If you're a student thats fascinated by gossip blogs, hit music, and up and coming movies, why not bring your passion to the college curriculum? Despite what some members of the academic elite may say, popular cultureis a valid subject for scholarly consideration. With its behemoth influence over society, popular culture deserves a comfortable amount of influence over the college course list.
Whether you're looking to understand popular culture by means of academic assignments or your own curiosity, the following list represents some of the best titles in popular culture. From rock n'roll studies to the most basic theories and understanding of the popular culture fundamentals, you'll find a range of useful, thought-provoking books which challenge the notion that popular culture is irrelevant in college studies.
Image via WikipediaWhile the volatile battle between pop culture aficionados and stern faced scholars continues to rage, the intersection of popular culture and academics remains as blurry as ever. A recent addition to CUNY's scholastic agenda reaffirms the usefulness of popular culture in academic studies through the creation of a class called "South Park and Political Correctness."
The innovative class shows the importance that even the most lewd and crude of tv 's toxins can have on collegiate studies. Class creator, Brian Dunphry believes that South Park "has the pulse of America more than anything else" While many professors dedicate their cultural studies to the traditional academic canon, others like Dunphry question just how effective these ancient texts are in modern day. While scholars and intellectuals typically list South Park amongst the most lethal threats to social integrity, Dunphry reexamines the significance of the pottymouth animated series. By observing the show under a less iniquitous lens, Dunphry shows how "you can learn from the most unlikely places" as long as you are willing to challenge the common perspective and see things from a different angle.
Instead of attempting to understand our culture much of the time is wasted on the deviant ideas and beings innocently thrown under the social chopping block. And although we're taught to suspect the misfits and bombard new ideas with a batallion of doubt, America--so involved in its moral witch hunt and disciplined to accuse rather than understand--is statically tangled in fractured stereotypes and a vague understanding of each other. Popular culture embodies the rudimentary essence grounded in the latent social soil of the time and place, an examination of which when taken seriously can obliterate much of the hazy veil which clouds the American perspective.
With the media's sensitive radar governing the American perspective of the social climate, the erratic paranoia will only clog our understanding of things. With its potty mouth dialogue and socially avoided topic matter, South Park's callow antics are denied scholastic consideration from the get go. But if attention is given to South Park, like the study of popular culture in general, it is likely to illuminate the obscure shadows of society, so long as we open our eyes to it all. [New York Post]
Embark on a transient mental quest to the golden age of a high school yesterday, which for jocks and prom queens were the glory days and to the bully victims or detention denizens, high school was an epoch they'd be more than happy to forget. Movies and tv shows which document cafeteria mayhem and illuminate the vices shimmying through the locker room gossip circuits , rarely depict the pre-collegiate era as anything but malicious, popularity-driven, and tortured by a relentless artillery of rumors and gossipy accusations. And only once in a blue moon does the typically crooked portrait actually shed light on any of high school's positive attributes.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High is one of these rare exceptions which instead of villifying high school as the repeated embezzler of individuality, sketches a more authentic portrait of the high school labyrinth, illuminating its essence as a complex social infrastructure and forum for beneficial social interaction amongst peers, which cultivates mature relationships and ultimately revamps the fractured essence of one's individuality. A piece written by Jean Schwind in the Journal of Popular Culture called "Cool Coaching at Ridgemont High" shows how 80's classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High identifies high school as the stomping grounds for the revival of one's individuality.
As a misfit to the teen movie genre, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, with its quirky cast, an unforgettable Jeff Spicoli character (played by the 22 year old Sean Penn), and its unembellished representation of the American high school, Fast Times paved the way for a number of legendary teen movies to follow in its footsteps. Noted for its realistic depiction of American teens, Fast Times at Ridgemont High was originally conceived as a novel when the 22 year old author, Cameron Crowe, went undercover as a born again high school senior at Ridgemont High,with a dignified intention to capture "the flow of day-to-day high school life...the entire business--from academic competition to the sexual blunders--of teenage adulthood" by recording events, conversations, and interaction amongst his peers. Dissatisfied with the stereotypical representation of an oversimplified and morally intoxicating high school junglelife the media constantly projects, Crowe digs much deeper into the nitty-gritty of social interaction with an unbiased determination to gain insight into the nebulous quarters of high school high.
And what we see in Crowe's one-of-a-kind devotion to accuracy combined with the creative recreation of a perceived summation of the high school experience, captures the sarcastically headbanging, hormone-erupting, stranded at the drive in, tight-rope tip-toe of the universal high school experience with a smattering of elegance and grace, not to forget, of course, the popular culture icon, and every mom's worst nightmare, the high school movie genre will never forget.
When attending high school became the norm in the 1950's, America's youth coalesced in school yard powwows, exchanging ideas, and supporting each other with genuine allegiance that had been remiss in American culture without the convergence of masses in the popularization of high schools. Grace Paladino notes that "along with algebra and English, high schools taught American teenagers to look to one another and not to adults for advice. information, and approval."As classmates confide in each other and embrace the community at large, the diverse melange of economic bacikgrounds, religions,and ethniciities cluster together for the school house rock, making the close-minded fraction of upper-class white folk feel a little claustrophobic in their own ture. With the uncomfortable threat of a suddenly diverse student body, the long-time inhabitants of particular schools sought to dispel any signs that could lead to the newcomer's rise to authority or power. By enforcing normalzed standards for social integration, a template was formed which distinguished and embraced docile comformists and pointed a contentious finger at high school's defiant dissenters of the social norm.
Although constantly villified in the media limeleight, peer influence is beneficially portrayed in Schwind's interpretation of Fast Times at Ridgemont High.The type of peer influence that illuminates the Fast Times at Richmond High plot is what Schwind calls cool coaching and is that "which occurs when a more experienced or savvy friend(or, as is more often the case, a friend who pretends to be more experienced or savvy) imparts vital information to a peer about how to avoid looking and acting like loser"
While college students confront watershed choices dealing with career, success, and the foundations of life away from mom and dad, the unraveling of the four year high school experience is no day at the county fair by any means. Instead students spend four precious years within the confines of a highly-chaotic and ultra-constrictive high school asylum, trying to resist temptations of a joint-passing, bong hitting, keg stand culture, while juggling priorities and obligations, maintaining a commitment to the fluctuating social current, and struggling with a thought-consuming preoccupation with sex which trumps them all. While childhood's decisions were dictated by trivial matters such as whether you'd devour the rocky road icecream or the mint chcocalate chip flavor after you've finished your peas and potatoes, or most nerve-wrecking of all, having to choose between two birthday party invites for Saturday''s festivities. However, constantly assaulted by a volatile artillery of choices and decisions, human nature relies of the unbiased support and advice of others around you, especially in the most addled and disoriented epoch of all: high school.
Having spilled virtue, advice, and knowledge onto the fragile mind of their own offspring, there comes a time when parents' reigns to unfettered sovereignty are challenged by outside forces. Having grown out of Racecar Beds and Cabbage Patch Dolls, high school students crave the newfound independence and respect which they believe 8th grade graduation entails. High school students recognize that a vast generation gap lies between their parents and themselves, especially when it comes to matters like sex and drugs, the no-go land for discussion with rents. Instead, Schwind states, "high school students necessarily rely on peers for information that parents simply cannot provide." Desperate to surrender their attachment to youth,high school students pull a switcheroo on their allegiance to mom and dad, and needing some sort of booster seat or spiritual talisman to support their recently obtained slab of freedom and ease self-doubt,students look to their high school peers as a newfound source of parental-like guidance, advice, and support.
As truths are challenged through school books and the media, teenagers' belief systems and relentless devotion to ma and pa crumble, puncturing the glass dome which parents and teachers had successfully ensconced their pious children within. But ever inexperienced and curiously endowed, especially once students enter the foreign parameters of high school, teenagers look to alternative sources for support and enlightenment which are naturally manifested amongst their peers. Immersed in the unfamiliar chaos of high school culture, students must relearn high school jargon and familiarize themselves wit trendy terms like lmao, lol, etc, revamp their wardrobes, and adapt to a new behavioral pattern. When mom and dad were in charge, friends were playmates and parents were sources of guidance and counseling. But, while immersed in this newfound realm of high school, where teenagers are separated from their parent's grasp, friends and peers replace the new culture's parental void as high school impresarios. Students must constantly stay on board and in tact with "cool rules" to prove "they are worthy of membership in the tribe rather than exile into the netherworld of outcasts"It's their tribe of peers that students are obliged to please rather than themselves.
With smashmouth persistence and relentless head honchos running the show, in order to avoid the wrath of the social elite, members of the high school community are constantly trying to crack the somewhat hazy code which dictates that which is socially acceptable. A sociologist named Talcott Parsons believes that behaving changing "influence occurs when individuals need information to 'adapt to and interact with their environment' and when they must rely on others to obtain the needed information.'" Because norms within high school hallways and gymnasiums are formed by student bodies and differ from parentally controlled guidelines, almost every student attempts to understand the new environment and conform to it.Students use the advice of their fellow peers as the guiding light in their popularity-seeking escapades.
Until we fully embrace our flaws and blemishes and accept ourselves, it's society's gaze which determines our own self-worth and confines us to social enslavement. Our ability to adapt within the realm of socially sanctioned behavior and avoid the misfit-branding condemnation of social peers. In regards to these brutal years of high school Ralpha Keyes states that "never again are we ranked so precisely by those around us, and on so many scales. Though the popularity polls of our classmates, and their inexperience at tact, daily feedback was conveyed about how we were coming across. Such merciless feedback is not easily forgotten, the last time of life we know just where we stand in the scrutinizing eyes around us."
With society's all-encompassing glance, mercurcial patterns of popular thought, and the realization that in any second you could be toast, banned to the high school dunce's corner as a socially-shunned bete noire, exiled to the social inferno reserved for "so five minutes ago" fashion offenders. The desire for social acceptance, extremity of peer censure, and an unremitting feeling of others' uninvited surveillance guarantees a very volatile four year high school experience. It's not the disparagement of high school savagery which Schwind targets for discussion in his Fast Times at Ridgemont High analysis, but rather, the precocious attitude which high school students adopt while dealing with the new culture, bearing the weight of social pressure, and overcoming unpleasant obstacles to attain the respect of peers.
"Crowe's research at Ridgemont High indicates that the stringent and complex social codes of high school that make insecure student desperate for 'cool rules' also incline them to trust uncritically their cool coaches." Another's "cool rules," whether half-assed, helpful, or havoc-producing, nonetheless, save the befuddled individual from complete alienation, knowing that at least one other is standing by your side. But like all other aspects of Crowe's high school depiction, the simple trust you would hope to receive from a peer is drowned by the torrential chaos oh the topsy-turvy high school experience. In the closing line of Schwind's piece he states Effective cool coaching balances honest criticism and uncritical support, the selfless desire to help a friend and the urge for self-exaltation, cooperative problem solving and the competitive satisfaction of knowing that a friend had more problems than you do."
In Fast Times at Ridgemont High Stacey and Mark are sexually confounded as well as dying to abandon their socially humiliating rank among Ridgemont High's Virgin Hall of Fame. Mike Damone and Linda Barrett are the movie's cool coaching exemplars, who attempt to lead their subjects through the murky haze of sexuality. Posing as sex know-it-alls, Mike and Linda take their oblivious subjects under their wing and nourish their naivete with a how-to guide on the who, what, when, where and why's of Sex Ed the semester-long, adult-censored class conveniently avoided.
Sexual conquests are one of many ritualistic social acts which factor into the overall social perception of individual students. Having carelessly abandoned their domestic guardians and realigned their loyalty with the capricious standards imposed by society, students rely on the supposed enlightenment of their experienced peers and follow the "matter-of-fact" banter among their friends who know little more than their own oblivious selves, leading to a cultural misunderstanding of the matter at large. The grand debacle surrounding high school sex is a major focal point in Crowe's humorous depiction of year's worth of Ridgemont's student body shenanigans. Movie producer, Amy Heckerling criticizes the romantic exaggeration of losing one's virginity in a painless, sizzling, hassle free nature as is repeatedly misrepresented in the cultural landscape of starry-eyed Utopians. "That's not the way it is with kids who are having sex for the first time," Heckerling states, going on to say "Ours is true to life, children trying to be adults, self-conscious, clumsy, kind of funny, and pathetic," an assessment which I think sums up Fast Times in its entirety.
Heckerling goes on to say, "I love the theme about these kids having to deal with sex and jobs and things that people 20 years older than them are still dealing with...They were pushed into such a grown-up world and they were still children basically. Everything was going to fast for them. It was about growing up too quickly and having to deal with things at a very early age and how these kids pulled through it or didn't' pull through it." This was the undeniable sentiment I felt upon watching the 80's classic which Schwind's scholarly article is devoted to. While Schwin briefly mentions this saying Fast Times students "face mature and thorny problems with a clumsy courage that provokes respect as well as laughter," the basis of his discussion focuses on the beneficial effects of peer influence, or at least so it claims to, while really jumping from topic to topic as illogically as skipping stones.
Schwind says that "Crowe's book and screenplay clearly depict peer pressure to conform, measure up, and engage in risky behaviors, instances of the positive functioms of peers as advisors and criticial sounding boards predominate." While the so-called sex connoisseurs depicted in Fast Times as Ridgemont High might lead Mark and Stacy through some rough spots, the benefits of their advice provide enough support to dismiss their underlying hesitance, caused by fearing the social repercussions of sexual taboo. Since sex is such a hush-hush spectre amongst society, peer advice is especially crucial in setting things straight and providing information to which one can compare and evaluate their past and future sexual experiences. As sexual disciples to their love gurus prescribed methodology, Mark and Stacy religiously follow Mike and Linda's peer coaching guidelines, not having any other code or template to mimic. But as Schwind recognizes " as Mark and Stacy gain experience and confidence, they question and criticize their coaches,"in the similar manner that with experience and knowledge teenagers outgrow the blind pursuit of their parent's initiative. Stacy "longs for something outside her coaches game plan" as Schwind acknowledges and despite Linda's warning takes a stab at romance while Mark ignores his coaches advice confidently asserting that "The Attitude...is only good until you find the right girl."
Although Schwind leaves much unanswered I think his ultimate conclusion hinges on the fact that diluted peer influence is a temporary installment in the life of the many bewildered souls roving through the overpowering, hazy highschool landscape. For the downtrodden, the forlorn, and the utterly confused, the advice of a peer, whether genuine, crooked, or ludicrous, instills the beginning seeds of confidence in the uncertain mind and at least temporarily alieviates the feeling of being socially estranged. In blindly following their mentors' confident advice, Mark and Stacy's unquestioning compliance ultimately leads to a botched series of jumbled encounters in sex and dating. With their sex lives in shambles, they continue to trust their love mavens sexual teachings in lieu of alternative advice. Both subjects' eventually come to an understanding of sex and relationships that differ from their gurus' inane guidelines. Through the blatant folly of their peer's social influence, Mark and Stacy become skeptical of socially mandated modes of conduct and come to trust and rely on their own self-franchise.
Countless movies since Fast Times at Ridgemont High have acknowledged the importance cool coaching plays in high school peer relations. What these intricate portrayals exhibit are the self-lionizing conquests of peer coaches who use their "in crowd" expertise or status in order to save another or themselves from the doldrums of social folly or blandness and bring them into the inner circle of elitist knowledge. Heckerling returns to the concept of peer coaching later on down the road in her later movie, Clueless where Beverly Hills it girl Cher Horowitz adopts and makes over a raggedy muffin charity case in order to defy the socially perceived materialistic narcissism others associate her with. Ferris Bueller shares his expertise on the sly-footed, shrewdness inherent in the art of hookie with best pal Cameron who aids Bueller's class-dodging craftiness and deceipt of Principal Rooney. By beating the living shit out of incoming frosh and outlining the do's and don't of social conduct, Dazed and Confused seniors sprinkle their so called generosity (really a wood-paddle ass whooping)over some of the recent junior-high grads by spanking and humiliating their scrawny asses in high school-initiating hazing rituals followed by a field party keggar. In Jawbreaker, high school wallflower Fern Mayo is taken under the wings of the school's most popular vixen upon promising to keep Courtney's dirty little secret to herself in order to become "beautiful, popular, loved [and] feared" Who can forget the countless other characters that have gone under layers of foundation and concealer and been through a drastic wardrobe remix in order to shed their misfit vestiges and become part of the in crowd. Their conscious influence over peers is only a transient fixture, maybe appealing to their helpless subjects at first but losing lustre in the long run, and most often backfiring on their mad scientist mental manipulations.
In the jaded memory of popular culture, Jeff Spicoli might appear to be the quintessentially good-for-nothing, hookie-playing stoner, no high school movie would be complete without. On many occasions you'll find resplendent nuggets of wisdom hidden beneath his surfer-boy slang. In one such instance, Spicoli sapiently notes that his highschool companions expend all of their energy on social conquests , saying students "wanted to be popular at all costs, and maybe the would get voted Most Likely to Never Have to Shit in the annual. They were just dying to get to the top of that rope." In striving to erase the marks of idiosyncacy and conform to the norm, students replaces their own rules of conduct with the highschool's own "cool rules"
"We left this England place because it was bogus. So if we don't get some cool rules ourselves--pronto--we'll just be bogus too" Embedded with in different communities are distinct behaviors and attittudes which most community members are attempting to uncover and conform to. Unfamiliar with one's own unique self, the adaptation to social normality is the logical step for unfamiliar newcomers. Fresh out of the grasp of parental tyranny, high school students realize that the mode of conduct their parents had raised them aren't as pleasing to high school comrades as they are to a proud mommy and daddy. As your understanding of social normality is elucidated by the advice and enlightenment of peers, your social reputation hinges on the degree to which you successfully conform or deviate from the high school normalcy. But once you've matured enough to confide in your own individuality and understand the error and dependence you''ve placed on an undeserving outside force, then will the natural response to revolt against society's bogus rules and develop rules of one's own ferment in the empowered mind and arouse a progessive change.
I like the sound of this post called "How to Bullshit an Essay" over at Hack College. In order to bullshit your way through a class paper, you'll need to realign yourself with the five paragraph highschool essay format , incorporate some papers you've done for other assignments, and use a vast amount of common sense. But as a last resort, there's no better way to get by.
My newest blog obsession Think Simple Now offers a wide variety of entertaining and very helpful posts, especially for college students. Because my life is always in disarray, I found one of its recent posts to be particularly useful. How to Organize Mental Clutter lays out an effective 6-step plan on how one can go about tidying mental chaos, no matter how lengthy or calamitous your to-do list may be. She says, "it was really just a matter of dumping all the information I had lingering in my mental space, and organizing that dumped information in a cohesive fashion." It's a simple but efficient way to plunge through the clogged stream of anxieties and seemingly infinite to-do list. [Think Simple Now]
You're out at the bar having a jolly ol' time with friends when, all of a sudden, an obnoxious misfit comes along to taint the group's lively mood. Unfortunately, the bar experiece is far too often ravaged by the party fouls and awkward silences obnoxious bar-goers commit. From the overly boisterous 80's rock fan to the "it's my birthday!!!!!" girl, That's So Fetch has a dead-on list of the ten most obnoxious people at college bars.(That's So Fetch)
While juggling internships, part-time jobs, and a full-time college curriculum, college students' lives are often frenzied and out of control. Keeping organized is especially important for college students who are trying to meet deadlines, attend social events, and ace tests. But, there is a solution. The "to-do list" is a simple, efficient, and seamless way to keep all your errands and homework assignments organized into a tidy concise form. To make things even better I found 40 great resources for making lists, which lists all sorts of online aids to the list-making process. I am particularly fond of Tada List and Listphile. [Mashable]
College might seem like one lengthy battlefield, but just be thankful that you're not one of the millions of students in South Korea taking their grueling 9-hour College Scholastic Ability Test. In America money, grades, and extra curriculars weigh in on a student's acceptance into college but in South Korea the CSAT alone determines what college the high school students will go to. An acceptance into a great school pretty much guarantees career success, so an enormous amount of stress is placed on this exam. [Yeinjee's Asian Journal]
You know those celebrities that appear in blogs and magazines over and over again. Sure, I probably see more of Paris Hilton than I do most of my best friends, and feel like I know more about Nicole Richie than I do my own parents. Certain Hollywood figures are the creme-de-la-creme of tabloid coverage and are constanrlt being stalked by a relentless herd of ravenous papparazzi. Unless you're completely out of the tabloid and pop culture loop, you'll definitely recognize the names listed in Forbes' 10 Most Overexposed Celebrities
Lindsay Lohan's not the only celebrity experimenting with bisexuality. 241 names are presented on the Famous Bisexuals in History list created by the Bi Writers Association. The list includes names like Jodie Foster, Merv Griffin, Mick Jagger, Britney Spears, and Pink. Although it uses the term "bisexual" very liberally(e.g.Eva Longoria 's on the list for having kissed a girl only once)it's a fascinating list and definitely worth a read.
Glamour's issued its Best Dressed Women of 2008 list, crowning Kate Moss as this year's most stylish female celebrity. The list also includes names like Rahel Bilson, Victoria Beckham, and Jessica Alba, ever-stylish and deserving of fashion praise. Also on the list is one of my least favorite celebrities, the always yawn provoking Jennifer Aniston. And what about Nicole Richie, the chic trend-setter herself?
Nowadays kids are wanting more and more out of their college experience. Gone are the days when students cast their gaze within domestic boundaries while making plans for college. An increasing number of college students are factoring a semester abroad into their college agenda, and are venturing into further, more exotic lands than are usually trekked upon in the traditional European study abroad program, according to a recent New York Timesarticle. Schools are expanding their abroad programs in order to meet their student bodies' globetrotting desires. The Times article also says that a growing number of students are migrating to the Far East for abroad programs in China.
In the 2006-2007 academic year 11,064 students voyaged to China for their study abroad programs, while only 1,396 students made a similar journey abroad eleven years earlier in the 1995--1996 school year. In the 2006-2007 calendar year, 241,791 college students dispersed amongst various abroad sights throughout the world "with sharp increases in the numbers going to Argentina, South Africa, Ecuador and India, and declining numbers going to Australia and Costa Rica." Before going to the university, British students are encouraged to take a gap year out of school for travel and charity work, but America is too busy trying to shove everyone along through school so they can go out in the business world and succeed. America's an ever prideful country whose arrogant notions and lack of deeply-embedded culture have traditionally led us to overlook the significance of such "sissy" endeavors. Why on God's green earth wouldya ever go abroad when we got Budweiser, Stetson, and real football here in America?
The shift from twelve years at the same school in Oklahoma to NYU is plenty abroad for me, but especially for kids studying abroad can be a once in a lifetime opportunity and truly enlightening experience for a lot of students, especially ones which have never really left the States.
Causing a spasmic media frenzy and reeling in $1 billion in box-office ticket sales, The Dark Knight is likely to gain et another claim to fame as 2008's most pirated movie. Within 24 hours of its release on DVD, The Dark Knight was inaugurated into the online pirating industry, and became wildly popular at sites like Bit Torrent and The Pirate Bay. Tgdaily believes that "The Dark Knight is on track to surpass "Transformers", "Iron Man" and "The Incredible Hulk" to become the most pirated movie of 2008"[TG Daily]
When literary delights are adapted to film the outcome is either innovative, splendid, and better than the book, a carbon copy of the book, or desperately lacking the vision and essence which drove the novel to greatness. John at The Movie Blog says, " some of the greatest movies in the history of film were adapted from books… films that I can’t even imagine what the world of film would look like today if they never came to be." Books have played a monumental role in film, especially now when screenwriters search the world for sure-fire shortcuts to screenplay success. The synthesis of movies and literature is revered in Movie Blog's "top 100 movies based on books. Some of the movies like No Country for Old Men(#13) or Of Mice and Men were blatantly based off of novels while you might not know that others like Fast Times at Ridgemont High(#53) and Scarface(#11) were also adapted from books. [Movie Blog]
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