Popular Culture

1. Popular Culture

2. Definition of Popular Culture • Popular culture is large scale, heterogenous (diverse), usually urban and changes quickly. • Popular culture is based on trends, quickly changing through media and marketing • Teenagers are usually the leaders in popular culture because they create and adopt trends the most.

3. Diffusion of Popular Culture • Trends are usually diffused through either hierarchal diffusion or contagious diffusion from a hearth. • MySpace and Facebook doubled subscribers monthly through contagious diffusion. • Hierarchal diffusion explains the spread of Hip hop • Time-space compression explains the diffusion of popular culture better than distance decay. • The more connected places are in communication and transportation technology, the more likely trends will diffuse from one to the other.

4. Question Following time-space compression, how could people predict where trends will spread using this map on distribution of televisions?

5. Popular Music and Art Popular Music and art is created by specific individuals with the purpose of being sold in large numbers.

6. Popular Architecture In popular architecture, housing styles change every decade or so to reflect trends, along with technological innovations.

7. Popular Clothing • In popular culture, clothing often reflects occupation and income. • Higher income, the more often the wardrobe changes. • Jeans have spread worldwide, especially Levi’s.

8. Popular Cuisine Popular culture consumes large quantities of alcohol and snack foods, partly because of marketing. Cultural backgrounds and local products will still influence these choices.

9. Popular Sports • Communication and transportation technology has allowed sports to become an important part of popular culture, as well as more free time. • Regions develop preferences for certain sports.

10. Summary • Create a bubble map that describes Popular Culture.