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1 What is Popular Culture?, Study notes of Cultural Studies

University of ExeterCultural Studies

As we shall see in the chapters which follow, popular culture is always defined, implicitly or explic- itly, in conuast to other conceptual categories: folk ...

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1
What
is
Popular Culture?
-
-
aus:
STOREY,
John:
Cultural
Theory
and
Popular
Culture.
London
et
al.
(PearsonlPrenUce
Hall)
2001
-
I
Before we consider
in
detail the different ways in which popular culture has been
defined and analyzed,
I
want to outline some of the general features of the debate
which the study of popular culture has generated. It is not my intention to pre-empt
the specific findings and arguments which will be presented
in
the following chapters.
Here
I
simply wish to map out the general conceptual landscape of popular culture.
This is, in many ways, a daunting task. As Tony Bennett points out, 'as it stands,
the concept of popular culture is virtually useless, a melting pot of confused and
contradictory meanings capable of misdirecting inquiry up any number of theorrt-
ical blind alleys'.' Part of the difficulty stems from the implied otherness which is
always absendpresent when we use the term 'popular culture'. As we shall see in
the chapters which follow, popular culture is always defined, implicitly or explic-
itly, in conuast to other conceptual categories: folk culture, mass culme, dominant
culture, working-class culture, etc.
A
full definition must always take this into
account. Moreover, as we shall also see, whichever conceptual category is deployed
as popular culture's absentlpresent other, it will always powerfully affect the con-
notations brought into play when we use the term 'popular culture'.
Therefore, to study popular culture we must first confront the difficulty posed by
the term itself. That is, 'depending on how it is used, quite different areas of inquiry
and forms of theoretical definition and analytical focus are suggested'." The main
argument which 1 suspect readers will take from this hook is that popular culture
is in effect an
empty
conceptual category, one which can be filled in a wide variety
of often conflicting ways, depending on the context of use.
Culture
In order to define popular culture we
ht
need to deiine the term 'culture'. Raymond
Wllliams calls culture 'one of the two or
three
most complicated words in the
English
language'.' Wllllams suggests three broad defimtions. First of all, culture
can be used to refer to 'a general process of lnteuectual, spiritual and aesthetic
pf3
pf4
pf5
pf8
pf9
pfa

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Download 1 What is Popular Culture? and more Study notes Cultural Studies in PDF only on Docsity!

1 W h a t is Popular Culture?

aus: STOREY, John: Cultural Theory and Popular Culture.

London et al. (PearsonlPrenUce Hall) 2001

- I

Before we consider in detail the different ways in which popular culture has been

defined and analyzed, I want to outline some of the general features of the debate

which the study of popular culture has generated. It is not my intention to pre-empt

the specific findings and arguments which will be presented in the following chapters.

Here I simply wish to map out the general conceptual landscape of popular culture.

This is, in many ways, a daunting task. As Tony Bennett points out, 'as it stands,

the concept of popular culture is virtually useless, a melting pot of confused and

contradictory meanings capable of misdirecting inquiry up any number of theorrt-

ical blind alleys'.' Part of the difficulty stems from the implied otherness which is

always absendpresent when we use the term 'popular culture'. As we shall see in

the chapters which follow, popular culture is always defined, implicitly or explic-

itly, in conuast to other conceptual categories: folk culture, mass culme, dominant

culture, working-class culture, etc. A full definition must always take this into

account. Moreover, as we shall also see, whichever conceptual category is deployed

as popular culture's absentlpresent other, it will always powerfully affect the con-

notations brought into play when we use the term 'popular culture'.

Therefore, to study popular culture we must first confront the difficulty posed by

the term itself. That is, 'depending on how it is used, quite different areas of inquiry

and forms of theoretical definition and analytical focus are suggested'." The main

argument which 1 suspect readers will take from this hook is that popular culture

is in effect an empty conceptual category, one which can be filled in a wide variety

of often conflicting ways, depending on the context of use.

Culture

In order to define popular culture we h t need to deiine the term 'culture'. Raymond

Wllliams calls culture 'one of the two or three most complicated words in the

English language'.' Wllllams suggests three broad defimtions. First of all, culture

can be used to refer to 'a general process of lnteuectual, spiritual and aesthetic

Notes

w Ha,cn: Yale Univcr sit" Press. 1957, D. xv. ! k c rnc ;I,ml>.?~~~., I .:I:? K) :',I,

. , ~<. ., .<

1 W h a t i s P o p u l a r C u l t u r e?

  1. Tony Bennett, 'Popular culture: a teaching objcct', Screen Edrrcotion, 34, 1980, p. 18.
  2. Ihid., p. 20.

3. Raymond Williams, Keywords, London: Fontaaa, 1983, p. 87.

  1. Ibid., p. 90.
  2. Ihid.
    1. Ihid.
  3. Craeme Turner, British Cultui.al Studies: An introduction, 2nd edn, London: Routledge, 1996, p. 182.
  4. James W. Carey, 'Overcoming resisrance to cultural studies', in W'hat Is Cultural Stud- ies: A Render, edited by John Storcy, London: Edward Arnold, 1996, p. 65.

9. Stuarr Hall, 'Some paradigms in cultural studies', Annali, 3, 1978, p. 23.

  1. See Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The German Ideology (srudenr edirion), edited and introduced by C. J. Arthur, London: Lawrcncc & Wishart, 1974.
  2. I<arl Maia: 'Preface' and 'Introduction' to a Contribution to the Critique of Politicdl Economy, Peking: Foreign Languages I'ress, 1976, p. 3.
  3. Tony Bcnnen, 'Popular culture: defining nur terms', in Popular Culture: Themes rind isscres 1 , Milron Keynes: Open University Press, 1982, p. 81.
  4. Marr, 'Preface' and 'Inrroducrion' to a Contribution to the Critique of Polit;cal Economy, p. 5.
  5. Bertolr Brechr, On Theatre, rianslatsd by John Willert, London: Methuen, 1978, pp. 1.70-1.

198 Notes

1.5. Srual-r Mall, 'The rediscovery of ideologu: rhc i-ctu)~, 01 the rcpl.rsscd in media studics', in Subjcctiuity nnd .Sociul RcIairoi?s, cdired by Vcronica Berches and James Donald, Milron I<eynes: Open University Press, 1985, p. 36.

  1. See Stuart Hall, 'Notcs on dcco~~srrucri~ig"the pi>pt~lal-"',in Cultural Ti,eory and PI>/I~,/OF Culture: A Reodcr, 2nd cdn, edircd hy John Storey, Hemel Hempsread: Prenticc Hall, I 9 Y X.
  2. Williams, Keywords, p. 237. 1.8. Bcnnerr, 'l'opi~lat.culrure: a reaching object', pp. 20-
  3. Pierre Bourdieu, Disti,zcfio,r: A sociol crjtique of lhe ludp,nent of taste. rranslared by Richard Nice. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University IJr.css, 1984, p. 5.
  4. For a discussion of Shakcsprare as pop~llarcrilrure in nineteenrh-centi~ryAmerica, see I.,IMICIILCL~villr,Hi8/,bri,w/Jaor(ib~: The eInergencc ~ ~ ~ u l t u r a l hierorchg ti, America, Cambridge, Mass.: I-laivard University Press, 1988.
  5. See '"Expecting Rain": Opera as popular culture?‘, in Hzglr-Po/,, edited by Jim Collins, Oxford: Hlackwcll, forrhcoming, 2000.
  6. See Bourdieu, Distinction, p. 5.
  7. S t e Williams, Keywords, pp. 236-8.
  8. Hall, 'Notes oo deconstructing "the popular"', pp. 448-9.
  9. This is rhr principal theme of the 'production of culture' approach. See Paul Di- Maggro, 'Cultural entreprener~rshipin ninereenth-century Boston: the creation of a n organizational base for high culture in i\rnerica3, in Celturol Tl~eoryand Po/~tulnr Cultirre: A Reader, 2nd edn, edited by John Storey, Hemel Hempsread: Prentice Hall,
  11. John Fiske, Understanding Popular Culture, London: Unwin Hyman, 1989, p. 31. 27. Simon Frith, Sound Effects: Youth, leisure and the politics of rock, Londoo: Constable, 1983, p. 147.
  12. Fiske, Understnizdjng Fopirlar Culture, p. 27.
  13. Richard Maltby, 'Inrrodocrion', in Dreams for Sale: Popular culture ix the 20th cantuq, edited by Richard Malrby, London: Harrap, 1989, p. 11.
  14. Andrew Ross, No Respect: I~~lellectualrand popular calture, London: Routledge, 1989, p. 7.
  15. See Duncan Webster, Lookn Yonder!, London: Comedia, 1988.
  16. Malrby, 'Introducrion', p. 14.
  17. Ibid.
  18. See Nicholas Abeicl-ombie, Stephen Hill and Bryan S. Turner, The Dominant 1deolog)t Thesis, London: Allen & Unwin, 1980.
  19. Bermerr, 'Popular culture: a teaching object', p. 27.
  20. Antonio Gramsci, 'Hegemony, inrellectuals, and the stare', in Cultural Theory nnd Popu-

lar Cultme: A Render, 2nd edn, edited by John Storey, Hemel Hempsread: Prentice Hall,

1998, p. 210.

  1. 1 call my approach neo-Gramscian in ol-drr to create some respectful theorcticai and political distance bcrween my own work and that of Antonio Gramsci. I am conscioos of the facr that 1 a m ,,sing an approach developed ro analyze the general field of polirics to ~~ndersrandthe particular rerrain of popular culrure.
  2. Gramsci, Selections from Prison Notebooks, p. 161.
  3. Tony Bennett, 'Popular cultlire and the rurn ro Gramsci', in Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader, 2nd edn, edited by John Srorey, Hemel Hempsread: Prentice Mall, 1998, p. 221.
  4. Clranral rMooffc,'Hegemony i n d ideology i i ~Gramsci'. in Cirltrrre, Ideology and .Sorial I'rocess. edited lhy Tony Bennerr, Colin Mrrcer anil Janer \Voollacotr, Milron I<eynes: Open University P ~ e s r ,1981, p. 231.
  5. Raymond Williams, 'Basc and sopcrsri-octurc in Marxist culrr~ialthcory', m Pi.oblefzs i~ Moterialism and Calture, London: Verso, 1980.
  6. Sruait Hall, 'Grcodingldecodin~', in Cr/trtr-e, Media, Langaqqr, edited by Stuart Hall, Dorothy Hobson, Andrew Lowe and I'sill Willis, London: Hurchinsoa, 1980. David Morley, The Nntiorrlvide Audience, London: BFI. 1980. For critical commentary nee John Storey, C u l t ~ r a lStudies and the Study of Pop,Lr Cultirre, Ed~nburgh:Edinburgh University Press, 1996, and John Storey, Culturai Conremnptzon and Everyday Life. I.ondon: Edward Arnold, 1999.
  7. See Hall, 'Notes an dcconsrur~crinpthe popular'.
  8. Tony Bennett, 'The polit~csof the popdar', in Po/,ular Cstlti~re and Social Relatiorzs, p. 20. 4 5 Turner, British Cultrrral Studies, p. 6.
  9. Lawrence Grossberg, It's a Sin: Essop a n postmodemism, politics and cultirre, Sydney: Power Publications, 1988, p. 7.
  10. Raymond Williams, Culture ond Soctct)r, Harmonilsworrh: Penguin, 1963, p. 11.
  11. See Pcter Burke, Popular. C~lltereitr Eady Alodern Europe, Aldershor: Scolar I'ress,

49. R. J. Morris, Class awd Class Consciousness h the Irtdusrrral Reiiolutron 1780-1850,

landon: Macmillan, 1979, p. 22.

50. Bennett, 'Popular culture: defining our rerms', p. 86.

51. Dick Hehdiee. 'Aanalararna, or can pop. ~ save us all?' N e w Statesman e" Socict),.

9 ~ e c e m b e r i 9 8 8.

  1. Geoff~.eyNowell~Srnith,'Popular culture', New Formntions, 2, 1987, p. 80.

London: Cambridge University Piers. 1960,

  1. Ibid., p. 46.
  2. Ibid., p. 48.
  3. Ibid., p. 89.
  4. Ibid., p. 179.
  5. Ibid., p. 31.
    1. Ibid., p. 163.
  6. Ibid., pp. 163-4.
  7. Ibid., p. 163.
  8. Ibid., p. 76.
  9. Ibid., p. 69.
  10. Ibid., p. 76.
  11. Ibid., p. 193. 15. Ibid., pp. 80-1.