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Popular culture or pop culture is the entirety of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, images, and other phenomena that are within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the late 20th and early 21st century. Heavily influenced by mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday lives of the society. The most common pop culture categories are: entertainment (movies, music, TV), sports, news (as in people/places in news), politics, fashion/clothes, technology and slang. Popular culture is often viewed as being trivial and "dumbed down" in order to find consensual acceptance throughout the mainstream. As a result, it comes under heavy criticism from various non-mainstream sources (most notably religious groups and countercultural groups) which deem it superficial, consumerist, sensationalist, or corrupt. ==History and definitions== The term "popular culture" was coined in the 19th century or earlier.〔Although the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' lists the first use as 1854, it appears in an address by Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi in 1818: 〕 Traditionally, popular culture was associated with poor education and the lower classes,〔Per Adam Siljeström, ''The educational institutions of the United States, their character and organization'', J. Chapman, 1853, p. 243: "Influence of European emigration on the state of civilization in the United States: Statistics of popular culture in America". John Morley presented an address ''On Popular Culture'' at the Birmingham Town Hall in 1876, dealing with the education of the lower classes.〕 as opposed to the "official culture" and higher education of the upper classes.〔(''Rabelais and Bakhtin: Popular Culture in "Gargantua and Pantagruel"'' ) p.13〕〔(''Rabelais's Radical Farce'' ) p.9〕 The stress in the distinction from "official culture" became more pronounced towards the end of the 19th century,〔"Learning is dishonored when she stoops to attract," cited in a section "Popular Culture and True Education" in University extension, Issue 4, The American society for the extension of university teaching, 1894.〕 a usage that became established by the interbellum period.〔 e.g. "the making of popular culture plays (post-revolutionary Russian theater )", Huntly Carter, ''The new spirit in the Russian theatre, 1917-28: And a sketch of the Russian kinema and radio, 1919-28, showing the new communal relationship between the three'', Ayer Publishing, 1929, p. 166.〕 From the end of World War II, following major cultural and social changes brought by mass media innovations, the meaning of popular culture began to overlap with those of mass culture, media culture, image culture, consumer culture, and culture for mass consumption.〔"one look at the sheer mass and volume of what we euphemistically call our popular culture suffices", from Winthrop Sargeant, 'In Defense of the High-Brow', an article from ''LIFE'' magazine, 11 April 1949, p. 102.〕 Social and cultural changes in the United States were a pioneer in this with respect to other western countries. The abbreviated form "pop" for popular. as in pop music, dates from the late 1950s.〔''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', volume 15, p.85 entry ''Pop music''〕 Although terms "pop" and "popular" are in some cases used interchangeably, and their meaning partially overlap, the term "pop" is narrower. Pop is specific of something containing qualities of mass appeal, while "popular" refers to what has gained popularity, regardless of its style.〔Steinem, Gloria (''Outs of pop culture'' ), in ''LIFE'' magazine, 20 August 1965, p. 73 quotation: 〕〔Bill Lamb, ("What Is Pop Music? A Definition" ), ''About.com'', retrieved 8 March 2012 quotation: 〕 According to John Storey, there are six definitions of popular culture.〔John Storey (''Cultural Theory and Popular Culture'' ), pp.4-8〕 The quantitative definition of culture has the problem that much "high culture" (e.g., television dramatizations of Jane Austen) is also "popular". "Pop culture" is also defined as the culture that is "left over" when we have decided what high culture is. However, many works straddle the boundaries, e.g., Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. A third definition equates pop culture with "mass culture" and ideas. This is seen as a commercial culture, mass-produced for mass consumption by mass media.〔Sérgio Campos Gonçalves, “(Cultura e Sociedade de Consumo: um olhar em retrospecto )”, InRevista - Núcleo de Produção Científica em Comunicação – UNAERP (Ribeirão Preto), v. 3, pp. 18-28, 2008, ISSN 1980-6418.〕 From a Western European perspective, this may be compared to American culture. Alternatively, "pop culture" can be defined as an "authentic" culture of the people, but this can be problematic because there are many ways of defining the "people". Storey argued that there is a political dimension to popular culture; neo-Gramscian hegemony theory "... sees popular culture as a site of struggle between the 'resistance' of subordinate groups in society and the forces of 'incorporation' operating in the interests of dominant groups in society." A postmodernist approach to popular culture would "no longer recognize the distinction between high and popular culture". Storey claims that popular culture emerges from the urbanization of the Industrial Revolution. Studies of Shakespeare (by Weimann, Barber or Bristol, for example) locate much of the characteristic vitality of his drama in its participation in Renaissance popular culture, while contemporary practitioners like Dario Fo and John McGrath use popular culture in its Gramscian sense that includes ancient folk traditions (the commedia dell'arte for example).〔Robert Weimann, ''Shakespeare and the Popular Tradition'' (1967)〕〔Robert Shaughnessy, ''The Cambridge companion to Shakespeare and popular culture'' (2007) p. 24〕 Popular culture changes constantly and occurs uniquely in place and time. It forms currents and eddies, and represents a complex of mutually interdependent perspectives and values that influence society and its institutions in various ways. For example, certain currents of pop culture may originate from, (or diverge into) a subculture, representing perspectives with which the mainstream popular culture has only limited familiarity. Items of popular culture most typically appeal to a broad spectrum of the public. Important contemporary contributions for understanding what popular culture means have been given by the German researcher Ronald Daus, who studies the impact of extra-European cultures in North America, Asia and especially in Latin America. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Popular culture」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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