How Is Mass/Pop Culture Related To Social Theory?

4 Pages 1024 Words

In this essay I will be discussing some issues that I have seen in how institutions and individuals are being subjected to various forms of culture. The specific forms I will be discussing are “High Culture” and what I like to refer to as “Mass Culture”. Mass culture is the same as pop culture as it is called today, but in my early days in “intro” classes at a community college I have learned it to be mass culture. I will be looking into how these forms of culture are distinguished by relating it to material from social theory. More specifically I will be including some issues brought up about capitalism and production as it is related to what Karl Marx wrote about, and how these issues are present in the two forms of culture I mentioned.
For about a century, Western Culture has really been divided into two cultures, the traditional type of “high culture” and a “mass or pop culture”, manufactured wholesale for the market. High culture is the arts that require some form of intellect to comprehend, so therefore can only reach a tiny segment of the population, whilst leveling accusations of elitism. High culture includes ballet; the forms of operas, operettas and symphonies; types of film; certain novels; theater and plays. Mass or popular culture is derived from high culture, so for every item in high culture, there is a corresponding item of lesser importance in popular culture.
Forms of popular culture include television, comics and magazines, pop music and the cinema. It is acknowledged that mass culture is to some extent a continuation of the old Folk Art that grew through the Industrial Revolution as the culture of the common people. The notifiable dissimilarity is its own spontaneity and ability to satisfy the needs of the people, without the benefit of high culture. To satisfy the popular taste, like many forms of this culture does, and to exploit tastes in the manner of massive industries like Hollywood doe...