What Is Popular Culture? How Is It Different From Elite Culture?

Culture is the customs, ideas, beliefs, and practices followed by a group of people, people of different sects, and particular communities. An idea that gradually spread from one generation to another and became a part of the majority, hence called popular culture.

Source- Pickpik

Popular culture means a culture of the masses or the majority of the population. It can be in different forms like the culture of festivals, dressing sense, table habits, education system, and another perspective that is followed up in society.

Popular culture refers to the aesthetic products created and sold by profit-seeking firms operating in the global entertainment market. By this definition, it is noticeable that culture itself is designed to be sold and consumed for profit-making globally.

History

The term “popular culture” was first evident in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century as mentioned by “Peter Burke- a British Historian and Professor” in his book Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe. The discovery of Popular Culture is closely associated with the rise of nationalism.

Elite culture or high culture has its reference from the established aristocracy, power politics, and bourgeois in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. It is a culture that is mostly followed by critics and social elites who prevail that elite culture has a bounded structure in some instances and sometimes it also marginalizes the popular culture whereas the elite culture is respected by the popular culture- as stated by the critical thinkers.

What Different Theorists Have Said About Popular Culture?

The Critical Theorists (who take their cue from Marx and conflict theory) say that the mass media is an industry designed to indoctrinate and subordinate the masses (audiences) into passivity and acceptance of the capitalist mode of consumption through our popular culture consumption.

As per the Functionalists, however, the purpose (or, function) of culture is not so sinister and self-serving after all. Instead, they argue that popular culture serves the same purpose culture has always served in societies. “It is the social glue that binds together members of that social group and creates a feeling of solidarity and group cohesion”.

The interactionists focus on the way that we use popular culture to make sense of ourselves but also emphasize how others shape our tastes, values, and ultimately identity. These groups of people tend to interpret, understand, and enjoy popular culture in similar ways as interpretive communities.

Interpretive communities are consumers whose common social identities and cultural backgrounds (whether organized based on nationality, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, or age) inform their shared understandings of culture in patterned and predictable ways.

Difference Between Popular Culture and Elite Culture

Elite culture is a subculture that is shared by the elite class of society. It is also known as high culture, whereas popular culture is a subculture of the majority of society.

The population of elite culture is smaller in number than popular culture as it includes the upper class and upper middle class of society whereas popular culture is shared by the middle class and lower middle class of society.

Both have their pattern of living. Their lifestyles, feeding habits, living standards, education, literature beliefs, practices, and thoughts are very different from each other but at the same time unique in their way that’s why it has become a topic to be studied.

Most of the time it has been noticed that elite people prefer expensive brands and hotels rather than popular culture people who used to prefer less expensive brands and hotels. It is weird to discuss these little details but it is obvious in society that both culture specifies the gap in society or at the same time it also shows varieties that are used by the population of different culture.

For example, if elite culture prefers lobster and prawns to eat, golf and squash to play, cafes and clubs to gather, and violin and piano to play, then popular culture likes to have desi and street food, cricket, and football to play, parks and hotels to gather, and tabla and harmonium to play.

These differences are not only seen in Indian society but also in Western and European countries, where social biases only remain a chapter to study. This gap is not new to know, it has its roots in history when the elite class was the people who used the rule the society and the majority were the population who followed their rulings. 

As popular culture is a culture of the majority, it reflects a real picture of society whereas the elite culture is a high culture or culture of intellectuals, that cannot be accessed by most of the people of society. Hence, popular culture becomes a study of society if someone wants to know about real society and elite culture being a part of popular culture seems different and dissimilar to popular culture.

If we talk about literature and art, then elite culture marked a level and record that cannot be followed by popular culture. As we have seen, elite culture people like to read William Shakespeare and Rabindranath Tagore whereas popular culture follows magazines and comics.

Conclusion

Both cultures are a medium for studying different aspects of society and both have their importance but if we want to get the true reflection of society then it is the popular culture that stands on the point and the elite class possesses the intellectual testimony of the society.

Written by - Archi Goldi

(This article has been authored exclusively by the writer and is being presented on Eat My News, which serves as a platform for the community to voice their perspectives. As an entity, Eat My News cannot be held liable for the content or its accuracy. The views expressed in this article solely pertain to the author or writer. For further queries about the article or its content, you can contact this email address - archigoldi17@gmail.com )