Get Set for Media and Cultural Studies

(Purvis, 2006: 88-89)

Cultural distinctions

Much of the historical and intellectual legacy which has informed the distinctions between high (or sometimes ‘official’) and popular culture is informed by the increasingly marketand commercial-led distinctions of the eighteenth century.When cultural goods and artefacts can be bought, sold and exchanged for money, then the more expensive the goods, the more cultural taste is endowed with the purchase and the purchaser. ‘Taste’ (what people judge as good or bad in culture) increasingly became a marker of social differentiation, allowing distinctions to be made not just on grounds of social class, but on how an individual in the class was able to talk about ‘culture’. But it is important to note that what, in the eighteenth century, the educated might have referred to as ‘vulgar’ or ‘low’ culture is today referred to as ‘popular’ culture; but it is also a culture whose importance to the understanding of the period cannot be underestimated. Similar distinctions are seen to mark the nineteenth century as well. Whilst the free municipal galleries, libraries and public reading rooms of the late nineteenth century increased working-class access to cultural output and literacy, so those with wealth and income maintained cultural distinctions by travelling to the galleries, exhibitions and sites of archaeological merit in Italy, France, Greece and Spain. In other words, in whichever way the cultural goods of a period are judged, the fact of the judgement perhaps says as much about the culture and its subjects more than the actual goods themselves.

Research into what audiences do with cultural products also suggests that the distinctions between high culture and popular culture continue to inform how ‘postmodern’ cultures are understood today. On the one hand, popular culture has been seen as something which underlines and affirms ‘things as they are’. Popular culture is not radical; it does not seek to question or change the status quo; and it is evidence of cultural decline. On the other hand, popular culture serves to endanger social cohesion, undermine the authority of the dominant group, and generally represents a threat to traditional ways of life. If only for these reasons, then, popular culture is surely worth further study. By situating these debates in relation to more detailed discussion of economics, politics, social history and cultural theory, so media and cultural studies degrees are in a position to confront the arguments about ‘Culture’ and popular culture.

FURTHER READING
Storey, J. (2001), Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction, 3rd edn, Harlow: Pearson Education; *http:// cwx.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/storey_ema/ (this also has exercises, self-assessments, and glossary of key terms).
Strinati, D. (2000), An Introduction to Studying Popular Culture, London
and New York: Routledge.
Williams, R. (1965), The Long Revolution, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Williams, R. (1988; 1976), Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and
Society, London: Fontana.