Which popular culture texts do you like, not like and watch, not watch/buy. In 1 page response discuss why we like certain products and not others. Explain how certain products reinforce or support our worldviews and how they create or reinforce cultural identities or stereotypes.

M05 : L1 Knowledge Building

Because this lesson is about popular culture, I wanted to use popular culture itself to show you some different perspectives in what popular culture is and how it affects society.

Popular culture is defined in our text to include the following four characteristics.

1. Created by pop-culture industries (usually for profit)
2. Different from folk culture (folk culture is everything we have learned about so far)
3. It is EVERYWHERE, or in other words is populist (popular)
4. Fills a social function, or in some way communicates ideas, beliefs, and values and so is this guy, who has created a YouTube Channel for PBS Digital Studios. In the following video he actually talks about the definition of popular culture.
5. If we compare the previous example of PSY’s Gangnam Style against the criteria listed in our text the first three characteristics can easily be determined to be a yes.
   1. Produced by a record company to promote and sell PSY music
   2. The video does not represent any cultural tradition or ritual
   3. The “GANGNAM Style” video has over 2 Billion views

   The fourth criteria of, “fills a social function,” becomes the point of interest for us any time we are analyzing the intercultural value of a popular culture text.In the case of “Gangnam Stlye” we can look to the message that it sends to the audience. The video communicates ideas about the value of class and wealth in South Korea. The following two analysis of the video prove to explain the social function of the video.Gangnam Style, Dissected: The Submersive Message Within SOuth Korea’s Music Video Sensation (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.Why Psy and Gangnam Style Demolish Cultural and Socioeconomic Barriers (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.An interesting lesson to be learned here is that by simply participating in this lesson, you are participating in popular culture (I know I am forcing you to). But, you do have the choice to incorporate or resist the ideas that I have shared with you today. Oppa gangnam style!!!