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Popular Culture and the City. Yeah, We’re Studying Fun Stuff!. The Sociological Purpose of Music. Ornamentation Example: Weddings The Sacred and the Profane Makes religious ceremonies special Business
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Popular Culture and the City Yeah, We’re Studying Fun Stuff!
The Sociological Purpose of Music • Ornamentation • Example: Weddings • The Sacred and the Profane • Makes religious ceremonies special • Business • Because a lot of money is involved in the music industry, Marxists would argue that race and class comes into play
Music and Space • Production of music is inherently locality-relevant • Local success; band needs to be geographically close • Musical taste is locality-relevant • Historically constructed, racial and cultural heritages, even laws and regulation
Music and Socioeconomic Status • Tastes are marked by race and SES • This has everything to do with residential segregation • Example: Rap Music • In short: community and pop characteristics interact to create regional musical tastes
Punk Rock and Regional Differences • England in the 1970s • The National Front • High unemployment • Very liberal, very aggressive
Punk Rock • New York in the 1970s characterized by art and fashion • Many of the musicians were art students and influenced by the English punks • Result: more restrained
Punk Rock • Los Angeles punk was just sort of strange • Some bastardized combination of the English and New York Styles • Result: oddly, fashionably aggressive
Other Punk Movements • Washington, DC • Early, progressive, political, hardcore • “Cal” Punk • Surf pop inspired • Minneapolis • Indie Rock roots • Olympia • Politically progressive
Business Power Elite and Media • Photography as a powerful arm of journalism • Censorship movements started from photojournalsim’s sensationalistic photographs • Howard Stern is a contemporary example • Corporations owning media outlets becomes problematic for journalists
Hollywood and the World System • LA is the center of US movie-making • US is THE core country • In the world system, LA is the capital of moviemaking • Hong Kong styles of Kung-Fu were appropriated by LA filmmaking: “expropriation”
TV and Stereotypes • 1950s showed idyllic suburban white family • Not accurate of suburban family life, but close enough so that families saw themselves in the shows • Showed women as subservient to husbands
TV and Stereotypes • 1960s-1970s portrayed black Americans on TV • But some stereotypes were reinforced by these portrayals