When most people hear the words pop and culture together they automatically think of trendy fads and famous celebrities. Some people might be into that type of stuff, others may not, and that’s ok either way. But whether or not you care about, like, dislike, or absolutely hate the idea of pop culture, one thing is for sure, and that is that pop culture is the single most unifying topic in the world. Now, when I say pop culture I don’t simply mean People Magazine and the E channel. I’m talking about the numerous different aspects of our society that make up our pop culture. Some of these aspects include but are not limited to: movies, music, fashion, sports, politics, television, radio, dialect, and many others.
These are the topics and issues of our day and I believe it is nearly impossible to be unaffected by them the world round. Take for example my family vacation to the Dominican Republic this past Christmas. All of my brothers had brought their girlfriends down with them and the only person I had to hang out with was my uncle Richard. Don’t get me wrong my Uncle Richard is a really cool guy, but he’s about 54 years old and can’t exactly hang out too late into the night like I wanted to do. So naturally I started looking for some kids my own age to hang out with while I was down there, the only problem was that almost no one was from the U.S. At first I felt a little strange about that because I wasn’t sure I would be able to relate to, or have anything in common with many of the Europeans kids who were there at the time.
But as it turns out, somebody decided to blast some “It’s Too Late to Apologize”, by Timbaland ft. One Republic, and the entire place blew up and all the sudden everybody started dancing and talking to each other about things like the music they liked, who their favorite artists or bands were and that lead to other conversations and so on and so on. The point is, it didn’t matter that almost all of the people there were either from a different country, or didn’t speak another person’s language perfectly. We were all able to relate to each other through a form of pop culture, which I why I believe that pop culture truly is the most unifying topic in the world.
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2 comments:
I agree, that pop culture does bring people together and gives different people something that everyone can relate to and is not very divisive, like say, politics.
Working in a grocery store gave me a good perspective of this. Meeting so many different people, my job, as a cashier, was to engage every customer in some way and the way I would always try to start up conversation was something relating to pop culture. Of course, it always depends on the person you decide to strike up a conversation with. You don't want to start talking sports and the latest foot ball game with an old lady in a wheelchair. Maybe that's wrong but that's how it is. Anyway, the point is you are right and it happens everyday with random strangers.
Whether or not you're talking about sports, American idol, or Britney Spears, pop culture is a great conversation starter.
I had my own experience with a connection made through pop culture which led to finding my roommate. After checking UNC’s roommate finder and adding possible candidates on facebook, I was able to start up conversations by talking about aspects of pop culture. I knew it would be easy to connect by asking about their favorite music, tv shows, movies, etc. From these conversations I found many connections to people who had the same taste in music and television, and ultimately found someone I could relate with enough to make my roommate. Last night my roommate and I watched our favorite tv show together, and we constantly listen to music. I now have an amazing and compatible roommate along with a great friend, all because of the connections we made through pop culture. This simple story along with Mark’s experience in the Dominican Republic show just how unifying our culture can be.
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