With reference to one specific area of the media discuss the ways it may be termed popular culture :: essays papers

With reference to one specific area of the media discuss the ways it may be termed habitual culture For this essay I am going to be studying the best-selling(predicate) animated TV series The Simpsons and saying wherefore I think that it is a classic example of popular culture texts. The programme is twenty-five minute animation about a family at the bunghole of the social ladder, the Simpsons. Revolving around the central family the show takes a sideways look at the life of ordinary American people. The family has five main members Homer the find of the family is a blue-collar worker at the local nuclear power station. Marge the m opposite is a housewife who stays at home any day, then there are the children. Bart (a mischievous prankster) and Lisa (school swat) are pre-teens and lastly there is baby Maggy who doesnt do that much at all. Every workweek the family get into various and amusing scrapes and generally carry out the activities that a working class family are supposed to do. There are many concomitantors that could categorise The Simpsons as being popular culture, one of them being its intertexuality. The show makes great use of both parody and pastiche as a reference to other popular culture texts such as Star Wars, Psycho and the James Bond films. The programme also features guest appearances by stars of popular culture, such as actors, sports personalities and musicians. Very few people in these roles could be classed as examples of high culture. The other major factor in The Simpsons being termed popular culture is the fact that the show is in animated form. No form of animation has ever been seen as a worthy piece of culture by academics and those who decide what is hearty and what is not.To establish just why The Simpsons can be termed as popular culture we have to define just what it is that we mean by the phrase popular culture. To put it in its most simple form popular culture can be anything that isnt categorised as high cu lture. Academics and members of authentic social groups look down on anything termed popular culture as dumbed down entertainment for the masses and something that isnt worthy of reading. These people attack popular culture as being vulgar and brash, they say its texts are insignificant culturally and that they are only superficial forms of entertainment.