POP101: The Six Laws of Pop Culture
Somewhere in New Zealand, working from a half-century old work of fiction, Peter Jackson turns the greatest modern work of fantasy into arguably the greatest fantasy motion picture of all time. An musician in North Carolina composes a series of songs and posts videos of himself playing them on YouTube. In 2009, he'll instantly be the hottest sensation in the country. Leg warmers return as a fashion statement. Law & Order films its 500th episode. A video game featuring gang warfare is released and sell millions of copies. Some of the scenarios above are real. Others are imagined, but plausible. Believe it or not, every one of them speaks volumes about the status of society—English-speaking and mostly American society for the purpose of this lesson, but global society as well as our world shrinks. Such statements, of course, are not always flattering. In the coming weeks, we'll take a close look at pop culture. An honest look. To glean insight into just what makes popular culture so interesting and even important, I've crafted the Six Laws of Pop Culture: I. The merit of any avatar of popular culture can be measured by examining the correlation between the widespread popularity of the cultural avatar and its longevity. This is the Law of Merit. II. Any avatar of popular culture ceases to be relevant after its merit has been consumed, either through time or saturation or a combination of both. This is the Law of Consumption. III. Any avatar pushed into popular culture past its merit will self-destruct, cause destruction or both. This is the Self-Consumption Corollary. IV. Avatars of popular culture that inspire a lineage retain a portion of the merit generated by their resultant progeny's iconography. This is the Law of Foundation. V. The Nostalgia Exception VI. Invariably, some avatar of popular culture will thrive—perhaps event to the point of invoking the Nostalgia Exception—despite being reviled by some as being "lowest common denominator" culture. This is the rationalization of an elitist. Any phenomenon that rises to the level of iconic status—even briefly—must have some modicum of merit. The person who cannot distinguish the relative merit (or at least the rationale behind) the popularity of a "lowbrow" avatar is not fit to pass judgment on the relative merits of popular culture or its icons. These themes constitute The Idiot Paradigm. Terminology is pretty important in these laws, so let's talk about some of the language in these laws—pop culture is amazingly fixated on labeling things correctly, from "boy bands" to "Generation Xers" to "anime" to "softcore porn." Don't call a GoBot a Transformer or forget that Superman is a DC hero and Wolverine belongs to Marvel Comics. In these laws, an avatar of pop culture is any aspect of collective sociology that enters the general consciousness of any group of people big enough to reasonably constitute a set of peers. It can be music, fashion, technology, language, film, behavior, literature or board games. Anything that is collectively recognized as an ongoing part of life is an avatar of pop culture. If an avatar reaches a certain wide audience, it becomes an icon. An avatar is potentially part of pop culture. An icon is certainly a part of pop culture. So that is our short introductory lesson. Homework: Without any more prompting, give your own explication of the Six Laws of Pop Culture. What do you think they mean? Leave your assignments in the comments section or email me through my blogger profile. Next week: the origins of the Six Laws of Pop Culture.
Brittany Spears gets out of a low-slung sports car in a short skirt and flashbulbs everywhere capture images of the former Mouseketeer that would make Annette Funnicello collapse with the vapors. The Internet is afire, the tabloids run thousands of extra editions, E! practically rewrites its programming schedule for "Breaking News: Brittany Goes Commando." Theme music is composed.
Pop culture is relevant because it crosses boundaries that regional and ethnic culture seldom conquer. Pop culture is about mass appeal, collective consciousness, guilty pleasures and what zeitgeists say about us and our neighbors.
(a) When the merit of certain avatars of popular culture is consumed by saturation alone, that avatar may resurface at a later time under the nostalgia exception.
(b) Avatars that become identified as a signpost of generational identity retain some merit (although the avatar may become ironic or otherwise transmogrified) to those most closely associated with that generational movement.
(c) Should an avatar remain viable despite the passage of time and enough widespread popularity to be considered a part of pop culture consciousness, the nostalgia exception is employed to describe that avatar's enduring merit.
In the case of the Laws of Pop Culture, merit doesn't describe an avatar or icon's artistic viability. Instead, it simply describes the ability of that avatar/icon to hold the attention of the collective population.
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