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Lesson 4 – An Interaction(ist) Approach to Popular Culture

Robert Wonser

Soc 86 Fall 2014

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The Interaction Approach

This approach emphasizes how popular culture is created, diffused, and consumed as an outcome of social interactions experienced among small groups of individuals.

Who you are, your tastes and values are a product of those around you.

Your choice in pop culture is too.

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Foundations of the Interaction Approach

The self is created and maintained through interactions with others

As Charles Horton Cooley said, individuals build their self-image from the judgments of others, or at least from what they imagine others evaluations to be (looking-glass self)

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The Interaction ApproachOur knowledge and experience of popular

culture is conditioned by the social contexts in which we live and interact with others• Our consumer and cultural tastes—music we like, food we eat, clothes we wear—are deeply influenced by our peers, acquaintances and others who surround us in everyday life

• Even though the production of most pop culture is done by a handful of corporations, the eventual success may depend on micro-level processes illustrative of how chattering individuals within small groups interact in everyday life.

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Social Networks and the Spread of Fashion and Fads

social networks consist of individuals connected to one another through a variety of relationships, whether based on kinship, authority, friendship, romance, or work.

Why do networks matter for pop culture?

•Trends and fads spread through these social networks

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Word-of-MouthCommunication among consumers who have no stake

in a product are influential

67% of U.S. sales of consumer goods are based on word of mouth among friends, family and strangers

Word-of-mouth is a function of:• Volume – total # of conversations in which it is discussed• Intensity – enthusiasm expressed in those conversations• Valence – evaluative content (good or bad movie?)• Dispersal – numerous social networks or just one?• Duration – how much time does it continue for?

General rule: people are more likely to talk about products favorably but negative word of mouth tends to have a stronger effect on consumer behavior

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Interpretive CommunitiesInterpretive communities

Consumers whose common social identities and cultural backgrounds (whether organized on the basis of nationality, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, or age) inform their shared understandings of culture in patterned and predictable ways.

They rely on common social experiences to frame their collective readings of popular culture

Some Latino fans explain their embrace of Morrissey and the Smiths in terms of shared ethnic heritage and immigrant experience

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Culture Wars

Meaning is not simply given. What is art? What is good or bad?

Culture wars are cultural conflicts fought among ideological adversaries in the public arena

•Ex: PMRC and heavy metal and rap

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Popular Culture and the Search for Authenticity

Perhaps the biggest motivator to consume popular culture – meaning, identity and ultimately, authenticity.

Authenticity can refer to a variety of desirable traits: credibility, originality, sincerity, naturalness, genuineness, innateness, purity, or realness.• Can never be truly authentic, instead must always be

performed, staged, fabricated, crafted or otherwise imagined.

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What about Art Worlds?

How do we know what ‘the real deal’ is?

Remember, art worlds are where many of our expectations regarding a particular art form come from.

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The performance of authenticity always requires a close conformity to the expectations set by the cultural context in which it is situated (this includes the art world’s expectations).

Why is authenticity so important? Is it lacking in our culture?

The search for authenticity has been a middle-class reaction to the soullessness of monopoly capitalism (as expressed by Marx’s critique of alienated labor).

Can you think of something that is authentic? How do you know it is?

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Consumers attribute authenticity to cultural objects and symbols as a means of creating distinction, status, prestige, or value

Ironic that it is often associated with hardship and disadvantage

• Ex: runaway middle-class punks, hipsters

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Case Study on Authenticity: the Hipster

Person A: Are you a hipster?

Person B (obviously a hipster): What?! No!

Where do we turn when for authenticity?

Hipsters are a subculture of young, recently settled urban middle class adults and older teenagers with musical interests mainly in indie rock.

What are Hipsters though?

Julia Plevin argues that the "definition of 'hipster' remains opaque to anyone outside this self-proclaiming, highly-selective circle."

She claims that the "whole point of hipsters is that they avoid labels and being labeled. However, they all dress the same and act the same and conform in their non-conformity" to an "iconic carefully created sloppy vintage look."

Hipsters fetishize authenticity and borrow it in pastiche form from everywhere.

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HipstersUltimate goal here is to

non-conform without an admission of actually doing so.

Successful non-conformity is achieved through cultural irony—take anything valued within a culture, be it fashion, music, literature, or art, and use it or wear it with outright, yet subtle irony (this is more difficult to achieve than one might think).

Key components of the Hipster:

Stuff: authentic material culture, the correct stuff that indicates you have…

Taste (remember this for Bourdieu and cultural capital late on)

Pastiche: the hodgepodge blending of elements from pop culture to create a sensibility