Pop Culture Hegemony PDF

Preview

Summary

Hegemony notes contain examples and all information on slides....

Description

9/19/18

Hegemony Hegemony-the Marxist political economy model of culture (that those in power--- those who control the base—dictate culture) is often criticized for being too grounded in economic determinism No amount of financial backing can guarantee success in the realm of popular culture  90% of all movies lose money  80% of all TV shows fail o i.e. Green Lantern o Lone Ranger o Kris Kardashian’s TV talk show  No way to guarantee success in TV Luis Althusser- French philosopher, tried to move away from the strict economic determinism of Marxism by focusing more on the Superstructure than the Base  Repressive State Apparatuses( RSAs) o Institutions that shape culture conformity through force  Police, courts military  Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) o Institutions that shape cultural conformity through persuasion  Family, church, media, school Main difference is forced vs. persuasion  Won’t kill roommate cause its illegal  Will wear clothes cause its socially unacceptable Antonio Gramsci- Italian Philosopher and Political Activist  While in prison for leading a failed worker’s revolution, the Marxist influenced Gramsci wrote The Prison Notebooks where he questioned the crucial aspects of economic determinism  Posited a theory about Hegemony: the process whereby the “powers that be” reproduced their control over a consenting populace  Originally top-down model wherein the ruling ideas are reproduced as “common sense” Media can shape us to think i.e. bad guys are always caught cause of CSI and Law and Order: SVU Hegemony can give us bad stuff like 16 and pregnant or Teen Mom don’t get pregnant at 16, 17 etc. Say Yes to the Dress vs. Bridezillas on weddings Hegemony: a concept which refers to the ability of dominant groups in a society to exercise control over the weaker groups not by force, but by gaining their consent, so the unequal distribution of power appears to bet both legitimate and natural Hegemony is never total. It operates in constant struggle w/ newly emerging forms of opposition Hegemony works not by crushing those forms, but by a constant process of negotiation Little bit of credit is given to under mine

9/19/18

Appropriation: the process by which often innovate or resist cultural forms are taken up, incorporated, and commodified by the culture industry  Punk clothing London-> Teens-> Runways->Hello Kitty Hegemony is never absolute. There is resistance to simply accepting the status quo  Subversive use of products o Pacifier  Babies  Preventing people who use ecstasy who grind their teeth  Individual Modification o My Little Pony  Social movements o LGBTQ o Equal Rights o Civil Rights Hegemony is constantly retooled to account for cracks in the system  Inoculation o Flu virus o Feminism  Charlies angels o LGBTQ  Will and Grace  Commodifying individuality o Hotel selling a room that is exactly the same as the other  Commodifying rebellion o Tooth toons  Selective uses/ and misreading o Born in the USA, Bruch Springsteen was a rebellion song...