American Pop Culture 1,2 (5031, 5032)    - PILOT COURSE -

The course also introduces students to different modes of cultural transmission that we will discuss and analyze. In addition to learning through texts and lectures, this course utilizes pop culture artifacts from the 20th century. Students will engage with magazines, slang, dance crazes, comic books, films, music recordings, advertisements, arcade games, etc.

The first semester focuses on the creation of popular culture and how it is distinct from the High/Low culture paradigm of the 19th century. We will define Pop Culture and look at the ways Pop Culture broke down class cultural divides and challenged moral frameworks. We will see how, in response, different groups attempted to control or censor pop culture through the Hays Code, the Comics Code Authority, and the response to musical trends such as Rock and Roll. We will learn about how pop culture is enabled by a business-technology-media partnership and look at case studies. The second semester will continue to explore these themes in the second half of the 20th century while also examining the development of new subcultures, the counterculture, and the advent of computer technology. The second semester will also focus on applying what we have learned about Pop Culture in the 20th century to today’s Pop Culture.