The Popular Cultures Critical Attention and the Pop Culture in the United States
Is Popular Culture Unworthy of Critical Attention? Many people consider pop culture to be insignificant and unimportant. However, should people consider popular culture to be unworthy of critical attention? Absolutely not. The sphere of influence that pop culture wields covers and controls the entire planet, propagated with the help of the advanced piece of technology known as the smartphone. This influence is most apparent in Western society; over three-quarters of Americans own one (Smith 1). Demographics show that roughly 3 and 1/2 billion people access the internet each day to perfom basic tasks like surfing the web, listening to the latest music, watch trending videos on You'Tube, and go on social media (Kemp 1).
Far from trivial and unimportant, pop culture plays a significant role in linking the entire planet. It gives humans something to like and share in common, whether it is the bottle flip challenge, using Snapchat filters, or even just sharing stories about the music of your all-time favorite artist witha pen pal. Writers such as John Pareles, Luci Tapahonso, Pat Mora, and Andrew Warren all write seriously about various sectors of pop culture. Still, how useful and informative are such analyses? In John Pareles "Gather No Moss, Take No Prisoners, but Be Coo," a review of a rock concert by rock guitarist Keith Richards, he writes deeply and comprehensively about the way Keith plays his guitar. "The distilled twang of his tone has been imitated all over rock, but far fewer guitarists have learned his guerilla timing, his coiled silences... [he] goes not for long lines, but for serrated riffing, zinging out three or four notes again and again in various permutations, wringing from them the essence of the blues...less is more, especially when delivered with utter confidence" (Pareles 149).
Pareles employs words such as distilled, coiled, serrated, zinging, and wringing to bring color into his writing, and it makes an informative paragraph even more appealing to read. Many guitarists will find Pareles' descriptions on Keith Richard's playing style to be descriptive and informative; they play the same instrument as him and understand what Pareles is describing. Since there are so many humans on earth and each person is unique, there are always exceptions. The most important thing, however, is to understand that not everyone will find these analyses to be useful, or even relevant. Only a certain group of people, whether they play or are a prospective guitarist, will find information of value in Pareles' work. In Luci Tapahonso's essay "The Way It Is," she writes about how exciting and rare it is to see an Indian person in an advertisement. Perhaps the most significant statement Tapahonso makes in her essay is that the advertisers "...showed Indians as we live today-enjoying pizza as one of our favorite foods, including humor and fun as part of our daily lives, and recognizing the importance of preserving traditional knowledge" (Tapahonso 150).
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The important point in all of this? Pat Mora states it best in her book, "Nepantla". "Advertisers track our values and thus our buying habits. Their analyses confirm the conclusions of psychologists and sociologists: we are loyal.advertisers like loyalty, which they hope translates into brand-name loyalty" (Mora 163). Popular culture may be a significant and impacting aspect of a person's life, but sometimes it only plays a minor role in others. Many people see it as something trivial. Others believe that pop culture is worthy of critical attention and study, such as advertisers who use popular culture to target groups of consumers in order to have them purchase their products. No matter how it is viewed, however, it really is undeniable that popular culture plays a notable role in connecting the world together, and plays a large part in influencing a modern individual's decision.
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The Popular Cultures Critical Attention and the Pop Culture in the United States. (2023, Mar 13). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/the-popular-cultures-critical-attention-and-the-pop-culture-in-the-united-states/
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