REMEMBER:
Wednesday, 1/29 we are meeting at Target:
20745 Stevens Creek Blvd Cupertino, CA 95014
We will meet in the Target Cafe at 1:45pm and spend an hour in the store.
BRING a pen and a print out of the terms WITH the terms you select, and something to write on. ALSO bring something you can take digital photos with. You will be done by 2:45pm, giving you a half an hour to get back to campus.
Remember there are two bus lines which go there.
IF you have questions, email me.
Go Team!
Cheers, Dr. Ramsey
In Target, you will provide examples of 25 terms with photos. This is due at 1:30 on MONDAY 2/3. 1. Popular Culture 2. Branding 3. Material Culture 4. Spectacle 5.Counter Culture6. Manchurian Consumer7. Placelessness 8. Infotoxin 9. Media Space 10. Script 11. Objectification12. Diffusion 13. Feedback loop 14. Trend 15. Carnival Theory 10 terms which are NOT listed and do those as well.These photos should be black and white and not take up more than 2 pages. In addition to these 25,select
only 25 of these terms that you did NOT do for Target, and give at least one real life example and
using your own words explain how the example fits the definition. 2pts.
each
Do you prefer listening to opera or
hip hop music? Do you like watching horse racing or NASCAR? Do you read
books of poetry or celebrity magazines? In each pair, one type of
entertainment is considered high-brow and the other low-brow.
Sociologists use the term high culture
to describe the pattern of cultural experiences and attitudes that
exist in the highest class segments of a society. People often associate
high culture with intellectualism, political power, and prestige. In
America, high culture also tends to be associated with wealth. Events
considered high culture can be expensive and formal—attending a ballet,
seeing a play, or listening to a live symphony performance.
The term popular culture
refers to the pattern of cultural experiences and attitudes that exist
in mainstream society. Popular culture events might include a parade, a
baseball game, or the season finale of a television show. Rock and pop
music—“pop” is short for “popular”—are part of popular culture. Popular
culture is often expressed and spread via commercial media such as
radio, television, movies, the music industry, publishers, and
corporate-run websites. Unlike high culture, popular culture is known
and accessible to most people. You can share a discussion of favorite
football teams with a new coworker or comment on American Idol
when making small talk in line at the grocery store. But if you tried
to launch into a deep discussion on the classical Greek play Antigone, few members of U.S. society today would be familiar with it.
Although high culture may be viewed
as superior to popular culture, the labels of high culture and popular
culture vary over time and place. Shakespearean plays, considered pop
culture when they were written, are now part of our society’s high
culture. Five hundred years from now, will our descendants associate Breaking Bad with the cultural elite?
Subculture and Counterculture
A subculture
is just what it sounds like—a smaller cultural group within a larger
culture; people of a subculture are part of the larger culture but also
share a specific identity within a smaller group.
Thousands of subcultures exist
within the United States. Ethnic and racial groups share the language,
food, and customs of their heritage. Other subcultures are united by
shared experiences. Biker culture revolves around a dedication to
motorcycles. Some subcultures are formed by members who possess traits
or preferences that differ from the majority of a society’s population.
The body modification community embraces aesthetic additions to the
human body, such as tattoos, piercings, and certain forms of plastic
surgery. In the United States, adolescents often form subcultures to
develop a shared youth identity. Alcoholics Anonymous offers support to
those suffering from alcoholism. But even as members of a subculture
band together, they still identify with and participate in the larger
society.
Sociologists distinguish subcultures from countercultures,
which are a type of subculture that rejects some of the larger
culture’s norms and values. In contrast to subcultures, which operate
relatively smoothly within the larger society, countercultures might
actively defy larger society by developing their own set of rules and
norms to live by, sometimes even creating communities that operate
outside of greater society.
Cults, a word derived from culture,
are also considered counterculture group. The group “Yearning for Zion”
(YFZ) in Eldorado, Texas, existed outside the mainstream and the
limelight, until its leader was accused of statutory rape and underage
marriage. The sect’s formal norms clashed too severely to be tolerated
by U.S. law, and in 2008, authorities raided the compound and removed
more than two hundred women and children from the property.
Let’s face it, tattoos have burst onto pop culture and have taken over the current media scenery. TV shows based on the tattoo industry are springing up on major networks, social media pages for tattoo culture are numbering in the millions of followers, and you would be hard pressed to take a walk on the street and not see several people sporting leg tats or arm sleeves. Not to mention all the pieces you see on the beach! Tattoos have become a mainstream part of society.
Today, 36 percent of Americans aged 18-25 have at least one tattoo, according to a report done by the Pew Research Center. That’s more than one third of America’s young adults! It comes as no surprise that the tattoo industry is the sixth fastest-growing retail business in America, as determined by the U.S. News & World Report. This has obviously translated to online interest as well, as there are more than 147 million tattoo related searches each month on Google.
How did this industry achieve this status though? Tattoos have certainly been scrutinized in the past and a visible feature that was once taboo has now become... normal?
Twenty five years ago, tattoos were actually quite common... on sailors, prison inmates, and members of tough motorcycle gangs. If you looked at accountants, pro ping-pong players, or shoe salesmen though, it would have been pretty rare to find some ink. So what happened?
Ironically, tattoos have been around since the beginning of human history. The word tattoo is thought to be derived from both the Polynesian “ta” — meaning “to strike” — and the Tahitian “tatau” — meaning “to mark.” So when and where did the tattoo originate? The answer to this question may remain a mystery, but scientific evidence proves that tattoos have been a part of human culture for thousands of years.
In 1991, German hikers on the Oztal Alps (near the border between Italy and Austria) discovered the mummified remains of a prehistoric human. Carbon dating would prove that the human, named Ötzi, had been mummified more than 5,300 years ago. While Ötzi was discovered with primitive tools and arrows, his most unique feature was that his body was adorned with no less than 57 tattoos, all the way from his upper neck to his ankles.
Findings like this continuously have proven that tattoos have been a part of human societies since their inception, as parts of rituals and cultures throughout history and across the globe.
Fast-forward to 2005. Our society still held prejudices against tattoos and, while some people were getting them on their own, no one would say tattoos were a part of pop culture. What changed this? The moment tattoos stepped into society’s limelight can be pinpointed to a very specific event: the launching of the first popular tattoo TV show, “Miami Ink”. A legendary shop on South Beach, “Miami Ink” housed a unique mix of talented and charismatic tattoo artists. Before this show, only the minority of people with tattoos knew what the inside of a tattoo studio was like. People weren’t privy to the amazing work being done there or to the dynamic personalities and various styles of different artists. It made for good TV though, so Miami Ink owner, Ami James, linked up with a major network and ran this reality TV show in his shop. It was a huge success and it changed everything.
Nine years later, Miami Ink has had six seasons and been aired in over 160 countries. Spin-off shows based on other shops (NY Ink and LA Ink, most notably) as well as Contest-Format shows (Ink Master) have also been largely successful. The shows opened the channels for the average Joe to look into this “underworld” of tattoos. To realize that the art is impressive, beautiful, and attainable. Every person can have an amazing tattoo. Every person can have their own unique tattoo. Having a tattoo can be an expression of who you are. Or what you believe in. Or something you cherish. Or just something you thought was fun. The prejudice, not having disappeared completely, is certainly greatly diminished.
Tattoo artists became celebrities. Artists like Ami James, Tommy Montoya, Kat von D, and Megan Massacre became famous for their appearances on these shows. Their art was suddenly the focus of mainstream media and their skills were known to all. Everyone wanted to get inked by them. So, naturally, other celebrities started getting inked by them. Rihanna, David Beckham, Angelina Jolie, and Adam Levine, are several examples of mainstream media icons that have tattoos and openly display them. It’s a part of who they are now. And fans of these and many other celebrities are now getting inked just like their idols.
Enter social media. Another game-changer for the tattoo industry. The same artists that gained celebrity status on the tattoo TV shows are now followed by millions of people on these platforms (and some of these followers don’t even have any tattoos of their own!). These same popular artists, or the individual users themselves, can identify new artists — the up-and-comers — that impress all with their unique and groundbreaking designs. Tattoo conventions are exploding in popularity, as everyone wants the chance to meet their favorite artists, post a picture with them on their profiles, and maybe even get a tattoo! And tattoo shops are now the place of legend — the home of major tattoo artists and a site to see in and of itself.
So what’s next? The internet will naturally allow the tattoo industry to continue evolving in ground-breaking ways in order to deliver the best possible content and services for the millions of tattoo-culture followers out there. The gap between the tattoo fan and the artist will get smaller and smaller with these new internet-based platforms and we can already see this trend in sites that offer crowd-sourcing for tattoo designs, such as Tattoodo, where people are linked to artists from all over the world in order to obtain customized tattoo designs. Together with the growing mainstream tattoo community, we anxiously await to see the crazy ways this industry will continue to develop and take over pop culture.
