Why is Popular Culture Widely Distributed? Folk & Popular Culture Why is Popular Culture Widely Distributed?

Popular culture varies more in time than in place Material Posessions What does this mean??? Material Posessions Unlike folk culture, pop culture does NOT reflect the local environment; looks the same everywhere Some regional differences in MDCs, but much less than in past; Food Clothing Shelter

Popular Housing Styles Influences of shapes, materials, detailing etc. Modern house styles (1945-60) “Family room” added in 1950s Neo-eclectic house styles (since 1960)

Clothing Styles Clothing habits as reflection of type of work rather than environment (suit vs. jeans) Higher income = up-to-date wardrobe (especially women) Communication speed, manufacturing Diffusion; Travel, TV, Internet

Can you think of a clothing style that was adopted from folk costume?

Jeans Became mainstream in US in 1960s Price of jeans?? Used to be associated with low status, manual laborers Price of jeans?? $10-???? Value of Levi’s around the world What do jeans have to do with communism??

Popular Food Customs Consumption patterns of alcohol & snack-foods Fast-food/Restaurants Variations within US much less significant than differences between US & LDCs

Regional Differences within the United States Americans may choose beverages or snacks based on what is produced, grown, or imported locally. Wine consumption relatively high in California where most of the U.S. production is located. Cultural backgrounds affect the amount and types of alcohol and snack foods consumed. Relatively little alcohol is consumed in Utah because of the strong presence of the Church of Latter-day Saints that advocates against drinking alcohol. High consumption in Nevada where resorts located. Texans may prefer tortilla chips in greater numbers because of strong Hispanic American presence.

Alcohol Preferences in the U.S. Fig. 4-12: Per capita consumption of rum (top) and Canadian whiskey (bottom) show different distributions and histories of diffusion.

Popular Food Culture Differences among Countries Cola preferences can be influenced by politics. Soviet Union: Pepsi permitted for sale in country Russia: Many former Soviets switched to Coke, because Pepsi was associated with communism. Cola preferences can be influenced by religion. Southwest Asia: Predominantly Muslim countries boycotted products sold in Jewish Israel—e.g., Coke

Diffusing Popular Culture Through TV Significant pop. custom for 2 reasons Most popular leisure activity in MDCs Most important mechanism for diffusing culture Diffusion from the United States to the rest of the world = 50 years Internet follows similar pattern More rapid pace Diffusion from the United States to the rest of the world = 10 years

Diffusion of TV, 1954–1999 Fig. 4-14: Television has diffused widely since the 1950s, but some areas still have low numbers of TVs per population.

Diffusion of the Internet: Late Twentieth Century In 1995, Internet users in the United States accounted for more than half of the global users. By 2011, 77 percent of the U.S. population accessed the Internet. Accounted for 10 percent of the global users. Global share decreased by roughly 40 percent in less than 10 years.

Diffusion of Social Media: Twenty-First Century Same diffusion pattern as TV and Internet Facebook In 2008, Facebook users in United States consisted of 1/3 of all global users. By 2011, global share decreased to 1/5. Twitter United States was source of 1/3 of all tweets in 2010. Second leader of tweets is India.

Diffusion of Facebook Figure 4-21

FIGURE 4-35 DISTRIBUTION OF TWITTER USERS More than one-third of the world’s Twitter users were in the United States in 2011.

Gov’t Control of TV Private corporations vs. Government owned CTV, CityTV, VS. CBC, TVO How do they make $$ Ads, licenses Satellites banned (China, Saudi Arabia) Gov’t censorship