Assignment 3-2

The three popular culture artifacts I selected are Britney Spears, the Star Trek insignia, and the Apple iPod. Britney Spears represents the current incantation of the teen idol. The Star Trek insignia shows how long lasting an effect some things can have on popular culture. Apple's iPod represents how a single device pulled a company out of a failing niche market and made it a dominant force in the consumer electronics industry.

As noted in my Assignment 1-2 post Britney Spears is simply the current incarnation of a long running tradition of teenage idols. She represents the "ideal" teenager, attractive popular and talented. She is also an example of just how much todays society focuses on youth, the average mass popularity of a modern teen idol seems to be only 1-3 years anymore. To me her current situation and problems are an excellent example of the problems with personal accountability and the lack of examples of good life values society has right now. Don't take this as a religious rant, I'm not an especially religious individual, but people don't seem to feel they are responsible for their mistakes anymore.

I am a decent Trekkie. I am not obsessed by any means but I do enjoy reading the novels and have a collection of 100 or more currently. To some that may sound like a lot but I know many people that have far more CDs and since I buy most of them used I don't have to pay that much for them compared CDs. To me the Star Trek insignia represents the long lasting effect some popular culture has. Despite starting decades ago the Star Trek phenomenon is still going strong with new movies and books coming out on a regular basis.

My final choice is the Apple iPod. The iPod is a good example of a pop culture meme. Compared to most of the media playes of it's time when it was released it was easy to use. The interface was simple without a ton of options to confuse people and iTunes provided a convenient place to download music and manage the music on the iPod. Despite the fact that when the iPod was launched music from the iTunes store came with strict digital rights management and could only be played on authorized iPods and PCs it was a runaway success. Even now iTunes is still the only way to manage the music on an iPod but the simplicity and sleek hardware design seems to have hit a note with the modern consumer.