Comments on: Pop Vultura Cultural Research

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 18:01:10 +0000

90210’s infamous Eu’4′ia episode - aired 14 October 1991, say no more. That naughty Brandon.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 05:35:39 +0000

I never watched 90210 when it was first on: I was just a little too old and and a little too uninterested in TV when it came out. But when I was in grad school, I had a room-mate that watched it religiously, and eventually I got hooked. I’m sure I eventually saw all the episodes on re-runs. It’s the only show I ever developed the feeling of “oh, I need to watch and see what my friends are up to…” (like Kelly and Brenda would have been my friends in real life…riiiight…) But it was fun. Now days I don’t watch any TV at all. While I consider myself fairly hip, the looks the girls at work give me when I admit I have no idea who a single movie star or supermodel in their magazines are tell me otherwise. Maybe I should watch more TV…

By: Sonya

Sonya — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 17:12:15 +0000

Ariel,

You are right, the key to it all is to not stop thinking, and to not be complacent with culture, pop or otherwise. I could go on for days as well :), especially now that I work in television (gasp, in the belly of the beast!). I really appreciate this dialogue, and your blog!

By: Ariel

Ariel — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 23:30:15 +0000

Sonya, I agree absolutely with your rant. I’ve chewed on the issue for years, starting in high school when many of my classmates were trying (desperately!) to be “alternative,” despite mostly being suburban boring kids. I had an “aha” moment when I realized that one of my classmates who wore J. Crew and other “mainstream” attire was being totally true to herself: she was an upper-middle-class suburban high school student. She knew it. She didn’t try to pretend she was anything she wasn’t.

Same thing with popular culture: among the hipster set, there’s an understandable rebellion against popular things. I’ve always garnered ridicule for my adoration of all things pop culture … my friend Megan agreed to go in halvsies with me on “Justified,” but drew the line when I started gushing about Brandy’s album “Afrodesiac.” Brandy was just too damn mainstream.

Part of my appreciation of pop culture, however, is that it’s a barometer of American culture. My concern comes in when I stop thinking about pop culture and start just riding it. That’s when I start to feel like I’m just another manipulated consumer, as opposed to a gourmand who’s tastes are built on my own standards, instead of what’s popular (or NOT popular).

I could go on for days. I’ll spare you.

By: Sonya

Sonya — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 23:23:19 +0000

I consider myself to be a well-educated and well-read person. My pet peeve of all time is when intellectuals poo-poo pop culture. Ignoring pop culture all together is just as ignorant as ignoring the news, or great literature. There should be no need to justify an interest in it. Popular does not equal bad. Popularity is about pervasiveness. There’s crap everywhere. There’s crappy music, crappy academic writing, crappy art, crappy movies, and crappy tv. And within all of those mediums there are jems. The binary of literature=good/intelligent, tv=bad/mindless is too simplistic. I am in no way trying to criticize you personally, but I had to rant for a moment. My point is, you shouldn’t even feel like you have to justify being interested in 90210, the chipmunks, or photos of Justin Timberlake; it is merely another way that you are engaged with the world, and I personally think that’s great.