Mass Culture and Its Definitions - Essay Example

Mass culture has a set of scientific definitions. All of them agree on one thing: they understand this phenomenon as a prevalent cultural elements inany society. Pop culture now includes music, films and animation, literature, media (including comics and the Internet), fashion, cooking, advertising, sports, tourism, design, and many other items. Folklore (tales, legends, epics, etc.) and science (in its easy version) is also considered as a part or one of the sources of mass culture.(Klaus, 2004) Culture becomes pop-culture if it turns into something more than just a game of mind or creative reflection - a kind of work must become widely popular in the society. The stars of the world of pop culture with equal success became the musicians, actors, journalists, politicians and athletes, artists, writers, scientists, religious leaders, terrorists, criminals, literary characters, the character of cartoons, revolutionaries, comic book characters, cars, beverages, TV, food, consumer electronics, clothing, animals, plants, city, mountain and others. (Madoff, 1997) Some of the pop-cultural things have a long life, their popularity goes from generation to generation, others become famous one-day. In any case, with the help of pop culture there appears a kind of new way of communication used by many people in everyday life: for example, funny phrases of politicians, characters, commercials, TV shows or movies have become part of a living language and is used as a sort of proverbs to illustrate of thoughts of the speaker. The concept of pop-culture was born in the early 1930 and its serious study began in 1960. Since then numerous studies have been published, which the authors have attempted to determine: what comes first - culture specific group of people (subculture) or mass culture. No consensus on this score has not yet been formed, because the mass culture operates on a special, not well understood laws. There are several hypotheses, the authors are attempting to explain the phenomenon of pop culture. British literary critic and philosopher Frank Raymond Leavis, the author of the book «The culture and environment» argued that mass culture is a visible proof that in cultural terms, humanity is tending to decline. Leavis and his numerous followers of the view said that culture is ruining the standardization and mass production. In this sense, the murderer of high literature can be considered the inventor of the modern printing press - Johann Gutenberg. Before Gutenberg books were an expensive rarity, so they were presented by very high standards, they still affect the beauty of the presentation and design. (Klaus, 2004) The notion of mass culture is the notion, characterizing the production of cultural values in modern industrial society, designed for mass consumption, i.e. subordinate to it (by analogy with the continuous-conveyor industry) as their goal. Mass culture is a concept that serves to indicate the characteristics of the production of cultural values in the mass society, focused on their mass consumption. Mass Culture is intended for consumption by all people, regardless of where they live. Naturally, this means lowering the level of the relevant cultural values: the so-called «soap operas» are a typical example of such products. No less naturally, and that mass culture focuses primarily on commercial objectives, it implies a passive consumption, and therefore capable of serving a means of manipulating the mind. Mass culture can be a tool for the introduction into the mass consciousness is desirable for certain social groups, behavior, may stimulate. American mass culture was the result of a number of interrelated processes. First of all this, of course,is urbanization, which led to the crisis of traditional culture and breaking the patriarchal relations between individuals and generations, to the spontaneous formation of urban folklore, dramatically increasing the area of individual choice. At the same time significantly increased mental stress in the society associated with the migration from village to city, which could only weaken the secularization of previously inaccessible part of the wider culture of people. What has been done, largely thanks to the spread of the laws of the capitalist market in the sphere of culture, coupled with the development of production, its complexity and the sharp increase in the cost of mental energy in a postindustrial society. Most researchers speak of the emergence of mass culture in the United States during the American Revolution and the War of Independence, justifying their point of view of the fact that at this time of American art, like the country as a whole, required a new , another beginning, and it was found in the mass, the crowd, which gave birth to the revolution. (Madoff, 1997) The attitude to European culture, accessible only to the supreme, the educated strata of society, as a decaying, decadent, decaying, and dispersed by war was a long time widespread in the United States. In turn, and Europe had negative opinion about the culture of the United States. The period of 1950 - 1960 was marked by greater interest in mass culture, at the same time there is a pop-art. World famous pop-art acquired in its American version, but it goes back over the work of artists, architects and critics of the London Independent Group (Eduardo Paolozzi, William Ternball, Richard Hamilton, Lawrence Ollouey, Sandy Wilson).(Madoff, 1997) In 1952 this group unites to discuss the issues of contemporary culture, philosophy, cybernetics, information theory, mass media (press radio, television), popular music, film and design. Especially closely examined everything that was associated with mass culture - fashion, American westerns, science fiction, magazines. This group did not experience the typical aversion of intellectuals to the commercial culture. On the contrary, it consumed with enthusiasm, taking as fact. Soon there were works that express a new artistic ideology. The most famous is painting-collage by R. Hamilton «This is — tomorrow». It is a mountingfull union of clippings from the magazines. The interior design of the average consumer, which is full of items of comfort with advertising pages: this is a tape recorder and television, of course the newspaper, on the wall instead of painting there is a larger piece of comics. Outside, of course, it is possible to see cinema. The central male figure carved from advertising bodybuilding, naked women, too, obviously from some magazine. The image of the real world displaced by the accumulation of fictitious images of mass culture. Choosing the method of collage, the author demonstrates his innocence in creating the image, because he deliberately fixed the finished image, without interpreting them.(Klaus, 2004) Such images have become popular among artists. Soon, a new direction appeared, outstanding representatives of which in England were E. Paolozzi, Peter Blake, Richard Smith, Patrick Caulfield, Peter Phillips, Allen Jones and Gerald Laing. While in England pop-art was based on theoretical discussions of the phenomena of contemporary culture, in America, its counterpart emerged spontaneously under the influence of the internal situation in the world of art. American pop art was born as a rejection of abstract expressionism. In 1951 an anthology of Dada was published, it summoned a strong interest in art. Pop artists have expressed the typical post-modernist ideas: the lack of personal creativity in the beginning, the reduction of the product to a simple combination of prefabricated elements. Thus, they tried to work at breakthrough between life and art. There are quite divergent views on mass culture. Some consider it a byproduct of the culture and therefore find it already in antiquity. It is much more reason to have attempted to link the emergence of mass culture with the scientific and technological revolution that gave rise to new ways of production, distribution and consumption of culture. Bourgeois mass culture first emerged in the United States. On the one hand it is democratized culture, on the other hand, contributed to the penetration into the sphere of commercial, political interests, the pursuit of profit.(Klaus, 2004) Mixing of culture and politics can take two different directions. It can make culture of intolerance to any culture other than their own, or lead to the ideal of a world state, where there will be only one uniform world culture. Politics permeates today even to Hollywood movies. Mass culture is a culture, intended for consumption by the people. It does not have the traditions, no nation, its ideals and tastes are changing at breakneck speed in accordance with the requirements of fashion. Mass culture turns to a broad audience, appealing to the tastes of a simplified, pretend to be folk art. The phenomenon of mass culture exists, and television is the most effective means of reproduction and dissemination of that culture. Mass culture affects the mass consciousness, associated with mass communication, focused on consumer tastes and instincts, is manipulative in nature. In America mass culture has acquired a dual character: the U.S. intelligence, which is not occupied by practical concerns, while the other part occupied by the discoveries, production and social organization. The American will is embodied in the skyscraper, the American intelligence - in the colonial buildings. One of the important functions of modern mass culture is the mythologizing of public consciousness. Works of popular culture, as well as the myths are not based on discrimination of real and ideal, they are not the subject of knowledge, and faith. It is believed that the most appropriate term, expressing the essence of works of popular culture, is the term icon. This term describes a type of artistic reflection, which is symbolic, essentially unrealistic, is a matter of faith, worship, and not a means of reflection and understanding. The icons have a mythological structure, they do not act on the intellectual and emotional level. Therefore, «mass culture», adhered to the instincts and the subconscious, it makes extensive use of iconic images. But this is not religious icons, and icons of pop culture.(Madoff, 1997) Mass culture is one of the most colorful and controversial forms of modern civilization. In modern philosophical and sociological literature, along with the term «mass culture» the term «popular culture» is widely used. Mass culture is regarded as one of the areas of any culture, which is in contrast to elite culture was adopted by most of the population. It seems that the negative assessment of mass art as the art of crowd, given by F.Nietzsche, S.Kierkegaard, Theodor Adorno and many other authors, do not make closer the understanding of the nature of mass culture. If popular culture arises on the basis of social dynamics, its top should be associated with the emergence of large cities. If popular culture is seen primarily as entertainment industry, its appearance is confined to the appearance of free time of the urban population. Mass culture is not determined by the educational level of its audience. Mass culture is the problem which is primarily social and anthropological. It is formulated at the intersection of economics, politics, arts, technology and specific social morality. (Klaus, 2004) Fundamentally true is the point of view according to which mass culture is the phenomenon of multi-factorial. Therefore, when elucidating the nature of popular culture plays a key role is an axiological analysis of value-semantic complex underlying this phenomenon. Works cited Madoff, Henry.1997. Pop Art: A Critical History (The Documents of Twentieth-Century Art). University of California Press; 1 edition. Klaus, Honnef and Grosenick, Uta. 2004. Pop Art (Basic Art). Taschen; illustrated edition edition Read More