Pop culture

I’m a pop culture critic. Right now I’m focusing on Film but even so, there are dashes of music, celebrity and social ideology. We find meaning in the popular – we see ourselves reflected.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia says, “Popular culture (commonly known as pop culture) is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the late 20th and early 21st century. Heavily influenced by mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday lives of the society.

Popular culture is often seen as being trivial and dumbed-down in order to find consensual acceptance throughout the mainstream. As a result, it comes under heavy criticism from various non-mainstream sources (most notably religious groups and countercultural groups) that deem it superficial, consumerist, sensationalist, and corrupted.

The term "popular culture" itself is of 19th century coinage, in original usage referring to the education and "culturedness" of the lower classes, as was delivered in an address at the Birmingham Town Hall, England. The term began to assume the meaning of a culture of the lower classes separate from and opposed to "true education" towards the end of the century, a usage that became established by the interbellum period. The current meaning of the term, culture for mass consumption, especially originating in the United States, is established by the end of World War II. The abbreviated form "pop culture" dates to the 1960s.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_culture)

I am aware that there still is a bias towards pop culture. Even though I did my PhD in Drama, there still appears to be a hierarchy of so-called ‘taste.’ Some dramatic works are more acceptable than others.

I have always gone against the grain – I do what’s unpopular, believe it or not, and I expect controversy.