This document provides an introduction to a book that applies semiotic analysis to various aspects of popular culture. The book draws on diverse semiotic perspectives, from structuralism to postmodern semiotics, and uses semiotics to analyze cultural phenomena that have emerged in recent decades. The introduction notes that seminal postmodern cultural theorists appropriated key semiotic concepts but cultural research has not fully incorporated subsequent advances in semiotic theory. The book aims to apply a wide range of up-to-date semiotic frameworks to analyze contemporary cultural artifacts and phenomena, with the goal of productively bringing semiotics and cultural studies into dialogue. It examines topics like Lady Gaga's persona, experiential music consumption, memorial events for music legends, intertextual advertising

1. Semiotics
of Popular
Culture
George Rossolatos
ISBN 978-3-86219-556-5
9 783862 195565
George Rossolatos Semiotics of Popular Culture

2. George Rossolatos
Semiotics of Popular Culture
kassel
university
press

3. Bibliographic information published by Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data is available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
ISBN 978-3-86219-556-5
© 2015, kassel university press GmbH, Kassel
www.upress.uni-kassel.de/
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Printed in Germany

4. Also by the same author:
Rossolatos, George (2014). Brand Equity Planning with Structuralist Rhetorical
Semiotics. Kassel: Kassel University Press.
Rossolatos, George (2013). //rhetor.dixit//: Understanding Ad Texts’ Rhetorical
Structure for Differential Figurative Advantage. Amazon Press.
Rossolatos, George (2012). Applying Structuralist Semiotics to Brand Image
Research. Amazon Press.
Rossolatos, George (ed. and co-author) (2002). Interactive Advertising: Dynamic
Communication in the Information Era. Athens: Libris-Tech.

6. Table of contents
Introduction vii
Chapter 1: Lady Gaga as (dis)simulacrum of monstrosity 1
1.1 Introduction: Lady Gaga, the world’s most influential artist 1
1.2 Is Lady Gaga, the mother monster, really monstrous? 2
1.3 Gaga is fake monstrosity, long live monster Gaga 6
1.4 On the multiple regimes of Lady Gaga as sign system 11
1.5 Conclusions: Hyperdifferentiation is not monstrosity 21
Appendix 1.1. Lady Gaga’s original manifesto of little monsters 22
Appendix 1.2. Screenshot of littlemonsters.com 22
References 23
Chapter 2: Fetish, taboo, simulacrum: An applied
25
psychoanalytic/semiotic approach to the experiential consumption of
music products
2.1 Introduction: Aims and scope of this study 25
2.2 Psychoanalysis and semiotics 26
2.3 Fetish, taboo, simulacrum: The triadic definition of the music product 26
2.3.1 Simulacrum and phantasm 27
2.3.2 Fetish and petit objet a 28
2.3.3 Taboo and the arche-signifier of the phallus 30
2.4 From ego-centrism to inter-subjectivity: The role of language as Other in
32
conditioning collective experiences
2.5 Mirror-mirror on the … record-cover: The primacy of the mirror-stage in
inter-subjective specular experiential consumption
34
2.6 Hedonism vs. Jouissance: The ec-static facet of experiential consumption 38
2.7 Methodology 40
2.7.1 Aim and objectives 40
2.7.2 Data collection methods 41
2.7.3 Discourse analysis as data analysis method 42
2.8 Discussion of research findings 43
2.8.1 The function of music products as fetishes or small objects a: The case
43
for libidinally cathected cultural products
2.8.2 The function of music products as taboos: [No] access to the Real 44
2.8.3 The function of music products as simulacra: Visual and oral signifiers
46
as cultural glue for collective neo-tribal experiences
2.9 Conclusions and recommendations for future research 48
Appendix 2.1. Focus groups informants’ profile 50
References 51
Chapter 3: A Dio: A sociosemiotic/phenomenological account of the
55
formation of collective narrative identity in the context of a rock legend’s
memorial
3.1 Introduction: The memorial event as semiotic resource for shaping
collective narrative identity
55
3.2 Collective narrative identity as the outcome of a semiotic resource’s
interpersonal metafunction
56
3.3 The death of a rock legend as ideational substratum for solidifying the
fandom’s collective identity
60
3.4 The textual underpinnings of Dio’s memorial event 64
3.4.1 Cultural artifacts or iconic semiotic resources inscribed in external
65
paraphernalia
3.4.2 The ritualistic gesture of the devil horn 67
3.4.3 The mediatization of the ritualistic gaze 69
3.4.4 The memorial space as division of the mourning’s labor 71
3.4.5 The narrative and rhetorical structure of the featured commemorative
speeches
73
3.5 Conclusions: For a phenomenologically enriched sociosemiotic study of
iconic artists’ memorials
82

7. References 88
Chapter 4: Rapunzel, Benjamin Button and Little Red Riding Hood in this
92
and any other possible world: Philosophical, rhetorical and textual
semiotic excursions in inter-textual formations amongst advertising,
literary and filmic texts
4.1 Introduction: Metalinguistic and possible worlds approaches to
counterfactuals
92
4.2 How to get there from here in 2 basic steps: Textual semiotic ticket-to-ride 94
4.3 Rhetorical operations and propositional attitudes as conditions of
96
possibility of other worlds
4.4 Rapunzel for…life(world): Hair-extension is fabular 103
4.5.Conclusion: Implications for brand textuality 105
References 106
Chapter 5: Is the semiosphere post-modernist? 109
5.1 Introduction 109
5.2. What is the semiosphere (and what is not ‘it’)? 111
5.2.1 Semiosphere(s) vs. sphere(s) 115
5.2.2 Semiotic space(s) 117
5.2.3 Markers of spatial orientation (inside/outside, centre/periphery) 119
5.2.4 Demarcation markers (boundary/ies) 120
5.3 Kant’s modernist conceptualization of space as pure form of intuition 120
5.4 Why the semiosphere is and is not modernist 131
5.5 Post-modernist conceptions of space, discursivity and subjectivity:
123
Foucault and Deleuze in focus
5.5.1 Lotman vs. Foucault 123
5.5.2 Lotman vs. Deleuze (& Guattari) 126
5.6 Conclusion 132
References 133
Chapter 6: For a semiotic model of cultural branding and the dynamic
135
management of a brandosphere in the face of user-generated
advertising
6.1 Lotman’s cultural semiotics as conceptual platform for edifying the
brandosphere
135
6.2 The principal aims of the cultural branding model of brandosphere 136
6.3 User-generated advertising in focus 142
6.3.1 The role of UGC and UGA in a diverse social-media landscape 142
6.3.2 Why draw on the semiotic conceptual heritage for edifying the cultural
149
branding model of the brandosphere, rather than use a cultural branding
model already on offer in the marketing literature while examining UGA?
6.4 Expected contributions of the brandosphere to the extant marketing
(semiotic) literature and practice
155
References 156
Chapter 7: The ice-bucket challenge: The legitimacy of the memetic
159
mode of cultural reproduction is the message
7.1 Memes as minimal units of cultural reproduction 159
7.2 Deconstructing the formal structure of the ice-bucket challenge video
meme
165
7.3 Interpretation of the function(s) of the video meme as exchanges in a
structural edifice
171
7.4 Conclusions and areas for further research 179
References 180

8. Introduction
Cultural studies constitutes one of the most multi-perspectival research fields. Amidst
a polyvocal theoretical landscape that spans different disciplines, such as sociology,
anthropology, literary studies, film studies, media studies, ethnography, philosophy,
marketing, to name a few, and different perspectives within each discipline, semiotics
(or what is occasionally referred to in cultural research as semiology, under the
influence of early Barthesian analyses) is of foundational value. Barthes’s
semiological approach to the analysis of multiple meaning layers in popular cultural
artefacts constitutes a milestone in popular cultural research. However, the discipline
of semiotics has accomplished significant theoretical and empirical strides since
Barthes’s time which, to my knowledge, have not been adequately reflected in
theorizations of cultural phenomena that have been surfacing at an exponential rate
over the past thirty years in the wider cultural studies discipline. This is further
compounded by the ways whereby seminal authors who are regularly evoked in the
post-modern/post-structuralist strand of cultural studies, such as Lyotard, Baudrillard,
Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze have appropriated, criticized, recontextualized and
resemanticized fundamental semiotic terms and concepts which they drew largely
from early foundational texts and authors, such as de Saussure and Levi-Strauss.
Thus, whereas from within the semiotic discipline new theoretical frames and ways of
theorizing culture have been springing up ever since Barthes’s time, these advances
were not incorporated in the output of seminal postmodernist/post-structuralist
authors whose work was and continues to be of paramount importance in shaping
the conceptual frameworks that are regularly utilized in cultural studies.
The semiotically informed readings of popular cultural phenomena on offer in
this book follow the reverse path. Instead of assuming Barthes as the alpha and the
omega of what semiotics may offer to cultural analysis and criticism, it starts by
considering how perspectives that have been offered ever since Barthes’s time may
be fruitfully applied. In an attempt to effectively address the sheer polyvocity and
conceptual richness of the semiotic discipline, a wide roster of perspectives is evoked
against the background of a diverse set of cultural phenomena. This roster includes
and is informed by structuralist semiotics, post-structuralist semiotics, semiotically
informed psychoanalysis, cultural semiotics, film semiotics, sociosemiotics,
eclectically refined frameworks that have been offered by prominent semioticians,
such as Umberto Eco, but also, to a lesser extent, by music semiotics and by more
niche, but certainly promising perspectives, such as postmodern semiotics,
ethnosemiotics, phenomenological semiotics and rhetorical semiotics. The
vii

9. recruitment of semiotic frameworks and concepts is enacted against the background
of advances in cultural studies (thus reinstating the dialogue with a discipline that
took form by drawing on semiotics in the first place) and the various research
streams that have become consolidated within the wider cultural studies territory,
such as memory studies, celebrity studies, death studies, cultural geography, visual
studies, to name a few. At the same time, the offered readings engage dialogically
with culturally informed research in the marketing discipline or what has become
entrenched in the academic vernacular under the umbrella of CCT (Consumer
Culture Theory). Again, it is deemed that the conceptual richness of semiotics has
been considerably underutilized in CCT, while it is hoped that the featured readings
will contribute to the enhancement of cross-fertilisations between culturally informed
marketing research and semiotics. Moreover, the deployed discussions aim at
instigating dialogue between semiotics and disciplines that have become increasingly
popular over the past thirty years, such as discourse analysis and critical discourse
analysis. In this instance, semiotics has been foundational in delineating the research
scope and panoply of research tools in discourse analysis.
As regards the diversity of cultural phenomena that constitute the empirical
substratum of the offered analyses, music, cinema, new media, live-shows, branding,
advertising and literature constitute the focal areas of concern. Under the aegis of a
permeating textuality paradigm, the ubiquitously applicable tools of multimodal
analysis, and time-hallowed qualitative research methods facilitated by advances in
videography and archival research, the featured semiotic readings aim at scrutinizing
the wider social implications and communicative functions of popular cultural
artefacts, spectacles, processes and places, such as Lady Gaga’s monstrosity, Dio’s
memorial, experiential consumption events, the ice-bucket challenge video meme.
In the light of the above precursory considerations concerning the theoretical
orientation of this book, chapter 1 scrutinizes to what extent Lady Gaga’s proclaimed
monstrosity is really monstrous by drawing on biographical and archival visual data,
with a focus on the relatively underexplored live-show. The analysis that is offered in
this chapter is largely informed by Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of monstrosity, as
well as by their approach to the study of sign-systems that was deployed in
Thousand Plateaus (1987). The main argument that is put forward is that
monstrosity as sign seeks to appropriate the horizon of unlimited semiosis as radical
alterity and openness to signifying possibilities. In this context it is held that Gaga
effectively delimits her unique semioscape, however any claims to monstrosity are
undercut by the inherent limits of a representationalist approach in sufficiently
engulfing this concept. Gaga is monstrous for her community insofar as she
viii

10. demands of her fans to project their semiosic horizon onto her as simulacrum of
infinite semiosis. However, this simulacrum may only be evinced in a feigned manner
as (dis)simulacrum. The analysis of imagery from seminal live shows during 2011-
2012 demonstrates that Gaga’s presumed monstrosity is more akin to
hyperdifferentiation as simultaneous employment of heterogeneous and potentially
dissonant cultural representations.
Chapter 2 puts forward a psychoanalytically informed interpretive model for
elucidating how music products function in the context of experiential consumption.
Perhaps stressing that a psychoanalytic approach is complemented by semiotics
is a pleonasm, especially in the case of Lacanian theory, where the structure of
language came to replace Freudian biologism and naturalism. Whereas Freud
sought to ground his theory in biological processes (albeit speculatively and with
an occasional stress on the impossibility of such a task), Lacan drew on Saussure’s
structural linguistics and was inspired by the structuralist movement in developing his
complex diagrammatic reasoning. Lacan is known not only for having inverted the
Saussurean equation of the sign as the ratio of signifier to signified, but also for
having employed both Saussurean and Jakobsonian semiotic terminology in
different phases of his thinking.
The discussion kicks off with an exposition of the key concepts of fetish,
taboo, simulacrum that constitute the groundwork for the ensuing interpretation
of the experiential consumption of music products. The main line of argumentation
suggests that the music product is a taboo that caters for consumers’ need for
ecstatic experiences, that is for experiences that deliver them from their
phantasmatic identity and relocate them to the realm of unconscious processes. As
fetish or petit objet a, the music product allows for access to the Other, inasmuch
as it distances consumers from the Other. The findings from primary qualitative
research that were generated by applying discourse analysis to the interpretation
of the data that were gathered from focus-groups with members of different fan-clubs,
coupled with participant observation during live-shows, suggest that
contamination is the mode whereby t h e aesthetic features of music products are
transferred to the communicative (communal) sphere of experiential consumption.
Consumers were found to be experiencing jouissance from the specular contact with
artists in live shows, that is the mixed feeling of pleasure from temporarily
identifying with a decentralised signifier, and pain caused by the permanent
absence of the centre of the music product as simulacrum.
Chapter 3 offers an account of the formation of a fandom’s collective
memory and identity in the context of a rock legend’s (Dio) memorial event by
ix

11. attending to how it is shaped alongside artefacts, processes, places. The analysis
assumes as blueprint the three sociosemiotic metafunctions (ideational,
interpersonal, textual) as put forward by Halliday and later adopted and revised by
Kress and Van Leeuwen, among others. Given that Halliday envisioned the
metafunctions as being open to insights gathered from the social sciences, the
analysis incorporates and is conceptually informed by accounts pertaining to salient
facets of the scrutinized phenomenon from cultural studies, anthropology, rhetoric
and most eminently from narrative phenomenology, with a focus on Ricoeur’s unique
take on issues of memory, narrativity and collective identity. The analysis culminates
in highlighting the value of complementing a sociosemiotic interpretation of memorial
events that includes narrativity as integral aspect of its theorizing mode, with a
phenomenological angle that affords to elucidate invisible structures that are
operative beneath the concerned semiotic resources’ manifest multimodal structure.
Chapter 4, on possible world semiotics, is particularly pertinent for advertising
planners and creative executives whose role consists largely in inventing and
constantly re-inventing brand discourses. By drawing on semantics, textual
semiotics, philosophy of language and rhetoric, I am addressing how fictive
elements, embedded in fabular worlds that are part and parcel of literary and
cinematic texts and once conceived of as counterfactual, attain to be actualized in
advertising discourse as part of our cultural world. By adopting Eco’s fundamental
premise that our world is first and foremost culturally constituted, and by recruiting
rhetoric as an essential complement of a hybrid semantic/textual semiotic approach,
an attempt is made at demonstrating that this and other possible worlds are not that
far apart. The implications for brand genealogists, but also in terms of developing
advertising texts by drawing on a combinatorial logic of properties and individuals
from fictive worlds are highlighted as an addendum to the practical implications of
philosophy and semiotic theory.
Lotman’s concept of the semiosphere constitutes a hallmark for cultural
semiotics. Chapter 5 provides arguments for and against interpretations of the
semiosphere as being of post-modernist orientation. A comparative reading of the
definitional components of the semiosphere, their hierarchical relationship and their
interactions is undertaken against the two principal axes of space and subjectivity in
the light of Kantian transcendental idealism, as inaugural and authoritative figure of
modernity, the Foucauldian discursive turn and the Deleuzian (post) radical
empiricism, as representative authors of the highly versatile post-modern vernacular.
This comparative reading aims at highlighting not only similarities and differences
between the Lotmanian conceptualization of the semiosphere and the concerned
x

12. modernist and post-modernist authors, but the construct’s operational relevance in a
post-metanarratives cultural predicament that has been coupled with the so-called
spatial turn in cultural studies.
Chapter 6 continues within a Lotmanian mindset, while venturing into the field
of new media studies and user-generated advertising. More particularly, this chapter
provides a sketchmap for a semiotically informed model of cultural branding, while
pointing out how it can be fruitfully applied for managing a brand’s share of cultural
representations, over and above its market share, as well as the textual sources of
a brand language as (inter)textual formation. The advocated cultural branding
model of the brandosphere is of inter-disciplinary orientation, spanning the relevant
marketing and semiotic literatures, with an emphasis on Lotman’s cultural/textual
semiotics and social media, with an added focus on user-generated advertising.
Finally, Chapter 7 unpeels the multiple layers of message structuration of the
ice-bucket challenge video meme. The analysis is performed in the context of a
cultural predicament where networking and connectivity constitute overarching
cultural values. The argumentative thrust deploys against the background of the
assumption that the ice-bucket challenge constitutes a meme as minimal unit of
cultural reproduction that functions on both ontic and ontological levels (in
Heidegger’s fundamental ontological terms). The offered analysis aims at
demonstrating that the enunciator of this unit is the meme itself that summons hosts
or enunciatees to legitimate the pre-reflective memetic mode of cultural reproduction
and propagation as overarching mode of communication.
xi