Popular culture studies

Popular culture studies is the study of popular culture from a critical theory perspective combining communication studies and cultural studies. The first institution to offer bachelor's and master's degrees in Popular Culture is the Bowling Green State University Department of Popular Culture founded by Ray B. Browne.Mass society formed during the 19th-century industrialization process through the division of labor, the large-scale industrial organization, the concentration of urban populations, the growing centralization of decision making, the development of a complex and international communication system and the growth of mass political movements. The term 'mass society', therefore, was introduced by anticapitalist, aristocratic ideologists and used against the values and practices of industrialized society. Theories of popular culture are often subjected to bias and originate from a generalist perspective.Aside from precursors such as Umberto Eco and Roland Barthes, popular culture studies as we know them today were developed in the late seventies and the eighties. The first influential works were generally politically left-wing and rejected the 'aristocratic' view. However, they also criticized the pessimism of the Frankfurt School: contemporary studies on mass culture accept that, apparently, popular culture forms do respond to widespread needs of the public. They also emphasized the capacity of the consumers to resist indoctrination and passive reception. Finally, they avoided any monolithic concept of mass culture. Instead they tried to describe culture as a whole as a complex formation of discourses which correspond to particular interests, and which can be dominated by specific groups, but which also always are dialectically related to their producers and consumers.The blurring of the boundaries between high and low culture is one of the main complaints made by traditional intellectuals about contemporary mass society. There are a number of sociological studies on literary institutions which are held responsible for this mix. Among the first were commercial book clubs, such as the Book-of-the-Month-Club, appearing from the twenties on. The aggressive reactions they provoked are described by Janice Radway in 'The Scandal of the Middlebrow'. According to Radway, the book clubs were perceived as scandalous because they blurred some basic distinctions of cultural discourse. In a society haunted by the spectre of cultural standardization and leveling towards below, they dared to put 'serious' fiction on the same level as detective stories, adventure stories, biographies and popular nonfiction. Book clubs were scandalous because they created a space where high and low could meet.