It seems the battle between high art and pop culture is finally over. A few self-proclaimed snobs, anxious to distinguish themselves from the rabble, are still out there swinging their swords, but everybody else has pretty much left the field.
"High culture", 'low art", "middle brow" may still be categories to some, but the traditional Cultural Pyramid has morphed into a spectrum. And on that spectrum, the extremes are now better thought of as "simple" and "complex", or "pure escapism" and "very demanding". But the important thing is that these terms no longer automatically signify any degree of quality. Raiders of the Lost Ark is a perfect example of this; art that falls toward the simple/escapist end of the spectrum, yet it's obviously far from junk.
Craig Seligman once remarked on "...the weakening force of critical opinion in the face of ever-expanding mass interests and tastes". But this change was more than the result of an expanding middle class or more prevalent media. It was spurred on by the rise of the HIFs — Hardcore Intelligent Fans — who accomplished two important things:
1) They championed traditionally disparaged genres (like science fiction) and media (like comic books), claiming them as worthy of analysis and serious critique. Academia had failed badly in this respect. For years these things were shunned, and now the universities, instead of being in the vanguard, are trying to play catch-up. But courses on pop culture are like listening to senior citizens use contemporary slang: it sounds clumsy, forced, and slightly embarrassing.
2) HIFs also managed to find alternative ways of getting their ideas out there, sidestepping professional venues by producing fanzines and holding conventions. Though fanzines had problems with distribution, that's been alleviated by their replacement, the internet.
HIFs aren't just buffs, like the ones in High Fidelity. They tend to be more active. But there's also a combination of other factors that distinguishes them from both scholars and casual fans:
Article comments
1 - HW Saxton Jr.
Paul, Great post man. Very interesting
and concise. By the way, the tag at the
end of your post was fine LOL. Peace.
2 - Shark
Nice post.
A few asides:
1) When "pop culture" cranks out about 15 billion products each and every day, it's hard to keep up, let alone digest, consume, 'categorize', and/or analyze.
2) I recently had a discussion w/a fellow museum professional; we were discussing (given #1 above) what and how the Smithsonian decides to 'preserve' of "american culture" -- currently, and in the future. They've got "Fonzie's" leather jacket, which surely won't be as important as Lincoln's hat, but do they also keep Pez dispensers? All 8 billion of them?
Name any 'artifact' of contemporary culture, and then try to figure out how it might have any 'historical' significance, and if so, what to do if it comes in thousands of variations. (Beanie Babies? Spiderman Toys? Rolling Stones Greatest Hits Collections?)
Imagine the problems facing other 'respositories' of culture; Radio & TV Broadcast Museum, fer instance -- do they keep "Three's Company" tapes? The Sopranos? "Famous" beer commercials? Which? How Many?
It's insane.
We'll build monuments to Spuds MacKenzie and the Taco Bell Dog and melt them down before the first pigeon is able to contribute God's own implicit cultural critique on their bronze brows.
3) Kinda hard on Neil Postman, imo. Too abstract? C'mon, only if you've got ADD, which apparently 99.9% of Americans do.
Oh Nevermind...
3 - HW Saxton Jr.
Shark, I think that your reference to
the late Neil Postman just sailed over
the heads of 99.9% of all those around
here. Sadly, they are same people who
need to read "Technopoly- The Surrender
Of..." Aww,ne'er mind.I'm just preachin'
to the choir now.
4 - hardcore
Shark, I think that your reference to
the late Neil Postman just sailed over
the heads of 99.9% of all those around
here. Sadly, they are same people who
need to read "Technopoly- The Surrender
Of..." Aww,ne'er mind.I'm just preachin'hardore
to the choir now.
5 - SFC Ski
It's a minor grammatical point, but I think it should be "Intelligent Hardcore Fans". There are hardcore fans, but what makes these above unique is their intelligence.