Garcia 1 Mirna Garcia English 1102 Professor L.

Steele 4/17/14 Popular vs Unpopular: The Logic behind How Something Evolves into Popularity Following the crowd is sometimes just hard to resist and it becomes almost a human instinct, but I feel that it is important for us to realize that it kind of turns into an automatic action that has gone widely unnoticed. As an effect we tend to lose the individuality that makes us all unique compared to the clone like methods we so obviously abide by in this day and age. Essentially, the undeniable fact is that we control what becomes viral in our culture; we shape the trends in our communities and are guilty for the expansion of such trends on a global level. Thus, my centralized question is what is it that makes us fall into the bandwagon or trends and fads of society and what is the reasoning behind such behaviors? This can imply that we are controlled by society and the popular culture that surrounds us and that has ultimately caused a sense of loss in individuality. Furthermore, in order to answer any profound question I feel that several others come into play as an ongoing effect and simply become hard to ignore. So, what exactly is popular? What is pop culture and roles does it play on society? How does it mold our ways of acting as people through social aspects? Does following trends make us popular and is that our potential goal when acting upon popular aspects of culture? Is that the reason for doing it or is it merely a human instinct that we cannot help to steer away from? It is truly an endless cycle of questions that just lead to more, but they are realistic ones that we must all face because in all of its essence, we are the backbone to what ultimately becomes prioritized in our society and that role should not be taken for granted.

Garcia 2 Claiming Centrality Looking back at what got me interested in this topic in the first place was my arrival from California to North Carolina. Like anyone can imagine, moving almost three thousand miles away is not the easiest thing and can definitely take some time to adapting to. I came to a completely new world with different people and lifestyles. I had no knowledge of what a pocketbook was, nor did I take interest in UGG boots. I figured I had never seen many of them before because of that marvelous weather everyone always speaks about in home sweet home (or at least the part where I was from). Prior to leaving I was surrounded by skinny jeans and Vans slip-ons, I had encountered a whole new set of fashion and style and I did not even know it yet. Other than just the overly priced boots I noticed a completely new set of trends that was worn by everybody that could get their hands on them. I feel the main reason I could not help to notice was because of those brand names that just stood out to me on everybodys t-shirts. The typical Hollister, Abercrombie, and Aeropostale were being advertised across everyones chests. Im sure of course that these stores existed in California, but were just not as relevant from the specific area I came from, therefore I felt more of a stable line of trend here in the Carolinas then I had seen in California where everything had always felt so at ease with no forceful tactics on clothing apparel. Always having been into and continue being into fashion, clothes, and shopping, but after my arrival here I had a new approach and made sure that I did not want to dress like everyone else. I wondered what made the clothes that were being worn here so intriguing when they were all so unreasonably priced, which also played a factor in never catching my attention for being fashionably assertive or pleasing. Overall I feel that my coming to this state led me to a drastic change in my persona, fashion taste, and definitely perceptions on

Garcia 3 how people get to liking stuff in masses that have no relevant appeal and perhaps are trends followed because of mere human instinct on following the crowd. Items of Research So as previously discussed we must obtain answers to sub questions that can ultimately lead us to our centralized one. In order to do so I feel that we have to start in the beginning with the logic behind what popular culture actually is. Writers like Marcel Danesi can enlighten us with his work in Popular Culture (Introductory Perspectives) and provide for us a basic understanding for these very elusive concepts. Not only did he write the book Popular Culture, he also is a professor of Anthropology at the University in Toronto. Another writer with great interest on the subject is Michael Schudson who wrote an article for the book Popular Culture who happens to be an academic sociologist who focuses on the fields of journalism, history, and public culture. Schudson would describe popular culture with both the terms folk and popular. He mentions how both are mass beliefs in a local state as well as having had objects and practices having rooted in a particular local area (Rojek 65). Danesi on the other hand feels as though he has to separate the two terms being pop and culture in order to attain a finalized term as a whole. He defines culture as a system. That system includes several factors like those of beliefs, symbols, rituals, clothing, language, lifestyle patterns, performances, art forms, music, dance and any other form of human expression within a community during a particular period in time (Danesi 2). Another source that can add to this argument is Adam Sternbergh who wrote an article titled What Was, Is and Will Be Popular, The Driving Forces of Pop Culture. He opens up a new line of thinking in which pop culture no longer comes in masses; everyone has an individual cultural cocoon, which has been enabled by the internet (Sternbergh). Adam

Garcia 4 happens to be the author of Shovel Ready, culture editor in NY Times magazine, and previous writer for several other well-known newspapers. My Niche

References Adam Sternbergh (2013). What Was, Is and Will Be Popular - NYTimes.com. Retrieved April 18, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/09/08/magazine/the-culture package.html?_r=2&#/#item_0 Danesi, M. (2008). Popular culture: Introductory perspectives.

Garcia 5 Rojek, C. (2012). Popular culture. London, UK: Routledge