influence on our younger crowd, from my experiences of being a father of four girls. There are more sub categories out there besides the 'music' group; however, it seems to have the most influence (more prevalent) on our kids today.

Another thing that was observed was television advertisements. Saturday morning cartoons are hit hard with mass media. The commercials that are on during the Saturday morning cartoons are perfect settings. For instance, for a piece of candy, called a 'Ring Pop', there is a young boy in a very nice house playing a guitar like a rock star with Ring Pops on all of his fingers. Here this kid is jumping up and down playing a guitar. What does this have to do with a piece of candy? I don't know, however, every time I take my kids to Blockbusters to rent a movie, I get nailed for Ring Pops, so it is working.

Film and print media are big contributors to pop culture. What does every kid and teenager want to be? They want to movie star, a rap singer, a dancer or a model. The reason these occupations are so well paid is because they are getting into the minds of our kids and we are paying for it. We are paying for it by acting/dancing lessons, going to concerts and going to movies.

There are patterns of what was just described and that is the pattern of perfect advertising. We are poisoning our kids and young adult's minds with superficial garbage. These above findings are so prevalent, more so than other forms of pop culture. They seem to be a fad, and fads come and go, however, our kids are chasing a dream they see through mass media. The thing is that not everyone has a chance of becoming a movie star, or an athlete.

The values that are being communicated from my inventory are not geared towards the betterment of our society. It is geared towards mass marketing and ways to sell an