American Popular Culture – Essay

Kim Kardashian has become an icon whose media influence has developed habits worldwide. Women have adopted her style, sometimes even her values and show in today’s female youth. In addition, music is indeed another big influence among the popular culture. Rick Ross will tell you that he’s a “Boss” and show off his thousand-dollar jewelry, fancy cars and million dollar homes. After the bright camera lights turn off and the thundering bass amplifying through the speakers dies out, we’re left with the message brought behind the music. How many people can afford all these material things? Only a selected few I would say.

Although this is the case, you see many people out there buying expensive cars on credit, maxing out their paychecks to maybe try to be a “Boss” while all their saving seize to exist. Although we may not put much thought into the decisions we make on a daily basis, American popular culture directly influences what we chose to be part of our lives. What we see on televisions, read in newspapers, hear through the music we listen to, directly reflect the medias influence towards every person individually. Whether it’s the television network we chose, the music we listen to or the clothes we chose to wear, we are a product of those nfluences and are the make up of our community and social normality. References Petracca, (2007) stated, “One way to resolve this seeming dilemma is to think of culture in an anthropological sense, as the distinct practices, artifacts, institutions, customs, and values of a particular social group” (p2). Petracca, (2007) stated, “Popular culture encompasses the most immediate and contemporary elements in our lives—elements which are often subject to rapid changes in a highly technological world in which people are brought closer and closer by the ubiquitous mass media” (p2).