1

W h a t is Popular Culture?
-

aus: STOREY, John: Cultural Theory and Popular Culture.

London et al. (PearsonlPrenUce Hall) 2001

Before we consider in detail the different ways in which popular culture has been
defined and analyzed, I want to outline some of the general features of the debate
which the study of popular culture has generated. It is not my intention to pre-empt
the specific findings and arguments which will be presented in the following chapters.
Here I simply wish to map out the general conceptual landscape of popular culture.
This is, in many ways, a daunting task. As Tony Bennett points out, 'as it stands,
the concept of popular culture is virtually useless, a melting pot of confused and
contradictory meanings capable of misdirecting inquiry up any number of theorrtical blind alleys'.' Part of the difficulty stems from the implied otherness which is
always absendpresent when we use the term 'popular culture'. As we shall see in
the chapters which follow, popular culture is always defined, implicitly or explicitly, in conuast to other conceptual categories: folk culture, mass culme, dominant
culture, working-class culture, etc. A full definition must always take this into
account. Moreover, as we shall also see, whichever conceptual category is deployed
as popular culture's absentlpresent other, it will always powerfully affect the connotations brought into play when we use the term 'popular culture'.
Therefore, to study popular culture we must first confront the difficulty posed by
the term itself. That is, 'depending on how it is used, quite different areas of inquiry
and forms of theoretical definition and analytical focus are suggested'." The main
argument which 1 suspect readers will take from this hook is that popular culture
is in effect an empty conceptual category, one which can be filled in a wide variety
of often conflicting ways, depending on the context of use.
Culture

In order to define popular culture we h t need to deiine the term 'culture'. Raymond
Wllliams calls culture 'one of the two or three most complicated words in the
English language'.' Wllllams suggests three broad defimtions. First of all, culture
can be used to refer to 'a general process of lnteuectual, spiritual and aesthetic

W/,at i s l'opcrtor

16

Cuiture?

Day, Gary (ed.), Readings hi I'oprrlnr (:ulti.irc, Lonilon: ~Vlacmillan,1990. A mixed collccrion of essays, romp inteicsting and useiol, nrhc~.stilo unsure abimr how seriously to take

poprrlar culture.
Du Gay, Paul, Stuart Hall, Llnda Jancs, Hugh Mackay and Keith Negor, Doing Cultural
Siudies: The Story of the Sony Wlilbi??an,London: Sagc, 1997. Ail cxcellcnr ilitroducrio<~
to sornc oi thc key issues in culti~ralsrildies. Worth reading for the explanation of 'the
circuit of ciilruie'.
Fiskc, Jnhn, Underitonding Pop2*liir-Culture, London: (inwin Hyman, 1989. A clear presenration of his particular approach to the study o f popular cnlture.
Fiskr, John, Reoding the Popular, 1.ondon: Unwin Hyrnan. 1989. A collection of essays

analyzing difkrent examples of popular culti~ie.

(;oodall, Peter, High Culrrure, Popular Cu1rur.e: The lung debole, Sr Lronaids: Alleli &
Unwin, 1995. The book traces the debare between high and popular culture, with particu~
lar, hot nor exclusive, reference to the Australian experience, from the eighteenth century
to the prcscnt day.
Milner, Andrew, Cot?rentporar?, C~~ltuialStudies,
2nd edn, London: UCI. Press, 1994. A useful
inrl-odnction to contemporary culmral theory.
Mukerii, Chandra and Michael Schudson (eds), Rethinking Po/>~,lnrCrriture, Berkeley:
Universiry of California Press, 1991. A collenion of essays, with an informed and interesrinp introducrion. The book is helpfully divided into sections on differeim a~,lproaches m

Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1991. A useful and interesting collection of essays
on cultural theory and popular culture.
Strinati, Dominic, A n Introd~ictronto Theories of Popular Cultidre, London: Routledge,
1995. A clear and comprehensive introduction to theories of popular culture.
Tolson, Andrew, Mediations: Text and discoullre in media s t u d i ~ rLondon:
,
Edward Arnold,
1996. An excellent introduction to the study of popular media culture.
Turner, Graerne, British Culturn1 Studies, 2nd edn, London: Routledge, 1996. Still the best
inrroduction ro British cultural studies.

Notes

w Ha\,cn: Yale Univcr

sit" Press. 1957, D. xv.
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What is P o p u l a r Culture?

1. Tony Bennett, 'Popular culture: a teaching objcct', Screen Edrrcotion, 34, 1980, p. 18.
2. Ihid., p. 20.
3. Raymond Williams, Keywords, London: Fontaaa, 1983, p. 87.
4. Ibid., p. 90.
5. Ihid.
6. Ihid.
7. Craeme Turner, British Cultui.al Studies: An introduction, 2nd edn, London: Routledge,
1996, p. 182.
8. James W. Carey, 'Overcoming resisrance to cultural studies', in W'hat Is Cultural Studies: A Render, edited by John Storcy, London: Edward Arnold, 1996, p. 65.
9. Stuarr Hall, 'Some paradigms in cultural studies', Annali, 3, 1978, p. 23.
10. See Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The German Ideology (srudenr edirion), edited and
introduced by C. J. Arthur, London: Lawrcncc & Wishart, 1974.
11. I<arl Maia: 'Preface' and 'Introduction' to a Contribution to the Critique of Politicdl
Economy, Peking: Foreign Languages I'ress, 1976, p. 3.
12. Tony Bcnnen, 'Popular culture: defining nur terms', in Popular Culture: Themes rind
isscres 1 , Milron Keynes: Open University Press, 1982, p. 81.
13. Marr, 'Preface' and 'Inrroducrion' to a Contribution to the Critique of Polit;cal Economy,
p. 5.
14. Bertolr Brechr, On Theatre, rianslatsd by John Willert, London: Methuen, 1978,
pp. 1.70-1.

Notes

198

1.5. Srual-r Mall, 'The rediscovery of ideologu: rhc i-ctu)~,01 the rcpl.rsscd in media studics',
in Subjcctiuity nnd .Sociul RcIairoi?s, cdired by Vcronica Berches and James Donald,
Milron I<eynes: Open University Press, 1985, p. 36.
16. See Stuart Hall, 'Notcs on dcco~~srrucri~ig
"the pi>pt~lal-"',in Cultural Ti,eory and PI>/I~,/OF
Culture: A Reodcr, 2nd cdn, edircd hy John Storey, Hemel Hempsread: Prenticc Hall,
I9YX.

17. Williams, Keywords, p. 237.

1.8. Bcnnerr, 'l'opi~lat.culrure: a reaching object', pp. 20-1
19. Pierre Bourdieu, Disti,zcfio,r: A sociol crjtique of lhe ludp,nent of taste. rranslared by
Richard Nice. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University IJr.css, 1984, p. 5 .
20. For a discussion of Shakcsprare as pop~llarcrilrure in nineteenrh-centi~ryAmerica, see
I.,IMICIILC
L~villr,Hi8/,bri,w/Jaor(ib~: The eInergencc ~ ~ ~ u l t uhierorchg
ral
ti, America,
Cambridge, Mass.: I-laivard University Press, 1988.
21. See '"Expecting Rain": Opera as popular culture?, in Hzglr-Po/,, edited by Jim Collins,
Oxford: Hlackwcll, forrhcoming, 2000.
22. See Bourdieu, Distinction, p. 5.
23. S t e Williams, Keywords, pp. 236-8.
24. Hall, 'Notes oo deconstructing "the popular"', pp. 448-9.
25. This is rhr principal theme of the 'production of culture' approach. See Paul DiMaggro, 'Cultural entreprener~rshipin ninereenth-century Boston: the creation of a n
organizational base for high culture in i\rnerica3, in Celturol Tl~eoryand Po/~tulnr
Cultirre: A Reader, 2nd edn, edited by John Storey, Hemel Hempsread: Prentice Hall,
1998.
26. John Fiske, Understanding Popular Culture, London: Unwin Hyman, 1989, p. 31.
27. Simon Frith, Sound Effects: Youth, leisure and the politics of rock, Londoo: Constable,
1983, p. 147.
28. Fiske, Understnizdjng Fopirlar Culture, p. 27.
29. Richard Maltby, 'Inrrodocrion', in Dreams for Sale: Popular culture ix the 20th cantuq,
edited by Richard Malrby, London: Harrap, 1989, p. 11.
30. Andrew Ross, No Respect: I~~lellectualr
and popular calture, London: Routledge, 1989,
p. 7.
31. See Duncan Webster, Lookn Yonder!, London: Comedia, 1988.
32. Malrby, 'Introducrion', p. 14.
33. Ibid.
34. See Nicholas Abeicl-ombie, Stephen Hill and Bryan S. Turner, The Dominant 1deolog)t
Thesis, London: Allen & Unwin, 1980.
35. Bermerr, 'Popular culture: a teaching object', p. 27.
36. Antonio Gramsci, 'Hegemony, inrellectuals, and the stare', in Cultural Theory nnd Popular Cultme: A Render, 2nd edn, edited by John Storey, Hemel Hempsread: Prentice Hall,
1998, p. 210.
37. 1 call my approach neo-Gramscian in ol-drr to create some respectful theorcticai and
political distance bcrween my own work and that of Antonio Gramsci. I am conscioos
of the facr that 1 a m ,,sing an approach developed ro analyze the general field of polirics
to ~~ndersrand
the particular rerrain of popular culrure.
38. Gramsci, Selections from Prison Notebooks, p. 161.
39. Tony Bennett, 'Popular cultlire and the rurn ro Gramsci', in Cultural Theory and Popular
Culture: A Reader, 2nd edn, edited by John Srorey, Hemel Hempsread: Prentice Mall,
1998, p. 221.

40. Clranral rMooffc,'Hegemony i n d ideology i i ~Gramsci'. in Cirltrrre, Ideology and .Sorial

I'rocess. edited lhy Tony Bennerr, Colin Mrrcer anil Janer \Voollacotr, Milron I<eynes:
Open University P ~ e s r ,1981, p. 231.
41. Raymond Williams, 'Basc and sopcrsri-octurc in Marxist culrr~ialthcory', m Pi.oblefzs i~
Moterialism and Calture, London: Verso, 1980.
41. Sruait Hall, 'Grcodingldecodin~', in Cr*/trtr-e, Media, Langaqqr, edited by Stuart Hall,
Dorothy Hobson, Andrew Lowe and I'sill Willis, London: Hurchinsoa, 1980. David
Morley, The Nntiorrlvide Audience, London: BFI. 1980. For critical commentary nee
John Storey, C u l t ~ r aStudies
l
and the Study of Pop,*Lr Cultirre, Ed~nburgh:Edinburgh
University Press, 1996, and John Storey, Culturai Conremnptzon and Everyday Life.
I.ondon: Edward Arnold, 1999.
43. See Hall, 'Notes an dcconsrur~crinpthe popular'.
44. Tony Bennett, 'The polit~csof the popdar', in Po/,ular Cstlti~reand Social Relatiorzs,
p. 20.
4 5 Turner, British Cultrrral Studies, p. 6.
46. Lawrence Grossberg, It's a Sin: Essop a n postmodemism, politics and cultirre, Sydney:
Power Publications, 1988, p. 7.
47. Raymond Williams, Culture ond Soctct)r, Harmonilsworrh: Penguin, 1963, p. 11.
48. See Pcter Burke, Popular. C~lltereitr Eady Alodern Europe, Aldershor: Scolar I'ress,
1994.
49. R. J. Morris, Class awd Class Consciousness h the Irtdusrrral Reiiolutron 1780-1850,
landon: Macmillan, 1979, p. 22.
50. Bennett, 'Popular culture: defining our rerms', p. 86.
51. Dick Hehdiee. 'Aanalararna, or can pop
save us all?' New Statesman e" Socict),.
.
9 ~ecemberi988.
52. Geoff~.eyNowell~Srnith,'Popular culture', New Formntions, 2, 1987, p. 80.
~

London: Cambridge University Piers. 1960,

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.

Ibid., p. 46.
Ibid., p. 48.
Ibid., p. 89.
Ibid., p. 179.
Ibid., p. 31.
Ibid., p. 163.
Ibid., pp. 163-4.
Ibid., p. 163.
Ibid., p. 76.
Ibid., p. 69.
Ibid., p. 76.
Ibid., p. 193.
15. Ibid., pp. 80-1.