Do You Ingest Pop Culture? Why (not)?

Note to self, I did write the first post before posting this time.

But I also "solved the problem by putting it in the OP.

But, Yes, for me I ingest pop culture. Mostly on this fool thing that I'm on 10 hours a day anyway. and then their is the idiot box. There is some REALLY good stuff that has been watched... not necessarily by ME, but... I hear Game Of Thrones is big with some people. I lost interest early and I am not a fan of "Appointment TV" (but I do make sure I see my favorites.) But Breaking Bad was darned good! Downton Abbey was fun as all hell. Taboo was... Jonathan Pryce is worth the pryce of admission! HAR! Fantastic, his answer to Dame Smith as the Dowager!

I've watched it numerous times on Netflix, but I really don't like listening to Neil De Grasse Tyson in Cosmos. Maybe that shtick works in a planetarium, but it wears thin on me. I would like to see the Carl Sagan (who was also hard to listen to with a straight face.) done Cosmos.

Oh, Well, comedy is my go to.

Hope this works.

I'm more involved in music than anything else....it's my job as a cool gramma. If I didn't know who and Love Billie Eilish, My granddaughter would roll her eyes at me. My best friend and daughter were/are very involved in the music industry, so I must say, I have one helluva collection of music.

I hate to admit it, but I do check into E online but I draw the line at the Kardashians...I just cannot go there.

I don't believe in dismissing or praising a genre as a whole. I try to evaluate individual things as I encounter them. That said, I haven't encountered much pop music that I care for. I'm an old school guy, so most of modern pop culture disinterests me but I don't say it's inherently bad or good just that I'm not interested. I do enjoy me some Dilbert cartoons however.

I like to listen to talk radio. There are a couple of old bitter men who claim to have PhDz and all they do is find fault with pop culture, today's youth and want to turn the clock back to 1958. I believe the youth of today have so much to deal with and are in general very smart and capable. Personally, I like being around today's youth and pop culture. I was fortunate to work and study directly with young adults. My art is popular with today's youth! If you don't like it.....then don't like it!

Scratching, kicking and splitting! And for all the oldies, a Bionic Elbow!

Not all of pop culture relates to kids.

Pop as in popular(maybe that's just my definition, if so,,, then change everything because I'm right!)

There are forces trying to vie for your money just as much as others want your grandkids'.

Movies, TV...

Oh... Music collection? "Have?" Collection of music? What millennium are you reporting from? There is no need for a "collection" a "playlist" maybe But come on, Spotify. Pandora... who needs to "have" anymore? :-)

Game Of Thrones is certainly a part of the culture. It is part of the expected "common knowledge" of the (popular) culturally attuned. It's not just about the "pop music" (which I'm resisting going to get - because I always found it funny.)

Forgive, your sarcasm, Uther, but yes...I have a great collection of CDs that are all considered pop culture.

You should check into the latest....some of the most current music is now....gasp.... going back to vinyl....I just bought two turntables, by request, for holiday gift giving.

Oh... Music collection? "Have?" Collection of music? What millennium are you reporting from? There is no need for a "collection" a "playlist" maybe But come on, Spotify. Pandora... who needs to "have" anymore? :-) (meanwhile, Yeah I have a ton of music on my sd card. There are a couple/ few albums from 21st C but mostly... And in my car I have been listening to the same cd for nigh on a year. Jeff Beck Live @ B.B.King's And I listen to it over and over, LOUD!

My kids didn't want me to hear what they were listening to. Then they couldn't stand to hear me sing "I don't think your ready for this jelly..." "Watch yerself, Shake it fasss, Show Me whachur workin with." HA!

How about sports? Which one(s) do you watch. Sports are Definitely a Pop(ular) Culture "circus" to go with your bread.

Happy Ness
UPD

I read your sarcasm the first time...you didn't have to retype.

I'm heading to find my Happy Ness elsewhere...you are in that mood again tonight.
tata

Perhaps, Marlene. But the larger trend is away from ownership. Period. That's part of why housing is down.

The "pop culture" of the millennial is "We saw George Jetson, we got the metaphor. We're going to be like Astro and stay the heck off the treadmill." Ask GM.

It's a mega trend (or a fad).

Don't take me so seriously. Certainly not personally. You just highlighted trend and so I recognized it.

If you can't take the joke then don't go past the red line. When you went past the red line, you agreed to the blue line.

Uther, I believe you've expanded the definition of pop culture here to things it isn't.

David , Fighting, Kicking and Scratching are allowed! Use the folded chair then put Uther in a reverse souffle'!

I gobble up POP Culture.

How can one be alive if they are not aware of what's going on.???

When I'm out and about, the world is a stage And all the men and women merely players. (I think someone else said that first).

And What a Show!!.......It would be much better, if they put down their smart phones though.

When I'm hermitizing myself here at home, the radio is constantly on here where I type...I'm about to change the station from NPR to a local station playing reggae.

And in the other room, the TV is always on...On one news station or another.....


Edit:

RE: Sports

I always appreciate those that can do things in no way I could do....And that includes Golf and Curling

Driving my son back to college last week I enjoyed listening to his "mix tape" which included everything from 21 Pilots to the B52s.

Glad to see some of my oldies are still valid.

souffle' is the other other David.

This one would put me in the trunk of a 46 Hudson... Where nobody goes...

Dat must be da Kingston station mon!

David King. You're right, it is best to define terms.

I'll go look BRB (cont)

Popular culture or pop culture is the entirety of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, images, and other phenomena that are within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the late 20th and early 21st century. Heavily influenced by mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday lives of the society.

(S)He uses Pop as popular.

But the OP also indicates that I am speaking about much more than just the Teen Aged Wasteland. We all exist in our culture. Whether we choose to participate, that's something else.

The 46 Hudson

The car you step down to get in

Uther

POOOKIPSEE.

The Vassar station 91.3

Reggae is over...Now it's "The Sounds of Life"


Edit:

Thought it was over...back to reggae on 91.3

Dey got no Poookipsee in Jamaica mon!

Uther you are talking with someone who was born in Jamaica..........Jamaica General Hospital, Queens, NY, that is

For the record fighting, kicking and scratching are NOT allowed despite what the OP thinks.


___________
Susan Maxwell Schmidt
So-so Group Moderator,
Sometimes Board Moderator and
Artist Extraordinaire

Does it look to you like the OP thinks?

David, forget the folded chair but use a marshmallow instead!

Susan,

RE: "Scratching Not Allowed"

What if you got the itch?

yes,but,'mate',you're 'outside da square'..........and I ain't sayin' no mo

And a round and a round we go.

Spinning on our way, as the Earth, Sun, Galaxy and Universe spins on their way.

Or has centrifugal force sent us off on a tangent?

"We all MUST be equal." IN THE EYES OF THE LAW

Now, I don't disagree that reactionaries often overlook the second part of the phrase.

I can't blame them, given the cherry picking of the 2nd Amendment's words. the cherry picking of the 1st. For example, Free speech is guaranteed vis a vis the government, but there is no such thing in non governmental situations.

Today's youth has grown up since the turn of the millennium. They have never known a world without digital manipulations that make us wonder what is real and what is propaganda. They never had a world where there weren't "news outlets" with an obvious and pronounced political agenda.

They don't know a world where any and every opinionated jerk can get on the internet and spew hatred. They look at what we accept as inevitable, and they say, "There has to be a better way."

Have they found it? Not in my humble opinion, no. But they might just re-establish a new puritanism, one that is tolerant to people who are "different" but intolerant of those who would treat different people differently. It's a very tall order. Give 'em a little time to figure it out.

This effort is made all the harder by the fact that the internet has the attention span of a goldfish. The change frequency's wavelength is so short that it translates into a high pitched ringing in the ears.

PLAU
UPD

"This is a very loaded sentence. lol...
Let me just say that I certainly believe in "Equality of opportunity" but I do not believe in "We MUST be all equal.""

Robert, there are loaded questions, loaded diapers and loaded weapons BUT to conflate and imply my statement to mean I beleave all is equal in all aspect is fallacious.
My statement is simply a representation of my relationship to the youth within my circle of influence and their influence on me.

Let me spell it out. I value uniqueness! I don't expect anyone to walk lockstep in what I beleave and I am suspect of people who claim they do!

We can choose to get behind a cause, group, or movement and we can choose NOT! But to express disdain towards a group is to express hatred no matter what color brush one uses.

"Or has centrifugal force sent us off on a tangent?" Roger

Only not because we are looking at it as a wave versus a rotation. ;-)

Therefore tangents are the center of the discussion.


Ooooh!

PLAU
UPD

Uther,

RE:..."we are looking at it as a wave versus a rotation. ;-) "


WE???

Fair 'nuff..


(grumble rumble coot, rugmugragglerig)

;'-(

Is "ingest" the wrong word for it in the subject line? Do you "excrete" pop culture?

Dave

No, it's not the wrong word.

But you're free to start your own thread asking that question.

PLAU
UPD

Uther,

I am on my way to an arterial calcium screening test.

Wish me luck. If the calcium level is low, regardless of my cholesterol numbers, the statin I am on my be discontinued.

I was not allowed to ingest coffee or chocolate this morning. Nothing that would get my heart racing.

C U later,

Dave

That's pop heart, not pop art!

Good luck.

If I remember, when I had one of those the scale was 0-100 Under 1 was good, 2 was VERY BAD!

I came in under 1 and still they wanted me to be under regular care of a cardiologist.

When I explained to her that her job was to make sure I was dead before I hit the floor (I can afford to be dead, I can't afford to be disabled.) I think she left the group (last time I saw a cardiologist, she was not it, but that might have been her choice.)

No statins means you can take up drink again (one should NOT drink while taking statins they're rough on the liver)

So good luck.

PLAU
UPD

Uther,

Digressing....I had the test, took only a few minutes. Nice tech. We could have gotten started on old stories.

My dad will be 80 next month. Back at age ~73 he had this test. He got a zero, so here is to hoping for similar results.

There was no medical reason known to take this test. I wanted it done because a new European study says people with a zero may be able to get off the statin. Basically a goodly percentage of people on statins do not have a calcium build up.

So why not check?

Either.....I get off the statin and save myself any side effects from longer term use. I can get tested later again for calcium when I am more age appropriate.....or I do have a calcium build up and I am much better off knowing then having a heart attack or stroke. I can treat as if I have a problem instead.

The test is totally a winner for me.

Dave

Drew...
"Let me spell it out. I value uniqueness!"

Uniqueness (in art) may be ok IF it has aesthetic value which over time can be judged as exemplary art.

Just like opinions...
Some opinions are worth their weight in gold. Others need to be thrown in the garbage.

my two/cents/plain........ingest = consume.......perfect word.

"Some opinions are worth their weight in gold. Others need to be thrown in the garbage." Robert

While this is true, it is not binary. There are many many opinions that aren't "gold" but which deserve to be weighed and considered for their other properties. Maybe they are worth their weight in dreams.

I would rather live a life without gold than live a life without dreams. But maybe that's just me.

PLAU
UPD

Robert, I have no problem with your opinion; it is yours BUT I will point out false implications especially when it is used as a thinly veiled attemp to discredit a valid antithesis to your opinion.
It is not a far reach to conclude your statement implies, one has socialistic ideas. This is far from the truth and not a subject to be discussed on the forum!

I do work directly with some youth and youthful adults and I like aspects of their popular culture.

IMHO, bashing the younger generation's by an older generation seems to be an emerging pattern for any given recorded historical period. I know this is not a general truth but it is existential.

"Uniqueness (in art) may be ok IF..."

MAY be ok? If? Uniqueness? Uniqueness may be ok?

How is it that uniqueness can be separated from art? Either your definition of Uniqueness is too narrow or your definition of art is too broad. (IMHO)

Meanwhile:

IF!

As is "If and only if!"? Iff.

If what?

"IF it has aesthetic value..."

(do you mean to use that as an adjective? Because that's the way you present it.) As an adjective, you're assigning a subjective opinion to something that you are asserting is an absolute.

If you mean it as a noun, you lose that problem. The result, however is that you throw your proposition under the proverbial bus. Because you're defining "Uniqueness" too broadly and "art" (the aesthetic, as a noun) too narrowly. "You can only be unique within these confines of your chosen artistic 'school.'"

"... which over time can be judged as exemplary art. "

Which translates to "It's only 'art' when the experts have agreed that it is 'art' for a long time."

I'm not sure how that is different from ingesting "pop culture" are you?

Happy Ness
UPD

Drew said: "your statement implies, one has socialistic ideas."

Huh??? I am a cultural conservative and that means I am as far from socialism as you can get...

Bashing the younger generation! You Betcha. Surely you know the garbage now being spewed in many of our great universities...

The current crap is called PostModernity...Our dear postmodern kids are being taught that one idea is as good as the other, that good and evil are different for everyone.

Our postmodern youngsters completely reject the structure of Western civilization. That don't believe in the individual, they don't believe in logic, that don't believe in dialogue (shouting down their opposition)....

May I suggest you read/listen to Jordan Peterson and Sir Roger Scruton. These two cultural conservatives will shed light on our topicc.

UP...
Innovation is necessarily creative while unique is not.

Someone who is innovative is creative; someone who is unique is not necessarily creative but rather need only be the only one of its kind to be deemed 'unique'

Robert, read my statement again. You clearly did not interpret what I intended to communicate.

"I have no problem with your opinion; it is yours BUT I will point out false implications especially when it is used as a thinly veiled attemp to discredit a valid antithesis to your opinion.
It is not a far reach to conclude your statement implies, one has socialistic ideas. This is far from the truth and not a subject to be discussed on the forum!"


Also, do you listen to a lot of talk radio?

Western civilization

ah we....a lot of us are embracing western European or Japanese civilization and simply rejecting the "Me" generation values or lack thereof. This has nothing to do with American politics. It has to do with a divide in our culture. We are moving against a massive debt of selfishness.

Postmodernism is here to stay. Like it or not. I love it.

Dave

Dave,
The Postmodern Worldview claims that our Western world society is an outdated lifestyle disguised under impersonal and faceless bureaucracies.

Postmodernists do not attempt to refine their thoughts about what is right or wrong, true or false, good or evil. They believe that there isn’t such a thing as absolute truth.

A Postmodernist might agree with Stalin that it was ok to kill 9 million Russian citizens for the good of Communism...After all, good or evil does not matter.

No thanks. Not for me. Granted much much is wrong with America and the world, but Postmodernity sure as heck is not the answer. Not now, not ever.

I notice that you don't engage in direct questions to the foundation of your beliefs.

"Tried and true dogma" about Stalinism has nothing to do with the question here. Except that it shows me which and what and from when your culture was ingested.

Pretend it (and by extension, you) is different all you want. You're just repeating what others have told you. GIGO indeed! But your kernels are like corn, They came in and went out exactly the same. There has been no digestion.

I'm sorry, but there is no news in "Cultural Conservatism" ergo, no growth through either innovation or uniqueness.

PLAU
UPD

Most of my ingesting involves potatoes, rice and oatmeal, with various vegetables added to rice dishes to make them more nutritious and interesting, with olive oil, flaxseed oil and tamari added for omegas and flavoring, except for the oatmeal, which gets maple syrup or honey for the latter. I call this the Irish/Chinese Peasant Diet. Not sure what you mean by ingesting pop culture. Not even sure what pop culture means. Not sure anyone does. So I guess I'll just wing it.

Considering that I don't have TV and almost never voluntarily listen to the radio (except for NPR on rare occasions), I probably can't be considered much of a pop culture ingester, assuming that a pop culture ingester is someone who absorbs enough pop culture to make it a real part of their life.

However, I do like music - some music. Just not much of the stuff that's on the radio. Maybe I'm an anti-pop music ingester. Here's a list of some stuff I listen to when I'm in a music-listening mood: a lot of Dylan (Masters of War, God is On Our Side, Desolation Row, Highway 61 Revisited, Senor, Tangled Up in Blue, Visions of Johanna); Most of Tom Waits' stuff (love St. Vincent's cover of his Big Black Mariah - best cover song ever, except maybe for Hendrix's cover of Dylan's All Along the Watchtower); Sibelius (the composer of the weather); wooden flute music; Eurythmics (crazy about their 1984 album, which is a darned good deconstruction of Orwell's novel of the same name), a lot of Enya, especially her The Celts and Dark Sky Island CD's; Springsteen's The Ghost of Tom Joad (And Born in the USA, which is almost certainly the most misunderstood American "pop" song ever written); King Crimson, especially their Starless and Bible Black album; Sinead O'Connor's early stuff, especially her early history-lesson stuff (Famine, Skibbereen). Like the live version of The Doors' Celebration of the Lizard a lot (a prophetic fantasy of a world-wide socialist revolution that never came to fruition?); and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's Ohio, which contains the bravest rock music lyrics ever written: "Tin soldiers and Nixon coming." Lennon's Imagine is great, too, but it practically never gets any radio play, probably because of the way the lyrics "Imagine there's no religion" fit in with the general zeitgeist of the song (imagining that a world without religion would be a better, more peaceful place isn't what the ruling classes want the peasant classes to think, for fairly obvious reasons). Oh, and Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart) is very interesting. And I like the work of slide guitar virtuoso Bonnie Raitt, too.

Art? Landscape paintings and landscape painters, mostly: John Constable, Turner, Thomas Girtin, Monet, Homer, Charles Burchfield, Dennis Miller Bunker, Rockwell Kent, Vincent Van Gogh, Edward Hopper. . . Fascinated with the history of the genre, from its origin with the Dutch tulip boom in the 1600's onward, but that's a long story. And, Picasso, although he certainly wasn't a landscape painter, for one single painting: Guernica.

Okay, enough of this airy persiflage. It's been an interesting thread. Thanks, Uther.

Robert,

Equating Postmodern to Stalin......really?

Yes undefined....yes....so take the bull by the horns like an artist and do what bulls would do with such a fertile ground.......as I have been doing.

But mind you, Postmodernism is being defined constantly by the young.

The Me generation wastes itself.

Dave

I do my best NOT to ingest pop culture. However, I must admit to being contaminated by it as much as any America. It's almost impossible to avoid.

Just ask my wife how I rant and rave over TV ads (no matter how cute). I am forever having my poor wife mute the ads.

I do my best to enhance my mind with Aesthetics, a branch of philosophy that explores the nature of art, beauty, and taste, with the creation and appreciation of beauty.

Just one example from the world of Classical music...

I reject this nonsense...
John Cage is the 20th century conceptual artist who famously “composed” the piano piece titled 4′ 33″ (1952), which consists of the pianist(s) sitting at a piano and not playing for exactly four minutes and 33 seconds.

This is a frat boy stunt and not to be taken seriously.

Now compare the above garbage with the opening of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring."

I rest my case.

"But, Yes, for me I ingest pop culture. Mostly on this fool thing that I'm on 10 hours a day anyway. and then their is the idiot box."


Uther,
Interesting perspective on pop culture as seen from the "idiot box." The programming tool of pop culture of old that still has a grip on modern culture to this day!
One of the most interesting pop culture phenomenon in recent years is the Broadway musical Hamilton.
In my opinion, the youth's reactions to the play dismissed many accusations that the youth of today are incapable of understanding the complexity of their own heredity and past generational contributions and its relevance of historical importance.

The Rite of Spring was considered the worst of the worst for over a year.

Was the Rite of Spring simply a sexual exploitation?

Dave