Weekly Analysis 5-1

Pop Art

Pop Art is an expression of art that shows objects or scenes from daily life and uses methods of commercial art and trendy illustration (Dictionary.com, 2009). The pop Art movement began in the late 1950’s in the United States. Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg were two of the highly acclaimed painters during this era (Wikipedia, 2009). Johns and Rauschenberg were famous for Neo-Dada art because of the way they used recent materials, well-liked imagery, and abstracts. During the 1920’s, British artists which included Gerald Murphy, Charles Demuth, and Stuart Davis created paintings from everyday products (2009).

“American popular culture has quietly become inhabited by all sorts of talking animals and dancing products that are used as a communication system by advertisers”(Phillips, 2005, p. 258). The United States was not the only place that had its own pop art movement. Great Britain, Italy, Spain, and Japan had pop art movements as well with contrasts that ranged from similar and unusual styles. In Great Britain the Independent Group was known as the leader in the pop art movement in 1952. The Independent Group consisted of artists from various areas of pop culture and their art was influenced by for example, mass marketing and movies (Wikipedia, 2009). Italy’s pop art movement started in the mid 1960’s and it included the works from artists such as Mario Schifano and Piero Manzoni. The art in Italy is called Neo Pop, which is a recreation of the innovative pop art. Spain’s pop art uses mass media as an influence for an artist’s work while Japanese pop art is mostly based on anime, customary techniques, and graffiti (2009).

References

Phillips, B. J. (2005). The Defining trade characters and their role in American popular culture. In R.B. Browne (Ed.). Profiles of Popular Culture. (pp. 258-272). Wisconsin: Popular Press.

Pop Art. (2009). Dictionary.com. Retrieved April 30, 2009, from Dictionary.com

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pop%20art
Wikipedia. (2009). Neo-Dada. Retrieved April 30, 2009, from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Dada
Wikipedia. (2009). Pop Art. Retrieved April 30, 2009, from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_art

Article Analysis

Popular Culture and Social Interactions: Production, Consumption, and Usage

The author of this article examines the role of social interaction in popular culture and it is written to give a general overview to the readers of these processes. Production, consumption, and usage are the key stages that popular culture goes through before and after it reaches its audience.

Production

During the production stage the product is visualized and created by an individual or team of creators (Fine, 1977). Social interaction from a group of collaborators or artists provides the energy needed to produce the product. Collaboration between all of the creators is important because each person contributes their ideas that will help develop the product collectively. Cultural production may consist of groups who are colleagues and the “homogeneity of creative output is a result of continual interaction through group conformity, even though different from the rest of the culture” (p. 455).

Support is very important in social interaction and the creation of popular culture. For example, a team effort when working on a movie would be a good example because of the collaborative effort involved in the overall production of the film which includes, overseeing the financial aspects, support personnel, and group dynamics, until the final product is complete (p. 455). Recognition and reward are equally important in the creation of popular culture. For example, the Academy Awards each year will bring together a collective group within popular culture from that industry.
Consumption

In our society in order for something to be categorized as popular and earn the producers money, it must be recognized by a large segment of the population. “The groups of people who consume different forms of popular culture will consist of various aspects such as the “time of day, day of the week, and location (p. 458). For example, people who go to view a movie may not know each other, but there could be something that will bring strangers together. Usually this social interaction is due to common values and beliefs that each have and that are brought out in the production. (pp. 458-459).

The consumption of popular culture on television can also decrease the amount and quality of social interaction. “A study of seventy-six housewives found that, there was little or no conversation while the television set was on; 32% claimed that the amount of talking varied with the program, and 16% claimed that a considerable amount of conversation occurred. Concentration, gregariousness, and other personality factors may also affect the depth of social interaction .These two cases have to be investigated further to evaluate the effects of popular culture production” (p. 460).

Popular Culture Usage as a Conversation Tool

The author suggests that, popular culture items that are a part of a fad are usually talked about the most, but can differ depending on the public’s taste in products and symbolic meaning. These types of products can start conversations on various levels. The three main levels of social interaction are 1) people who do not each other, but talk about popular culture in general such as a good movie ( i.e., Jaws), 2) to express viewpoints, and 3) social interaction among people who know each other and they use something within popular culture as a deeper means of expressing their culture, for example, Rap Music. “Popular culture is also an example of a contextualization device where group needs are met by incorporating the structure of popular culture into the ongoing interaction and in which content can be altered in negotiating reality” (p. 462).

Conclusion

In conclusion production, consumption, and usage of popular culture are usually taken in by homogenous and heterogeneous groups and not just individuals. For a popular culture product to become popular it must have symbolic meaning to the public whether it deals with their favorite hobby, part of their culture, continuously talked about, and advertised. This article flowed well and was easily to follow as it progressed through the stages of popular culture development.

References

Fine, G. A. (1977). Popular culture and social interaction: Production, consumption, and

usage. Journal of Popular Culture, 11(2), pp. 453-466.

The video game culture has played one of the many roles in popular culture. “Video game culture is a form of new media culture that has been influenced by video games” (Wikipedia, 2009). Over the past few years video games have been very popular among people of all ages, races, religions, cultures (Jones, 2007), but that was not always the case. In the late 1970’s and throughout the 1990’s videogames were seen as a subculture and a substitute for physical activity. In 1972 a game called Pong was created and it became the first pop culture phenomenon amongst video games. The video game Pac Man was introduced around the world in 1981 and it too was a hit among video game enthusiast (Wikipedia).

Videogames have had a major influence in our world. The Music industry has used the sounds and beats within the games and these have been incorporated into the various artistic works of recording artists. Movies based on videogames such as Resident Evil and Super Mario Bros. have also been replicated and were a box office draw across generations of movie goers (Wikipedia).

Online gaming has become one of the major steps that the videogame culture has taken. In the early 1980’s players could only play multiplayer online games with people in their state or country, but now with an internet connection players can interact with other players from all over the world (Wikipedia, 2009). According to Jones (2007), “College students comprise an active video, computer, and online gaming community. Seventy percent (70%) of college students reported playing video, computer or online games at least once in a while and men tend to play more computer and online games than women” (p. 375).

I feel that video gaming has gotten much better than when I first started playing them. When I first started playing video games the graphics were not as good as they are now and the technology that is used to create them now was nonexistent. With improvements in video game technology and game machines there are more techniques that a player uses within the games that give the game that extra edge. Video games may cross the line between, “real and virtual, or a mix of the two, so that players finally cannot tell where reality ends and virtual reality begins” (Cowlishaw, 2007, p. 391). With the proper marketing and advertisement (i.e., word-of-mouth and print ads), of videogames, not only will sales increase, but also the popularity for those who are passionate about electronic games.

References
Cowlishaw, B. (2007). Playing war: The emerging trend of real virtual combat in
current video games. In M. Petracca & M. Sorapure (Eds.), Common Culture (5^th ed.). (pp. 385-398). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Jones, S. (2007) Let the games begin: Gaming technology and entertainment among
college students. In M. Petracca & M. Sorapure (Eds.), Common Culture (5^th ed.). (pp. 372-385). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Wikipedia. (2009). Video Game Culture. Retrieved April 24, 2009, from: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_culture

USB Drive

The USB drive has been around for some time now and is a great way to store computer files. USB Drives have almost replaced floppy disks and and CDR's since their what most people are using in todays world. IBM began selling the first flash drives back in the year 2000 with a storage capacity of 8 MB which was more than five times the storage of a floppy disk which was 1.44 MB. Some advantages of having a flash drive would be its easy to transport from place to place, they work on just about every computer as of 2009, and you don't have to install device drivers to be able to use them. A major disadvantage would be that they have limited write and erase cycles before they stop working. Also if you don't have a computer that can support flash drives then you won't be able to use them.

USB Scam

There has recently been reports of people being scammed on ebay by hackers in China that sell USB Drives. They sell people flash drives that have less memory then they were advertised and some people even take apart the inside of a flash drive and put the end of a USB cord inside to make it look like a normal flash drive.













Wikipedia. (2009). USB Flash Drive. Retrieved April 19, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive

Weekly Written Analysis 1 1-4

The item of popular culture I chose to analyze is the Apple iPod. On October 23, 2001 Apple released a new hand held MP3 players called iPods. They all can do the same things from playing music to storing pictures and movie files (Wikipedia, 2009). Along with the iPod release Apple also released the iTunes software. The iTunes software is a way to transfer music, game, and movie files to and from an iPod. In addition to that iTunes is also a virtual music store where you can purchase songs, movies, and games making it convenient for it users to get their products when they need them from home (2009).

Since its release the iPod has won several awards that included engineering excellence, to most innovative audio product, to fourth best computer product of 2006. It has also dominated the sales of all digital music players and Apple reported in 2007 48% of its $7.1 billion came from iPod sales (Wikipedia, 2009). In reviews people said they liked the way the iPod looked because it had a clean simple look whenever you looked at it. The iPod isn’t just used as an entertainment device either. In Glasgow Scotland the iPod is used to train new employees at Western Infirmaries (2009).

When the iPod was advertised it was featured in TV commercials, on posters, and in print ads. Its most famous commercial was the one where silhouettes of people were in front of a colored background holding their iPods and dancing to their music (Wikipedia, 2009). Only minor problems were ever reported by iPod users. There were problems with the battery lifespan being too short when it first came out and some people even questioned its durability which still plagues them today (2009). Other than that people all over the world still purchase the iPod and its various models.

iPod. (2009). Retrieved April 5, 2009, from wikipediA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod

Week 2 Analysis

Fast & Furious

The new movie called Fast and Furious just came out and has many people rushing to see it. The movie takes in the modern car culture and uses it in the story line where four characters play different role to do various jobs in the movie. This movie is like all the other ones since it follows a similar storyline, but with different characters and locations. The Fast and Furious movies series was made up of The Fast and The Furious, Fast and Furious 2, Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, and Fast and Furious. All four of these movies had very good reception when they came out making them box office hits.

Fast and Furious had mixed reviews with a 25% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website which is a website that was made for movies with bad rating, but the film has had good commercial success. The soundtrack for the film got an average review where Amazon.com gave it a score of 3.5 out of 5. On the day that Fast and Furious opened it made $30.5 million and peaked over the weekend at $70,950,500 which was said to be more than Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift made in its entire domestic run. A sequel related to this movie is in the works, but there isn’t any word of a release date.

References

Fast & Furious. (2009). Fast & Furious (2009 film). Retrieved April 10, 2009, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_and_Furious_(2009_film)

Popular Culture: The Ipod

What is Popular Culture and What Does it mean to You?

• Popular Culture or Pop Culture is the prevailing vernacular culture in any given society, including art, cooking, clothing, entertainment, mass media, music, and style. To me popular culture shows off the latest trends whether it deals with clothing, automotive, or technology. The Apple Ipod is and example of popular culture because it's something that is constantly being talked about and advertised in many ways. Ipods are used for a variety of things such as listening to music, storing pictures, watching movies, and podcasts.

Why is an understanding of popular culture relevant to you in a business environment and in your present and future career?

• Understanding Popular Culture is important to me in a business environment because it lets me know whats hot or what the new trends are coming out. I'm not working at the moment, but in my future career popular culture will play a big part of what I do since I will need to know what kinds of things people think are hot or what people want thats different from other products that are out there. If I'm not aware of whats out in the world then I would have no knowledge of current trends.
  

What would you consider to be an example of a pop culture artifact? And why would you choose it?

• I consider the Apple Ipod a pop culture artifact. The Ipod has pretty much replaced CD and cassette players because of advancements in technology and its features. Many people own Ipods since they're easy to use and are an upgrade from portable music devices of the past. With an Ipod all you have to do is buy purchase the song you want from the virtual music store called iTunes and load it onto your ipod and start listening. This eliminates having to go to a music store and buy a CD to put into an MP3 player which makes the ipod a convenient product. The ipod also does other things cassette players and MP3 players can't like play movies, store thousands of songs, store photos, doesn't run on battery power, etc.