Assignment 1-2

Popular culture is the mass media of the time. Popular culture is financially within reach of the majority of the population unlike elite culture. Unlike folk culture it is also able to reach a large number of people simultaneously. Fads and fashion are both obvious examples of popular culture. To me popular culture is something I avoid, most popular culture requires little thought and little talent is involved much of the time. All a teen idol seems to have to do these days is have a pretty face. If the idol wants to sing, but can't sing in key, they have pitch shifters and so on.

Understanding popular culture is important for my job because it leads to insights as to why people act they do and is a very important factor in marketing. If you do a TV commercial aimed at teenager for an energy drink and it looks like the kid is dressed for church and is just walking down the street while talking it likely won't go over very well.

I chose Britney Spears as my popular culture artifact because I don't follow much popular culture. My brother gave me the calendar card years ago and I just ran across it recently. I decided that since I don't follow popular culture I may as well go with what I have. Britney is an example of the teen idol mentioned in the first paragraph and follows in the footsteps of many previous teen idols like Elvis Presley (although not nearly as well) and more recently "boy bands" like The Backstreet Boys and New Kids on The Block.