What Popular Culture Means To Me

Popular Culture (pop culture) is an ever-changing aspect of our society and many others that will change they will people shop, watch TV, view certain products and whatever else it is that is affected by pop culture. Pop culture is something that changes with the times and rightfully so. According to the fantastic Wikipedia, the definition of 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.” However this sounds like a mouthful and I don’t feel that it sums it up in a very easily understandable way so I like what the book has to say as to what it is. First you take the term popular which simply means well liked by the masses (people) and culture which simply means a set of practices, artifacts, customs and values of a social group. When put together you get a rather simple definition of the events, fads and trends that are well liked by the masses and stand the test of time. These things usually capture the public’s imagination and leave thirsting for the next best thing. So to me pop culture is all the things that have come and gone and have people rushing to be part of it. Remember when beanie babies were the thing to have? Or perhaps when tickle me Elmo was something people were willing to kill for to obtain. When speaking about events, how about the Columbine shootings or the Clinton scandal; both were examples of pop culture events that held its weight for quite some time. Although pop culture is everywhere, you tend to see the younger audiences creating the buzz and maintaining it for a long time.

Now that we have an understanding of what pop culture is, how is it relevant to businesses or our future careers? Depending on your career choice, having an understanding of pop culture could mean a more intimate understanding of consumers or industry which could translate to a higher profit margin. Not to confuse pop culture with high culture, understanding pop culture would keep you up with current trends or what’s “in”. Nobody really saw social networking sites being all that important but look at them now, a huge success and widely used as a means of keeping up with friends to looking at future employee candidates. Learning about popular culture makes us more connected to what’s in society and how they shape our lives. Just look at some pop culture icons like Michael Jackson or Tiger Woods. These people have set the tone for much of what society talks about and accepts. Michael Jackson, an American pop culture entertainer, is a world phenomenon and even in his death will be remembered as such. Tiger woods’, an American golfer, has his own video game and is recognized as the world’s greatest athlete. In careers such as marketing, advertising, television success or really any job that involves interacting with people on a personal basis, understanding pop culture and how society reacts to certain trends and events could really mean the success or failure of a campaign or business project.

When it comes to pop culture artifacts, the revolutionary Apple iPod would have to top my list. The iPod is what I would call a revolutionary device that really set the tone for many future products. During the time of its release, people still thought compact disks were cool but the idea that a device could hold three times as many songs and keep portable was something that astonished many people. The first iPod hit the market in late October of 2001 at a whopping $399. The surprising thing is that in the mere two months it was on the market, it sold just over 125,000 units. That is an average of 2,100 units a day or 87 units an hour! That is quite impressive for such an expensive device. What makes the iPod such a pop culture item, is that it has become such a household name. At this point in time, it is pretty difficult to name a person who does not have an iPod or at least have considered one.

Pop culture is a vital part of our society and is a very interesting subject matter.