What does it all mean?What is the value in studying the popular arts? Was there something that piqued your interest? Are you totally confused about pop vs. high culture? Do you have excellent examples

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Pop Culture
Popular culture is defined as the mannerisms, amusement, consumption patterns, taste and preferences and beliefs of the majority of the society (Forbes et al. 98). In general, it is a culture that is entertaining and easy to understand especially to the younger generation, for example, Hip-Hop and pop music. Through the study of popular arts, the underlying assumptions, moral and philosophical constructs of the community in which those cultural products are produced is revealed (Danesi 57). This enables us to understand the reason why some things are done in such a way and not the other. Clifford Geertz, a renowned anthropologist, points out that what one experiences on a daily basis of their life reveals much more about their culture than the traditional characteristics of culture (Storey & John21).
Many moral and philosophical questions are difficult to understand, but through understanding pop culture one gets leeway to explore these questions as well as learn more on how the society in general functions, hence making it easy for one to come up with assumptions where needed (Burgess 124). Almost everyone spends a considerable amount of hours watching TV daily with average American spending about four hours per day on TV (Berger & Isa 47). This has become part of our routine, and it is almost impossible to imagine a world without television making it one of the popular cultures in the society. The Simpsons is a popular TV which grew my interest in pop culture.

In episode 137 “Sideshow Bob’s Last Gleaming” of the show gives a new perspective towards TV as Bob who previously was addicted to watching TV although currently in prison decides to become a TV critic aims to eliminate all of them from Springfield by quoting that everyone would be better off without TVs. Bob threatens to detonate a nuclear bomb unless all TV broadcasting stops. This forces all TV stations managers to come together for a meeting to decide on what to do and in a panic mode Krusty asks “Without TV would it be really worth to live? I think those who die will be envied by the survivors” Although Bob might have been right about us being better off without TVs, living without TV is not really living as TV has become part of us.
Pop and high culture are two different cultures. Pop culture represents masses while high culture is for a selected group of the society especially those with higher socio-economic standards (Ross 45). Music like Hip-Hop represents the pop culture as it is frequent to hear it play in local radio stations but music genre like Jazz represents the high culture as it has a specific target audience away from the popular mass and only in rare occasions would you hear it played on the radio (Storey 12).
Works Cited
Berger, Arthur Asa. Manufacturing desire: Media, popular culture, and everyday life. Routledge, 2017.
Burgess, Jacquelin, and John R. Gold. Geography, the media, and popular culture. Routledge, 2015.
Danesi, Marcel. Popular culture: Introductory perspectives, 2015.
Forbes, Bruce David, and Jeffrey H. Mahan, eds. Religion and popular culture in America. Univ of California Press, 2017.
Ross, Andrew. No respect: Intellectuals and popular culture. Routledge, 2016.
Storey, John. Cultural theory and popular culture: An introduction. Routledge, 2018.