SOC/105: Introduction To Popular American Culture
Running Head: Popular American Culture Paper 1
Popular American Culture Paper
SOC/105 Introduction To Popular American Culture
June 11, 2013
Professor:
Popular American Culture Paper 2
Analysis
Culture is what defines a group of people, normally by: ethnicity, religion, beliefs, food, music, art, clothing, entertainment, and sometimes-generalized characters. Popular Culture is the forever changing trends, attitudes, ideas, forms of art, types of music, foods, perspectives, fitness, fashions, technologies, and overall specific themes that take place and are main stream within a culture. Popular culture can vary within a culture, but the general culture of a group mostly remains neutral. Technology, music, and fashion are probably close to being the top three popular American culture trends. I include television into the trend of technology, because people are …show more content…
now watching television on many types of devices, for example: smart phones, tablets, computers, laptops, miniature tablets, and many technical devices. It seems like everywhere you go, you can always spot someone on a device of some sort, playing a game, watching a show, YouTube, or browsing the internet. Technology has made such a huge impact on the American culture as a whole it is astonishing. Anyone can be in touch or connected to another, pretty much instantly, from anywhere in the world. Technology has been such a craze that it’s hard to keep up with. There is always some type of advancement for the device that you already have every few months. In our culture, its seems almost necessary to have the most up to date device, even if its not that much different or better. Technology is a multi billion-dollar industry and has forever changed American culture. Technology affects all of the other popular trends to include music. Music has been apart of American culture since our existence. Yes, the instruments and tunes might have changed, due to the ever changing popularity within the
Popular American Culture Paper 3
culture, but the general art of music has always remained. The type of music being played by musicians has changed over time and it’s all because of the ever-changing popular culture as a whole. People’s feelings, ideas, creativeness, attitudes, and trends have all may made music change along the way. From the 18th and 19th centuries’ classical music, to the drastic change to jazz, rock, rap, and pop of the 20th century, and now leading into the advanced computer generated sounds for all genres for the 21st; music has changed America. Some people may not be into technology, fashion, television, or other popular culture trends, but everyone listens to music. It appears that, decade-by-decade, music has changed America’s culture. Whether it’s clothing, hairstyles, attitudes, media, and even characters, music has been a trend in changing American culture. Fashion is another major trend that has impacted America’s popular culture. Fashion, just as music, has also been an importance to Americans since its existence. Fashion has been a trend in all cultures from the beginning of humanity. People like being different and fashion is one of the largest ways to set yourself apart, to be that different somebody, to show who you are, and what your about. It may not be a priority in some lives, but American’s as a whole, take it seriously. Fashion seems to impact the American culture as often as music and technology. Within every decade, thousands of changes and advancements are discovered, revealed, tried, some keep, many don’t, but that’s what attracts the attention of the American popular culture. American’s involved like change, are intrigued by new ideas, it is considered an art; fashion allows you to be creative and paint who you are. Fashion will always remain a trend and have an effect on America’s popular culture.
Popular American Culture Paper 4 American popular culture affects the majority of the public’s personal decision making in many ways. The American popular culture’s media has the greatest affect on personal decision-making. The American popular culture media persuades the American public on ideas about what to eat, how to look, what new thing to buy, who to vote for, what to listen to and even what to brush you teeth with. There is not a mile in any major city or town without some type of media advertisement, whether it’s a billboard or a T.V. commercial, the popular culture is always trying to get you involved. Hundreds to thousands of advertisements, depending on your location, are seen by an individual on a daily basics. Advertisements are what people attract to in order to make any decision. Sometimes, changing minds just because it’s popular. It may not even be the best choice. For example, Energy Drinks, they are not good for you from a health standpoint, but are so popular because of what they advertise to do. They give you energy, promote focus, and sometimes provide healthy vitamins. Which is all very true, but the facts are, the negative effects from the amount of the ingredients involved to provide you energy drastically outweigh the positives. They are so accepted in the American popular culture that the negatives seem to be overlooked, because “hey, everyone else is doing it”. America’s popular culture will always and forever affect the decisions of the public in all areas of life and will continue to have this affect. Change and following American popular culture makes us who we are as a culture.
Popular American Culture Paper 5
Record interactions with popular culture
Television shows: I don’t really watch T.V. all that often, but when I do, I normally watch the History channel, Animal Planet, and the Discovery channel. I enjoy watching educational television; documentaries are my favorite. The other stations I regularly tune into are hockey games as well as the news. Not any news channel in particular, because I like to get variety, I enjoy getting all sides of a story from different news stations rather than just one view. Every once in a while I will watch a random television series, but rarely ever.
The Internet: I guess the Internet is where I get the majority of my information from in regards to the popular American culture. I mostly use Yahoo news. I got into Yahoo news, because that’s what for my home email. While I check my mail, if I have time, I sometimes browse around their variety of news. I also browse around the O.C. Register, Google News, and other various websites to get variety about current events. This may be weird for some, but I do not have a Facebook. I’m not really a fan of exposing my private life to the public, yeah its nice to share what your doing with friends but its really a large task to expose your self to your close friends in such a large social network. Its starts off with close friends, but then sooner or later you wind up with 300-thousands of people you don’t really know examining and looking into your life, not a fan, so I ignore it all together. I found that my close true friends and family are the one that really matter and I keep in contact with all of them on regular basics in person or over the phone.
Popular American Culture Paper 6
Clothes I wear: I really enjoy dressing well.
Surfing, hockey, fitness, and the outdoors are the largest influences in my life. I enjoy wearing surf brands, Anaheim Ducks (fan apparel), jeans, a nice pair of shoes, and a nice watch. I really have fallen in love with a shoe brand called, Clark’s. This brand has been around for a while, over 50 years, and they make quality, comfortable shoes. I bought a pair two years ago and I was hooked. They are so comfortable and practical for my life style. I enjoy riding my motorcycle, hiking with my wife and dog, overall just active, and the dessert boots I bought are perfect for all areas. They are so comfortable, just perfect, and I love them. The may be a bit pricey, but they are worth every penny, and they will last a few years. As for a watch I normally buy a Nixon. They look great, the price is right, and I can take it with me in all weather and terrain. But it’s not expensive enough to baby or have to worry about harming it too
much.
Magazines: I can only recall buying a few magazines in my life. They were pretty much tattoo, motorcycle, surfing, or car magazines. I read weekly, but I mostly spend my time in educational reading and in the Bible. My religion and education take up the majority of my reading at this point in my life.
Popular American Culture Paper 7
References
Petracca M. (2007). Common Culture. Reading and Writing About American Popular Culture, Fifth Edition Ch.1
Received from the University of Phoenix Ecampus Library
https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/content/eBookLibrary2/content/eReader.aspx
Popular American Culture Paper
SOC/105 Introduction To Popular American Culture
June 11, 2013
Professor:
Popular American Culture Paper 2
Analysis
Culture is what defines a group of people, normally by: ethnicity, religion, beliefs, food, music, art, clothing, entertainment, and sometimes-generalized characters. Popular Culture is the forever changing trends, attitudes, ideas, forms of art, types of music, foods, perspectives, fitness, fashions, technologies, and overall specific themes that take place and are main stream within a culture. Popular culture can vary within a culture, but the general culture of a group mostly remains neutral. Technology, music, and fashion are probably close to being the top three popular American culture trends. I include television into the trend of technology, because people are …show more content…
now watching television on many types of devices, for example: smart phones, tablets, computers, laptops, miniature tablets, and many technical devices. It seems like everywhere you go, you can always spot someone on a device of some sort, playing a game, watching a show, YouTube, or browsing the internet. Technology has made such a huge impact on the American culture as a whole it is astonishing. Anyone can be in touch or connected to another, pretty much instantly, from anywhere in the world. Technology has been such a craze that it’s hard to keep up with. There is always some type of advancement for the device that you already have every few months. In our culture, its seems almost necessary to have the most up to date device, even if its not that much different or better. Technology is a multi billion-dollar industry and has forever changed American culture. Technology affects all of the other popular trends to include music. Music has been apart of American culture since our existence. Yes, the instruments and tunes might have changed, due to the ever changing popularity within the
Popular American Culture Paper 3
culture, but the general art of music has always remained. The type of music being played by musicians has changed over time and it’s all because of the ever-changing popular culture as a whole. People’s feelings, ideas, creativeness, attitudes, and trends have all may made music change along the way. From the 18th and 19th centuries’ classical music, to the drastic change to jazz, rock, rap, and pop of the 20th century, and now leading into the advanced computer generated sounds for all genres for the 21st; music has changed America. Some people may not be into technology, fashion, television, or other popular culture trends, but everyone listens to music. It appears that, decade-by-decade, music has changed America’s culture. Whether it’s clothing, hairstyles, attitudes, media, and even characters, music has been a trend in changing American culture. Fashion is another major trend that has impacted America’s popular culture. Fashion, just as music, has also been an importance to Americans since its existence. Fashion has been a trend in all cultures from the beginning of humanity. People like being different and fashion is one of the largest ways to set yourself apart, to be that different somebody, to show who you are, and what your about. It may not be a priority in some lives, but American’s as a whole, take it seriously. Fashion seems to impact the American culture as often as music and technology. Within every decade, thousands of changes and advancements are discovered, revealed, tried, some keep, many don’t, but that’s what attracts the attention of the American popular culture. American’s involved like change, are intrigued by new ideas, it is considered an art; fashion allows you to be creative and paint who you are. Fashion will always remain a trend and have an effect on America’s popular culture.
Popular American Culture Paper 4 American popular culture affects the majority of the public’s personal decision making in many ways. The American popular culture’s media has the greatest affect on personal decision-making. The American popular culture media persuades the American public on ideas about what to eat, how to look, what new thing to buy, who to vote for, what to listen to and even what to brush you teeth with. There is not a mile in any major city or town without some type of media advertisement, whether it’s a billboard or a T.V. commercial, the popular culture is always trying to get you involved. Hundreds to thousands of advertisements, depending on your location, are seen by an individual on a daily basics. Advertisements are what people attract to in order to make any decision. Sometimes, changing minds just because it’s popular. It may not even be the best choice. For example, Energy Drinks, they are not good for you from a health standpoint, but are so popular because of what they advertise to do. They give you energy, promote focus, and sometimes provide healthy vitamins. Which is all very true, but the facts are, the negative effects from the amount of the ingredients involved to provide you energy drastically outweigh the positives. They are so accepted in the American popular culture that the negatives seem to be overlooked, because “hey, everyone else is doing it”. America’s popular culture will always and forever affect the decisions of the public in all areas of life and will continue to have this affect. Change and following American popular culture makes us who we are as a culture.
Popular American Culture Paper 5
Record interactions with popular culture
Television shows: I don’t really watch T.V. all that often, but when I do, I normally watch the History channel, Animal Planet, and the Discovery channel. I enjoy watching educational television; documentaries are my favorite. The other stations I regularly tune into are hockey games as well as the news. Not any news channel in particular, because I like to get variety, I enjoy getting all sides of a story from different news stations rather than just one view. Every once in a while I will watch a random television series, but rarely ever.
The Internet: I guess the Internet is where I get the majority of my information from in regards to the popular American culture. I mostly use Yahoo news. I got into Yahoo news, because that’s what for my home email. While I check my mail, if I have time, I sometimes browse around their variety of news. I also browse around the O.C. Register, Google News, and other various websites to get variety about current events. This may be weird for some, but I do not have a Facebook. I’m not really a fan of exposing my private life to the public, yeah its nice to share what your doing with friends but its really a large task to expose your self to your close friends in such a large social network. Its starts off with close friends, but then sooner or later you wind up with 300-thousands of people you don’t really know examining and looking into your life, not a fan, so I ignore it all together. I found that my close true friends and family are the one that really matter and I keep in contact with all of them on regular basics in person or over the phone.
Popular American Culture Paper 6
Clothes I wear: I really enjoy dressing well.
Surfing, hockey, fitness, and the outdoors are the largest influences in my life. I enjoy wearing surf brands, Anaheim Ducks (fan apparel), jeans, a nice pair of shoes, and a nice watch. I really have fallen in love with a shoe brand called, Clark’s. This brand has been around for a while, over 50 years, and they make quality, comfortable shoes. I bought a pair two years ago and I was hooked. They are so comfortable and practical for my life style. I enjoy riding my motorcycle, hiking with my wife and dog, overall just active, and the dessert boots I bought are perfect for all areas. They are so comfortable, just perfect, and I love them. The may be a bit pricey, but they are worth every penny, and they will last a few years. As for a watch I normally buy a Nixon. They look great, the price is right, and I can take it with me in all weather and terrain. But it’s not expensive enough to baby or have to worry about harming it too
much.
Magazines: I can only recall buying a few magazines in my life. They were pretty much tattoo, motorcycle, surfing, or car magazines. I read weekly, but I mostly spend my time in educational reading and in the Bible. My religion and education take up the majority of my reading at this point in my life.
Popular American Culture Paper 7
References
Petracca M. (2007). Common Culture. Reading and Writing About American Popular Culture, Fifth Edition Ch.1
Received from the University of Phoenix Ecampus Library
https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/content/eBookLibrary2/content/eReader.aspx