Pop culture means Popular culture. We experience POP culture around us through words (like Damm, Bro, Dude), Music, Dressing, Movies, Books, sports, politics, ideas – anything that is in the current trends on a mass level.
We explored POP culture in our teen club and started with pondering.
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From where does this whole concept of POP culture comes from? Industrial revolution brought urbanization. The invention of print media and concept of mass production and then mass media allowed certain concepts to be widely spread among people. Through mass media any idea or concept is made popularized at a global level like the latest music or fashion.
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Before Pop culture there was Folk culture – That culture was Traditional, local and not commercial. The culture was specific to the area. However pop culture is ever changing, commercial and widely based on the concepts of consumerism.
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How is anything made popular? – market places, celebrities, internet, social media, movies, advertisements.
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Some of the POP culture of our parents era – Lagori, Cycling, Gold spot, Jeans, Sunglasses, jacket, Colored cameras, Walkman, Maruti 800, Bike, Lux soap, TV serial Malgudi Days…hmm they were not outdated!
Small group discussions on various questions brought more thoughts on Pop culture :
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What are the POP cultures in your life and at Aarohi?
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How does POP culture affects you? Share a thing you do out of pressure of POP culture
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What are the positives of having a culture in a community city, nation and word wide
What needs are fulfilled when I follow the pop culture – Acceptance, Respect, Belonging in the community.
Are we being controlled with the power that popular culture holds, how is our daily life, thought process and everyday decisions influenced by pop culture. Why do we listen to a celebrity, media? When you like some celebrity one feels that everything they do is nice. Pop culture is playing a role in our everyday lives.
How is the current ideas of popular culture effecting us deeply – Food, Health, Emotions, Thoughts about love, gender, Relationship and so on. The current pop culture is centric to western lifestyle and we are loosing our traditional culture. The media is making us feel inadequate about ourselves and that results in us following the current trends rather than what we want.
On the positive side pop culture helps us to connect with people around, conversations are easier and one can create positive pop culture in the world like carrying cloth bag for shopping or example of Aarohi is reading Buddha books.
As friends “are you pressurizing the pop culture”? What is my role as a friend?
What POP culture can you create for your community?
Creating own music, Playing traditional games, Experimenting with cooking, Friendly fights, Logo making, greeting with namaskar and so on. You can be the ambassador of the culture rather than consumer.