1) How is popular culture differentiated from:
a) Mass Culture - Popular culture comprises an entirety of attitudes, ideas, perceptions, and
perspectives that have been brought into existence by an informal consensus. More specifically, it
refers to music, visual and performing arts, literature, festivals, poetry, and artistic and designer
creations that are promoted through the efforts of the mass media. Mass culture is, then, a culture
that is mass-produced, distributed, and marketed. Popular culture is that which emerges from mass
culture, according to the majority opinion. Mass culture produces unified content designed to reach
as many recipients as possible. It comprises all forms of culture, encompassing the counterculture
and underground subcultures as well. It functions on the ‘Something for everyone’ principle. The
difference here is that mass culture is an all-encompassing façade that produces products for both
the majority and the minority, while pop culture is that which is consumed by a majority of the
audience.
b) Folk culture tends to be local, rural, consistent over time, but inconsistent over geography. Pop
culture, on the other hand, tends to be widespread and uniform over a large geographic distance, it
tends to be based in urban centers, and it generally experiences fairly rapid change over time. Pop
culture is often used to refer to popular music, movies, and TV shows. On the other hand, folk culture
is used to refer to the traditions and customs that make up the cultural identity of a local group of
people.
c) Elite culture is of a literary and educated wealthy elite group. But popular culture is of common,
simple, rural and unliterary people of mass or society. Hence, elite culture is always expressed in
universities, libraries, while popular culture is unwritten and oral. Elite culture is always ambiguous
and never simple. But popular culture is very simple and presents human emotions and human life
as it is, in a simple, understandable way. Popular culture reflects a real mentality, portraying a true
picture of the society. Elite culture reflects the highness or greatness of that society, not accessible
to all.
d) Low culture is the culture of the common people and the mass. Low culture is associated with the
pattern of cultural experiences and attitudes that exist in the lowest class segments of a society.
While popular culture refers to the pattern of cultural experiences and attitudes that exist in
mainstream society. Popular culture is something that is always, most importantly, related to everyday
average people and their experiences of the world; it is urban, changing and consumeristic in nature.
2) What is the origin of the popular culture? How it diffused into the society?
Urbanization is a key ingredient in the formation of popular culture. People who once lived in
homogeneous small villages or farms found themselves in crowded cities marked by great cultural diversity.
These diverse people would come to see chemselves as a 'collectivity' as a result of common, or popular,
forms of expression. Thus, many scholars trace the Deginning of the popular culture phenomenon to the
rise of the middle class brought on by the Industrial Revolution.
Industrialization also brought with it mass production; developments in transportation, such as the steam
locomotive and che steamship; advancements in building technology; increased literacy; improvements in
education and public health; and che emergence of efficient forms of commercial printing, representing the
first step in the formation of a mass media (eg the Denny press, magazines, and pamphlets).
3) What are the sources and genre of popular culture?
The primary source is the mass media, especially popular music, film, television, radio, video games,
books and the internet. In addition, advances in communication allows for the greater transmission of ideas
by word of mouth, especially via cell phones.
Popular culture is also influenced by professional entities that provide the public with information. These
sources include the news media, scientific and scholarly publications, and ‘expert’ opinion from people
considered an authority in their field.
Individualism is also a source of popular culture. Urban culture has not only provided a common ground
for the masses, it has inspired ideals of individualistic aspirations. In the United States, a society formed on
the premise of individual rights, there are theoretically no limitations to what an individual might accomplish.