scholarly journals Reflections on Popular Culture and Philosophy

2022 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Christian
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Philosophical Thinking ◽  
Scientific Rigor ◽  
Educational Backgrounds ◽  
The Simpsons ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Viable Approach ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract Contributions to the philosophical genre of popular culture and philosophy aim to popularize philosophical ideas with the help of references to the products of popular (mass) culture with TV series like The Simpsons, Hollywood blockbusters like The Matrix and Jurassic Park, or popular music groups like Metallica. While being commercially successful, books in this comparatively new genre are often criticized for lacking scientific rigor, providing a shallow cultural commentary, and having little didactic value to foster philosophical understanding. This paper discusses some of these methodological and didactic objections and seeks to encourage a constructive discussion of concerns with the genre. It shows how the genre similar to previous attempts to foster public understanding of philosophy and that it is a methodologically viable approach to reach a broad range of readers with diverse informational preferences and educational backgrounds. Considering what makes this approach to the popularization of philosophical thinking successful will shed light on some of the criteria for popularization of philosophy in general.

scholarly journals Living in the Matrix: How a Scientific Conjecture was Turned into a Conspiracy Theory

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 18-30
Author(s):  
Roberto Paura
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
David Bohm ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract In recent years the simulation argument, namely, the idea that our reality is a kind of computer-generated simulation developed for hidden purposes, has acquired some credit and has been appropriated by the conspiracy culture, especially in the works of David Icke, author of paranoid bestsellers and known for his pseudo-theory about Reptilian aliens who secretly rule our world. To understand the reasons for the success of such an implausible pseudo-theory, it is necessary to analyze its genealogy inside popular culture. The methodological proposal underlying this paper is that the analysis of conspiracy theories and pseudo-scientific beliefs can benefit from the contribution of the history of ideas, which traditionally focuses on the reconstruction of the genealogy and the metamorphosis of unit-ideas over time and through different cultural levels. In this way, it is possible to shed light on the background and the peculiar rationality behind these pseudo-theories. The paper highlights New Age appropriation mechanisms of the theories of physicist David Bohm and neuropsychiatrist Karl Pribram (holographic principle), in particular through the pseudoscientific works of the McKenna Brothers (The Invisibile Landscape, 1975) and Michael Talbot (The Holographic Universe, 1991) as well as the impact of some sci-fi works based on the simulation argument, especially Philip K. Dick’s novels and The Matrix movie (1999), in exposing the paranoid and conspiracy implications of this argument. The paper also highlights the role of pseudo-scientific concepts as a characteristic aspect of contemporary superconspiracies, which in the age of rationalization and disenchantment seek to embrace a patina of science in order to be better accepted by the public. Wider application of this perspective to other cases of pseudo-scientific beliefs and contemporary conspiracy theories (e.g. flat Earth or chemtrails) could provide useful suggestions on the most effective way of counteracting them.

The Folk Fight Back: Protesting the Cancellation of Don Messer’s Jubilee in 1969

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg Marquis
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
New Brunswick ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
Generation Gap ◽  
Folk Culture ◽  
Television History ◽  
Canadian Nationalism ◽  
The 1960S

This article examines part of the reaction to the 1969 cancellation of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (cbc) television’s Don Messer’s Jubilee, one of the most popular Canadian-produced programs of the era. In addition to an exploration of television history and popular culture, it is also a look at the neglected topic of “square” Canada in the 1960s. Messer began fiddling at dances in rural New Brunswick in the 1920s and moved to radio and recording prior to becoming an unlikely national television star by 1961. After exploring possible classifications of the show’s music, the article explores themes in protest letters and petitions sent to the cbc. These included Canadian nationalism in opposition to American mass culture, Canadian folk culture, cbc elitism, Maritime regionalism, nostalgia, and the related themes of the generation gap and permissive society. The article concludes that fans viewed Messer as a custodian of Canadian folk culture that was being erased by the national broadcaster at a time of heightened nationalism.

scholarly journals The Influence Of Popular Culture On The Visual Music Album Cover

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-113
Author(s):  
Citra Kemala Putri
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Pop Art ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Cultural Symbols ◽  
Popular Art ◽  
Visual Music ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
The Aesthetic

Mass culture and popular culture is one of the important phenomena that was born after the postmodern era. In a society that lives in the midst of mass culture and popular culture, will grow consumer communities that produce new cultural symbols and activities. This discourse then influenced various aspects, for example, the emergence of popular music and popular art movements which soon became a commodities that was consumed by many youth people. This study discusses the influence of popular culture on the visuals of music album covers which take several album covers of international musicians from different time periods as samples to compare the similarities or friction caused by various art developments as their response toward happening trends. This study uses qualitative method. This study of various visual images was considering the aesthetic idioms of postmodernism, including Pastiche, Parody, Kitsch, Camp and Schizophrenia, as well as the concepts of several art movements, such as Pop Art and Lowbrow Art. The final result of this study reveal that several music albums using the Pop Art and Lowbrow Art style contained postmodern aesthetic idioms. Each album cover can contain one or several aesthetic idioms simultaneously.

scholarly journals Masculinity in Indonesian Popular Culture in the Early Era of the New Order Regime

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Ferry Fauzi Hermawan
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
Male Dominance ◽  
New Historicism ◽  
New Order ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One ◽  
Sexual Object ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
The Ideal

This study aimed to identify the forms of masculinity in the Indonesian popular culture in the beginning of New Order regime. This study was based on the two novels: Cross Mama and Kekasih-Kekasih Gelap, written by Motinggo Busye. The analysis used new historicism theory proposed by Stephen Greenblatt. The analysis also considered various cultural contexts emerged in 1970s. The results show three shared trends in the novels. The first trend shows that the masculinity tends to be represented by both men worshiping patriarchal values such as the myth of woman’s virginity and men perceiving woman as a sexual object. The second trend shows that masculinity is stereotyped based on masculinity, power, and male dominance. The third trend shows that masculinity relates to various products of mass culture at the time. This last trend shows that in that era,the ideal male figure is represented as the one who: (1) is sexually active with many women, (2) has a muscular body, (3) has a handsome look, and (4) has a financial capability. Besides the shared three trends, the result also shows that the texts in the novels do not only reflect the cultural situations in the 60’s and 70’s but also contribute in shaping the social values of the cultural situations.

scholarly journals Cultural attributes of Russian rock: elitist or mass culture?

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (8) ◽  
pp. 105-117
Author(s):  
Ma Weihong ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
Political System ◽  
Modern World ◽  
The Public ◽  
Religious Issues ◽  
Rock Bands ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Rock N Roll ◽  
Cultural Niche

The article deals with identifying Russian rock culture as elitist or mass culture. The author characterizes the concepts of elitist and mass culture, explaining the difference between them, and examines the characteristics of Russian rock culture on the basis of this analysis. The author concludes that Russian rock culture is a kind of reconciliation of elite and mass culture: in the second half of the XX century the complexity of the Soviet political system and ideology determined the destiny and cultural attributes of Russian rock, making it a complex, multifaceted and eclectic phenomenon. Forced to survive, rock bands had to incorporate elements of popular music into their works and use mass media to attract the public. Having joined the ranks of commercial performances, rock 'n' roll gained more popularity, and gradually there appeared some signs of the rock culture decline. In the end, however, rock culture did not transform into mass culture, and Russian rock musicians and rock poets continued to play their music in search of a new cultural niche for themselves to express their critical attitude to reality, their denial and opposition to the processes of industrialization and urbanization, returning to the history and culture of the nation, paying attention to philosophical and religious issues and to the depth and completeness of poetic content, reconstructing Russian cultural memory, reflecting on the environmental situation in the modern world. Rock culture is still a culture of resistance, but as society continues to change, the form and content of resistance is also constantly changing, and it is because of this that rock culture has acquired a kind of humanistic foundation that is much deeper than that of popular culture, so ignoring the difference between rock culture and popular culture destroys the innate spirit and the essence of rock culture itself.

‘One man’s junk culture . . .’: A state-of-the-art review on the problem of mass culture in Argentine cultural studies

2020 ◽  
pp. 136787792097212
Author(s):  
Diego Labra
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
The Simpsons

Could you truly understand contemporary Argentine culture without considering the local appropriation of The Simpsons? In this article, we argue that mass culture has been a blind spot of Argentine social sciences and humanities because of the particular development of local cultural studies. In order to articulate a critique and build upon it, we will review relevant literature, identify promising current research, and offer an outline on how to rethink the problem of production, circulation and consumption of culture in 21st-century Argentina and beyond.

scholarly journals Re-Thinking of Popular Culture Studies as Interdisciplinary Subject

1970 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-36
Author(s):  
Min Bahadur Pun
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
Romance Novels ◽  
Class Culture ◽  
Music Journalism ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Stuart Hall

This paper discusses the emergence of popular culture as an interdisciplinary subject of research. The simplest way to define the term 'popular culture's is a culture widely favored by many people. It refers to beliefs, practices and objects widely shared among people. Some of the examples of popular culture are romance novels, science fiction, photography, pop music, journalism, advertising, television, video, computers, Internet, etc. The study of popular culture entered a new phase in the cultural and intellectual history with the establishment of the Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) led by Richard Hoggart and Stuart Hall. Two things happened to the study of popular culture as an interdisciplinary subject: (1) the study of popular culture has included wide range of issues (2) scholars have intellectual freedom in this field, and they show no interest in establishing clear boundaries around it. Popular culture is always defined in contrast to other conceptual categories such as folk culture, mass culture, dominant culture, and working class culture. Thus, popular culture becomes the 'Other' for them, which largely depends on the context of use. Lastly, the paper discusses the role of popular culture in history, anthropology, sociology and literary theories. In theory, the study of popular culture is always around the debate on postmodernism. It assumes that postmodern culture no longer recognizes the distinction between high culture and popular culture.Key Words: Popular culture; Romance novels; Science fiction; Photography; Pop musicTribhuvan University Journal Vol. XXVI, No. 1, 2009 Page: 27-36

“Me Do Wu,” My Val: The Creation of Valentine's Day in Accra, Ghana

2004 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 23-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jo Ellen Fair
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
Minor Element ◽  
Cultural Imperialism ◽  
Local Process ◽  
Changing Patterns ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Valentine's Day

Abstract:Media privatization, commercial growth, and new concern in the popular culture about changing patterns of marriage, love, and sexuality led to a sudden embrace during the 1990s by upwardly mobile urban Ghanaians of a previously minor element of globally circulating mass culture, Valentine's Day. Far from a story of cultural imperialism, the rise of Valentine's Day in present-day Accra shows that local adoption of global consumerist preferences is best understood as a local process imbued with local meanings and values, deliberately and rationally pursued.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document