Pop culture: An Overview

Pop culture encompasses a wide variety of thoughts, ideas, actions, people, and events.  According to our text pop culture is defined as “a system of attitudes, behavior patterns, beliefs, customs, and tastes that define the people of any society” (Browne, Pg.3).  While I fully agree with this definition I would like to expand on it a bit to include that pop culture can also be perceived as a current fad (quite possibly one that will stay around for years to come but a fad none-the-less).  It can also be described as a joint decision of popularity by a group of people.

Whatever the terminology or definitions used to describe pop culture  there is one thing we can all agree on and that is it’s importance in a business environment.  Regardless of the business or your position within a business knowing and understanding current pop culture helps you to communicate with your fellow employees, use pop culture to target your audience, make intelligent and current conversation with business associates, and utilize media and social media in an effective way.  Pop culture is very relevant to me in my current employment as a realtor.  While being knowledgeable about the real estate itself is important I am essentially working to sell my personality to prospective clients.  In doing this I need to be able to relate to these clients and knowing pop culture is essential.  I also use pop culture to help market myself and my listings which I will go into detail later.  I personally feel that being up to date on pop culture and all of the artifacts that come with it have helped me become successful.  These pop culture artifacts include but are not limited to the internet, social media, slang and terms used, fashion, food trends, and tv shows.

The artifact that I chose is social media in business.  I chose this primarily because in the past 2 years I have transitioned from traditional marketing and communication into a social media based marketing and have been wildly successful in the change.  I feel that businesses must use social media if they intend to stay relevant and acquire new clients and customers.  I also think that pop culture is generally the topic of conversation within these social media sites and is where I stay up to date on the new trends and market shifts.  Social media is ever changing as is pop culture so constant learning curve and new knowledge make both exciting and accessible at the same time.

Petraccca, Michael, Sorapure, Madeliene. “Common Culture: Reading and Writing About American Popular Culture”  Prentice Hall.  2009.