SUU Popular Culture & Communication

          One of the themes that stuck out to me during this module was John Storey’s argument that, “all mass culture is identical, and predictable”.  This is actually based on the term ‘culture industry’ that was coined by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer (1979) where they claim a major part of the culture industry is homogenous, or essentially that all mass media is identical and or predictable.           Can you think back to some form of popular culture that you were watching, reading, etc. and you predicted the end or what was going to happen next?     Can you think back to a recent form of pop culture that you engaged with where you saw very similar themes or topics that aligned very closely with another show, movie, or text that you engaged with?                               I think one of the reasons why this...

              I feel that over the past few weeks and months I have been so insanely busy that I haven’t really had the opportunity or time to explore a lot of new pop culture.  Instead, I feel that I have been engaging with music, and particularly old music that I used to listen to a few years back.  One of those artists is Zach Bryan.  One of his songs that has stuck out to me a little more than usual, especially during this module of Marxism and Marxist Criticism is, “Damn Cold Vampires.”             I think the premise of this song is how there are entities or organizations that will try to take advantage of people and exploit them for money.  In particular, the song itself has heavy hints of critiques and criticism toward the music industry but I think it could be taken as corporate greed or also critiques of capitalism in the sense of its abus...

Pop culture is all around us whether we are aware or not.  Knowing what is going on in pop culture today gives us social capital, especially in social settings.  Whether we like it or not connections to pop culture are happening all around us all the time.  Some may see this as a negative thing like ads or pushing certain messaging onto us to cause us to believe or think in a different manner.  Others may enjoy the constant bombardment and message signaling that takes place.  For me personally, before this course and module I never really truly realized just how much pop culture messaging takes place.  That doesn’t mean that it was going happening or going on.  However, I feel that it is important to be aware and in the know instead of oblivious to what is going on around us. Deanna Sellnow states that our favorite movie, tv show, and songs can tell a lot about a person and how we see and interpret the world around us...

One of the reasons I like this program and especially this class is that I am exposed to different experiences I may never encounter. I never heard of Vampire Weekend. But having an eclectic collection (Jazz, Barbra Streisand, RB, Country) I am always open to listen. I listened to Capricorn and I was pleasantly surprised.  Although the lyrics are somewhat melancholy, the huge chord progressions makes the feelings stronger and the chord structures make the song sadder than the lyrics. This juxtaposition between music, lyrics, and feelings makes me wonder about Fiske’s three arguments for dismissal.

 My latest music obsession is Vampire Weekend's first two singles from their soon to be released album, Only God Was Above Us. Both of the singles, Capricorn and Gen-X Cops, have some elements of existentialism. In Gen-X Cops it says, "Each generation makes its own apology," at the end of the chorus. This line infers that every generation becomes self aware to some extent of the previous generation's wrongdoings. As each generation becomes aware of those sins they can look introspectively at the actions of their own generation leading to their subsequent apologies.  Furthermore, in Capricorn it talks about how they are too old to die young and too young to live alone. This seems to be talking about being middle aged or a younger adult. At some point you just are not as young anymore even if you still feel young mentally. On a personal level, this stage of life is in sight, but still has yet to begin. The format of being too young for A and too old for B can be used at...

  Music through the years has inspired many feuds . The classic “Bad Blood” Between Taylor Swift and Katy Perry, or the actual bloody feud between Tupac and Biggie Smalls made their mark on pop culture. One line in a song could cause years of back and forth between artists. Recently Megan Thee Stallion released her new track, “ Hiss ”, and it’s potentially chock-full of jabs at other artist’s . One artist in particular, Nicki Minaj, did not handle the situation well. Music can make us respond with strong emotions, and Nicki Minaj was furiou s. Days after the release Hiss, Minaj released her response track “ Big Foot ”. While audiences were in awe over Megan’s “Megan’s Law” line, they were appalled at Nicki’s disrespectfully lyrics referencing Megan getting shot in her foot. A major difference between the artist’s approach stands out. While Megan’s song has many individuals speculating about who she is referencing, Nicki’s diss track leaves no room for the imagination. Megan’s metho...