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1. PHILIPPINE
POPULAR
CULTURE
Lesson 3

2. THEORIES AND
APPROACHES
TO POPULAR
CULTURE

3. THEORIES OF
POPULAR CULTURE
•We make sense of popular
culture through theories.
•There are usually two
elements to the study of any
popular culture:

4. 1. The perspective of the
creators of culture (e.g.,
media companies, directors,
artists)
2. The perspective of the
consumers (you, me and other
audiences)

5. •Sociologists look at this issue
from both standpoints and
somewhere in between.
•Do articles of clothing,
musical notes and
camerawork convey meaning
embedded within them?

6. •Or do we obtain meaning and
interpret them based on our
own experiences,
backgrounds and selves?

7. These theories see
popular culture in
different lenses:
•Critical Theory
•Functionalism Theory
•Interactionism Theory

8. 1. Critical Theory
•This approach takes its cue
from Karl Marx and Conflict
Theory.
•Critical theorists – assert that
mass media is an industry
and designed to indoctrinate

9. and subordinate the masses
(audiences) into passivity and
acceptance of the capitalist
mode of consumption through
our popular culture
consumption.

10. •Why challenge the normative
order when you’ve got a
smart phone to appease your
discontent?

11. •Yes, unemployment rate is
high and those in the middle
and lower social classes are
experiencing the economic
effects of the pandemic, but
at least we have YouTube,
TikTok, and the like.

12. •The critical theorists argue
that we literally buy into our
own domination through the
popular culture we consume
which ultimately supports the
status quo and capitalism
itself.

13. Conflict theory,
developed by Karl
Marx, states that
due to society’s
unending
competition for
limited resources,
it will always be in
a state of conflict.

14. •Tensions arise when aside
from resources, status and
power are unevenly
distributed between groups in
society.

15. •Power can be understood as
control of material resources
and amassed wealth, control
of politics and the institutions
that comprise society, and
one's social status relative to
others.

16. This
dynamic
means
there is a
constant
struggle
between
the rich and
the poor.

17. 2. Functionalism
Theory
•Functionalists – see the
purpose or function of
popular culture as not so
sinister and self-serving after
all.

18. •Instead, they maintain that
popular culture provides the
same purpose culture has
always provided in societies:
it is the social glue that binds
together members of that
social group and creates
feeling of solidarity and group
cohesion.

19. •In societies where the
numbers were low, the
division of labor was less
complicated and the focus
culturally was already on the
society, this so-called
mechanical solidarity (named
by a French sociologist Émile
Durkheim) was easy.

20. •It is also a useful explanation
in illustrating the way big,
diverse and heterogeneous
societies like ours are held
together.

21. •Think about the way present-
day shared rituals serve to
build emotional bonds of
recognition, identity, and
trust within social groups and
communities.
•Examples are high school
athletic meets, school
parades or foundation day
celebrations.

22. •It is through these events that
we establish and re-establish
our connections to one
another.
•Sharing the same popular
culture allows strangers to
communicate with one
another in public.

23. •Have you ever struck up a
conversation with a stranger
simply because they were
wearing an Azkals shirt which
is your favorite team?

24. •Or your favorite band’s logo
on a t-shirt? Knowing the
same logos and sharing the
same norms allow us to feel
connected to strangers and
creating a unifying feeling
amongst those who know.

25. •This feeling of emotional
connectedness to others
shows in what sociologists
call emotional energy – it is a
warm and fuzzy feeling you
get when you hang out with
good friends or you engage in
a stimulating conversation
with your classmates or
professors.

26. •This is one of the reasons we
maintain relationships with
others, including imagined
others who also enjoy the
same popular culture we do.

27. •This strong form of emotional
energy can only come from
large groups of people with a
shared focus (the athletes
participating, the singer
singing, for example) and it is
what Durkheim called
collective effervescence.

28. •Collective effervescence – is the
reason why we pay money to
hear music we already have or
attend the game we can watch
for free on tv. Like all popular
culture, it is inherently social
and its meaning comes from
others, not embedded magically
in movies we watch or the music
we listen to.

29. 3. Interactionism
Theory
•The interactionists – focus on
the way that we use popular
culture to make sense of
ourselves but also emphasize
how others shape our tastes,
values and ultimately identity.

30. •Have you ever noticed that
your friends tend to like
similar music, sports and tv
shows as you do?
•Interactionists would argue
that this is not merely a
coincidence but it is the
evidence of the interaction
between our individual tastes
and the tastes of our peers.

31. •Do you ever wonder why your
parents chose your birth
name?
•It may be due to the
popularity of your name when
you were born, but what
exactly influenced your
parents when they named
you?

32. •It is likely that those around
your parents shaped your
parents' attitudes towards
specific names and away
from others.
•We call these groups of
people that tend to interpret,
understand and enjoy popular
culture in similar ways as
interpretive communities.

33. •Interpretive communities –
are consumers whose
common social identities and
cultural backgrounds
(whether organized on the
basis of nationality, race,
ethnicity, gender, sexuality,
religion, or age)

34. inform their shared
understandings of culture in
patterned and predictable
ways.

35. •One of the most significant
ways interpretive
communities play out in daily
life is in determining taste
and consumption.

36. •Taste – can be defined as a
preference for particular
movies, music, fashion, etc.
Though we think taste, and
thus 'good taste' is universal,
it is far from it.

37. •There are diverse beliefs
about what is fashionable and
what is not, or what 'good
music' is and what it isn't,
depending on which
interpretive community we
come from.

38. •What we prefer then
determines in part our
consumption, or how we
receive and make sense of
popular culture.

39. •What we consume has more
to do with what is available to
us and what those around us
consume, e.g., your favorite
foods are likely foods that you
grew up eating or your friends
eat. We are heavily influenced
by those around us.

40. •Cultural capital – is one’s
store of knowledge and
proficiency with artistic and
cultural styles that are valued
by society, and confer
prestige and honor upon
those associated with them.

41. •These are non-financial social
assets that promote social
mobility beyond economic
means, such as education,
intellect, style of speech,
dress, and even physical
appearance.
•This knowledge is passed
down generationally and
learned through socialization.

42. •Each social class develops
skills and values that help
their members survive in
society.

43. • Sabi ng Interactionism, ang paraan natin ng paggamit ng
popular culture ay para mabigyan natin ng kabuluhan ang
ating mga sarili. Binibigyang diin din nito kung paano
nahuhubog ang ating pagkagusto sa mga bagay, ang ating
mga values pati na rin ang ating identity. Dahil sa
pakikisalamuha natin sa iba, nadedevelop ang tastes natin
sa music, movies, fashion, at iba pa. Halimbawa, ang ate mo
ay mahilig sa Korean fashion at beauty products, nahilig ka
na rin dahil lagi mo siya nakikitang nag-aayos. Ang kuya mo
o mga kabarkada mo ay mahilig sa rock music, nagustuhan
mo na rin ang rock music. Mahilig kumain ng maanghang sa
bahay ninyo, kaya type na type mo ang fire noodle 5x spicy
ramen challenge extreme. May mga kanya-kanya tayong
interpretive communities base sa mga pagkakatulad natin
ng mga hilig. Isa ito sa humuhubog ng ating tastes and
consumption. May kinalaman din ang interactionism sa
cultural capital na nakabase sa social class o sa kung ano
ang pinahahalagahan ng lipunan. Para sa interactionists,
ang meaning ng pop culture ay nagmumula sa iyong
karanasan, pinanggalingan at pagkakakilala sa sarili.

44. PHILOSOPHICAL AND
SOCIAL RELEVANCE
OF POPULAR
CULTURE
•In the 1960s, philosophy has
come to a standstill, and pop
culture has dominated the
world.

45. •Pop culture is now the
primary medium for the
expression of ideas on a
mass scale. This explains
why, if it’s to survive,
philosophy must study pop
culture.

46. •Pop culture teaches us about
appeal and charisma, the way
celebrated pop songs are
spectacularly charming in the
manner which they get their
messages across.

47. •Pop culture is the most
seductive force the world has
ever known. It’s more deeply
loved, trusted and a more
stable companion in our joys
and sorrows than other
artforms.

48. •Pop culture achieves what
Pericles, Lincoln, Dickens,
and Proust were attempting
and dramatically exceeds all
of them.
•Philosophy today, uses
popular culture to attract
people and produce
something that is meaningful
to life.

49. •Pop culture on the other
hand, should learn quite a bit
from philosophy as well.
•Pop culture presently touches
on the big themes, but
doesn’t properly engage yet
in many of the opportunities
that lie its way.

50. •In the future, we also need
pop artists, for example, to
take up the challenge of
examining the deepest truths
and what are behind
transformative concepts, and
making these into songs we’ll
sing in the karaoke so that
they become a background
sound our private lives.

51. •A redemptive synthesis
between philosophy and pop
culture is something to look
forward to.

52. •In terms of the social aspect,
pop culture can indeed
contribute in the development
of an individual, group and a
community we are in. Pop
culture provides an
inclusionary role in society as
it unites the masses on ideals
of acceptable forms of
behavior.