Popular culture (also called pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of the practices, beliefs, and objects that are dominant in a society at a given point in time.
Most common pop-culture categories are entertainment, sports, news (as in people/places in the news), politics, fashion/clothes, technology, and slangs . Pop culture of this day is obviously very influenced by the media . It’s something that changes with time, I mean the Beatles were at one time a great part of pop culture, moving closer to home: Style plus, Weird MC, Rugged Man, Konga and others were at a time the definition of Nigerian pop culture.
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- Rugged Man
Now, pay close attention, let’s have a little history lesson. The term popular culture was coined in the 19th century. It was associated with poor education and the lower class. While ‘official culture’ was associated with higher education and the upper classes ! Wow ! I think we have the complete opposite right now ! I mean, isn’t the ‘popular culture’ now to have higher education? This is even so funny considering how the pop culture kings and queens are the upper class of society.
Lady Gaga popularly known as the Queen of Pop Culture
Omo ! This is the truest case of ‘street ti take over’ … stethoscope o ja wo mo mhen ! Lol … Olamide really got that one right (between shout out to Dr. Olamide Bello and all our other fabulous Ibadan 2k14 doctors) .
Imagine Kyle Jenner @ 21 being a dollar millionaire … Wow! … She’s actually richer than your daddy ( unless of course your daddy is Dangote or Otedola or the likes in that case hit me up 😉) . She’s almost if not richer than the Queen Bee ! The queen bee that owns the 3rd largest house in the states !! Wow ! If this is what being lower classes is, I definitely want to be lower class .
Enough about ‘classes’ ( I can’t believe it’s not friday already 😭) .
Now let’s talk about an actual issues, shall we?
Why is it ‘popular culture’ to ‘hate’ the Kardashians ? Social media ( which is another gigantic aspect of popular culture ) criticizes nearly everything they do, but hey! they are influencers of nearly everything .. Permit me to say the world ! Hair , make up, fashion , fittness , lifestyle! Just name it and you’d find a Kardashian there or very closely affiliated . The big question here is ‘ if social media hates them so much, how come they are so rich ?
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- Kylie Jenner
Pop culture isn’t all entertainment, technology as well is involved in this. Bill gates was a very great part of the culture, I don’t think we can remember a time without the ‘ windows’. Did you know he dropped out of college ? ( this further supports the ‘street to take over’ theory . Lol) . Harvard Crimson calls him ‘ Harvard’s most successful dropout’.
More recently, Elon Musk is about to cause a major revolution and speaking about politics Obama was a pop culture icon and now we have our “not-so-regular” and quite unloved Donald J. Trump. Believe it or not guys, he is the face of pop culture .
At the end of the day, pop culture can be said to be an empty conceptual category because it can be defined in a variety of conflicting ways across different context !
See you next time guys . Hope you enjoyed the ‘class’?
– iranroyv
