The article concludes with the thought
that popular culture is not controlled by the media nor pushed solely by the
people. Popular culture holds both elements. We are fortunate to learn about
certain historians who endeavored to analyze various forms of common
entertainment. This is wonderful information for separating and examining the
trends of each decade.
However, my
overall conception of the forces behind popular culture has not changed. In sociology, we learned about the roots of
mass consumerism and how psychology was implemented for marketing popular
culture. Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays was so powerful that he influenced not
only culture but our government as well. Bernays was the manipulative “master
of capitalism” who defaced democracy with materialism. Century of Self: Part One, was one of the most influential films
that I had to watch in college, and it has continued to leave an indelible mark
on the way I perceive popular culture: “Passive consumerism=key to control!”
I'm glad you brought up the article's concluding point. It made me wonder how popular culture is created, influenced, and changed. Perhaps, popular culture is a product of the correlation existent between the media and the people of society. The people use the media to understand, learn, discover, create, and change. Yet, the media acquires its topics and innovations from the people of society. It's almost a paradoxical relationship, yet it still functions soundly and efficiently. I also found the quote you concluded your post with to be interesting. I have to admit that the majority of society's consumers seem to always consume in a passive manner, purchasing, imbibing, and ingesting what the media approves and offers. As such, this point does seem to imply consumers are under the deceptive control of producers and marketers.
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