Q: If this is a pop culture blog, shouldn't there be something on Owen Wilson?
A: Other than the fact that it's sad... I didn't have anything else I wanted to say.
Q: But you never talk about anything in pop culture. Paris, Britney, and such are pop culture, whether you're interested in them or not. Your blog is more like leisure time activities, which is fine, but don't call it pop culture.P.S. I'm a different anonymous than the original post.
A: You are right. I have no interest in Paris or Britney.
G-RANT said...this IS pop culture, just not mainstream pop culture. if you want that kind of crap there's tons of it over at people.com and elsewhere.
if i cared about that stuff i'd read those blogs, not this one.come on, the state, for example, IS pop culture, sadly overlooked pop culture.
Anonymous said...Wouldn't the phrase "pop culture" refer to popular culture? So if it is overlooked then it's not popular?
G-RANT said...so the question becomes how popular and with which demographic group. "the state", for example, is very popular with those that watched it back when it was on and "got it." it spawned a sort of pop-cult.
most of these pop-cult people try to avoid the hilton/lohan/spears machine that seems to dominate mainstream pop-culture journalism or they embrace it with a strong sense of irony.
a certain amount of obscurity is necessary for those of us that are more interested in pop-culture arcana than popular pop-culture. it has something to do with nerdiness as well because i love "heroes" and "LOST" despite their popularity in more mainstream circles.
i think that i define pop-culture quite broadly as anything that has ever been on television, in a movie, on the radio, or in a comic book even if very few people have heard of it. for example:
manimal. how many people remember that fine, but short-lived show? it's still part of pop-culture, isn't it?
come to think of it, isn't pop-culture just everything that isn't high culture eg. opera, Literature, or all the stuff that they used to put in museums? you know, stuffy, snooty, elitst culture.
if an album of pop music is released and it isn't popular, does it cease to be pop music?
personally, i don't think that there is a line between different kinds of culture anymore. there are only genres.
but i might be wrong.
Anonymous said...That wouldn't really be pop culture just because it is in the media, would it? The definition of pop culture...the culture of the masses, including popular music, television shows, commercials, brand names, advertisements, sports, the Internet, movies, fashion, etc.So if the masses don't like it, wouldn't it be unpopular culture? Shouldn't this blog be called "What Brian likes" since there is already a movie, television and music blog? Not that there is anything wrong with that, but not really pop culture.
G-RANT said...L. popularis "belonging to the people," from populus "people."
so it seems to come down to how we define "popular" and "a population." does "popular" in this case mean "mainstream" or does it mean "populist?" defined as widely as i define it, pop culture is huge and practically all-encompassing these days because most culture is no longer aimed at a privileged elite, but at all people (or at least a certain large demographic).
my question: what culture ISN'T pop culture? where does it end?
i know this is diverging from the original question of "how can b.b. not mention Owen Wilson, Paris, & Britney in a pop culture blog?" but i find this discussion quite interesting because i, for one, would stop reading this blog if it started to dwell too much on the celebrity gossip side of things.
in my opinion, it doesn't matter "if the masses don't like it," it's still pop culture because of where it's aimed and how it's delivered. for example: even
universally reviled films are part of pop culture. sometimes it's how bad they are that makes them popular.
Anonymous said...I blame Jack Black.
Aaron said...Jack Black isn't popular in any culture. He should never be mentioned on this site.By the way, let's talk pop fashion. What colors are "in" this year?
G-RANT said...oh, i don't know, maybe some kind of backlash against the pornslut-fashion that has become increasingly played out over the last couple years. i mean where can it go from here short of total nudity? maybe just an embroidered belt like that one amazon tribe. or body paints. or clothing with stategically placed holes.
as for colors, how about scottish tartans?
