John Storey's "What is Popular Culture?" (Summary/Notes)

Summary

John's essay explores the complexities of defining popular culture, highlighting its relational nature to other cultural categories like folk and mass culture. The essay delves into Raymond Williams' definitions of culture and emphasizes the significance of ideology in understanding popular culture. It discusses various perspectives on popular culture, from being widely liked and mass-produced to being a site of struggle between dominant and subordinate groups. The historical context of industrialization and its impact on cultural dynamics is also examined, illustrating the evolving nature of popular culture.

Takeaways

• 📚 John's essay highlights the difficulty in defining popular culture due to its inherent contrasts with other cultural categories.
• 🌀 Popular culture is often defined in relation to folk culture, mass culture, dominant culture, and working-class culture.
• 🧠 Raymond Williams describes culture as one of the most complex words in the English language, with three broad definitions.
• 🏛️ Popular culture draws on the second and third definitions of culture: a particular way of life and intellectual/artistic activities that produce meaning.
• 🌍 Popular culture includes lived practices like seaside holidays and texts like soap operas, pop music, and comics.
• 💡 Ideology is a crucial concept in cultural studies and has multiple competing meanings, sometimes used interchangeably with culture.
• 🔍 Ideology can refer to a systematic body of ideas, a masking of reality, ideological forms in texts, secondary meanings, and material practices.
• 🏭 The definition of popular culture can be approached from various perspectives, including mass-produced commercial culture and culture originating from the people.
• 🛠️ The mass culture perspective often sees popular culture as formulaic and manipulative, while other perspectives view it as a site of struggle and negotiation.
• ⚙️ Popular culture emerged as a distinct phenomenon following industrialization and urbanization, profoundly impacting cultural dynamics and shaping cultural relations.

Q & A

What challenge does John identify in defining popular culture?

John notes that defining popular culture is difficult because it is always defined in relation to other conceptual categories such as folk culture, mass culture, dominant culture, and working-class culture.

Why is it important to understand the term 'culture' before defining popular culture?

Understanding 'culture' is important because popular culture draws upon definitions of culture, particularly those that refer to a way of life and the works and practices of intellectual and artistic activity that produce meaning.

What are the three broad definitions of culture presented by Raymond Williams?

Raymond Williams presents three definitions: 1) the intellectual, spiritual, and aesthetic development of a society or civilization, 2) a particular way of life encompassing various aspects such as literacy, holidays, sports, and religious festivals, and 3) the works and practices of intellectual and artistic activity that produce meaning.

Which of Williams' definitions of culture are typically drawn upon when discussing popular culture?

When discussing popular culture, we typically draw upon the second and third definitions: culture as a way of life and culture as signifying practices.

Why is ideology a crucial concept in the study of popular culture?

Ideology is crucial because it shapes the nature of popular culture, influencing the way texts and practices present images of reality, and plays a role in masking, distorting, or concealing aspects of reality to serve the interests of the powerful.

How does classical Marxism view the relationship between culture and economic production?

Classical Marxism views cultural products as reflections of power relations in the economic base of society, where the organization of economic production determines the type of culture a society produces or allows.

What is the mass culture perspective on popular culture?

The mass culture perspective sees popular culture as mass-produced, commercial culture for mass consumption, often viewed as formulaic and manipulative, with a non-discriminating audience.

How does the hegemony theory view popular culture?

The hegemony theory views popular culture as a site of struggle between dominant and subordinate groups, involving exchange and negotiation of cultural and ideological values, and shaped by the process of articulation.

What historical context is associated with the emergence of popular culture as a distinct phenomenon?

Popular culture emerged as a distinct phenomenon following industrialization and urbanization, particularly during the Industrial Revolution, which transformed cultural relations and created a new cultural space outside the influence of dominant classes.

What does the concept of articulation refer to in the context of popular culture?

Articulation refers to the process of expressing and making temporary connections between different cultural forces, revealing the struggle between resistance and incorporation within individual popular texts and practices.