Culture is one aspect of society that is considered to change over time. As different people interact, their behavior and attitude towards given facets change. Different groups of people also influence each other leading to the adoption of a new culture. In most cases, these interactions lead to the development of popular culture. Popular culture is often considered as the behaviors which are commonly accepted in mainstream society. Therefore, this paper will discuss the emergence of popular culture, influences, and its use in the control of people based on the critical cultural theory. The strengths and weaknesses of the critical theory are also going to be accessed.
The trends in society majorly determine popular culture. As people in a society interact, they often share some of the trends. For example, trends in entertainment, sports, and fashion are often shared in society leading to larger adoption. Therefore the trend contributes to the emergence of popular culture.
According to critical theory, pop culture often emerges from different types of human interests. Per the theory, while the interests could be an idea of one person, others need to be enforced by others who have much influence to be accepted within society (Timimi, 2017). Therefore, the enforcement of popular culture is deemed to be political. For example, the main popular culture currently accepted in mainstream society is fast foods. Individuals’ interests initiated the fast-food culture, but its enforcement has been done by major companies that have much influence in society. Therefore while the culture might emerge from the people themselves, it is often enforced by those in power to control the masses.
Influence of commercialization and industrialization
Commercialization and industrialization have a significant impact on popular culture. The innovations and technological advances that are associated with industrialization often change how people behave in a society. Historically, industrialization has been known to shatter cultures changing the way of life. For example, according to Timimi (2017), during the industrial revolution era, most people started moving from rural to urban settings to work in emerging industries. Living in the urban regions strained the families leading to a shift to nuclear families as opposed to the traditional extended families. On top of this, industrialization has also contributed to different living standards and access to education. The demand for skilled laborers needed people to access education, which in turn improved their lifestyles. Equally, commercialization has largely influenced the culture. The commercialization has led to research and significant advertisement on the needs of the people. Therefore this often leads to the adoption of the new lifestyle in mainstream society. However, reducing culture to a commodity has a major side effect, which often deters the quality, artistry, integrity, and intellectual challenge. This is mainly because, in some cases, the welfare of the consumer could be disregard. As companies focus on profitability, they might tend to oversee the shortcomings that are associated with the product or service.
On top of this, commercializing culture reduces the standards of living. Most companies will then focus on the quality of services and might oversee the quality of their products, which in turn affects the living standards of the consumers (Chew, 2019). Therefore, the profitability and the marketability will, in most cases, serve the interests of the business with the consumers’ welfare often ignored.
Popular culture has been used largely to indoctrinate and control people. Most of the behaviors and trends that are being introduced are a way of controlling people. Most of the individuals that are powerful use their power to influence activities for their benefit. These trends are then inherently marketed such that people would largely adopt them; for example, the emergence of social media use was introduced by an individual before it was largely marketed as ‘must-haves” in society as cited by Jin & Yoon (2016). Therefore, despite being adopted as a form of popular culture, the sites’ owners designed them as a way of business. In this case, I think that the enforced values are used to exercise control rather than an emergence of a social order rebellion. Despite some of the behaviors opposing an established social order, the ideas and values enforced are used by some elite group to exercise dominance and control over people since it serves their interest. While popular culture could be a spontaneous burst of creativity, some groups would still use it as a means to dominate a society. In some cases, an emerging culture could be commercialized such that it leads to a way in which some groups dominate the society. With the emergence of technology, advertising and various media platforms, corporations, governments as well as influences can use them to control people. In this case an idea or value can be vehemently marketed in order to serve the profitability of the corporation or government.
Strengths and weaknesses
A main strength of critical theory is that it contributes to a positive social change. According to Fraser, & Jaeggi (2018), the theory provides avenues in which people can solve the challenges and offer solutions on the issues. For example, through the theory people can adopt innovative ways on handling their issues through the emerging technologies.
Strength of the theory is that it offers practical applications. Most theories are often based on explanation and predication however critical a theory offers practical applications within society. Form the theory a change can be implemented through its arguments.
Weaknesses
One major weakness of the theory is the possibility of conflict of social values. While social values are subject to change and could lead to a positive change in society, conflict may arise from the range of cultures. Given that in the world there are various groups of people with specific social values conflict may arise where group’s social values are not enforced (Fraser, & Jaeggi, 2018). For example some groups in the worked might oppose some of the trends in the world since it goes against their social values. In this case the theory could fail where it does not meet the social values of a given group within society.
Another weakness is that it has a tendency to fail. Given that some of the values are enforced by a few individuals in the society, it could fail over time. An example is the Nazi of the society union which was enforced by failed miserably on top of leading to a mass suffrage.
References
Timimi, S. (2017). Critical cultural theory. Handbook of critical theory and mental health. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Jin, D. Y., & Yoon, K. (2016). The social mediascape of transnational Korean pop culture: Hallyu 2.0 as spreadable media practice. New media & society, 18(7), 1277-1292.
Chew, M. M. (2019). A critical cultural history of online games in China, 1995–2015. Games and Culture, 14(3), 195-215.
Fraser, N., & Jaeggi, R. (2018). Capitalism: A conversation in critical theory. John Wiley & Sons.