High Culture and Popular Culture

Video Transcription

[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to this episode of Sociology, Studies of Society. Today's lesson is on high culture and popular culture. As always, don't be afraid to pause, stop, rewind, or even fast forward to make sure you get the most out of this tutorial.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

So today, we're looking at high culture and popular culture. And we're going to be breaking down culture into these two subgroups.

Now, these two groups are not necessarily opposed to each other, but they are on different ends of the spectrum.

So what is high culture? Well, high culture is the aspects of culture associated with society's elite. You might hear someone say, that's cultured. They're generally referring to high culture.

High culture typically involves stuff like classical music, theater, fine arts. And it generally is tied in with the upper class, although it's not 100% to do with wealth.

On the other end of the spectrum is popular culture. Popular culture is referring to cultural patterns that are widespread across society's population. So these are things that your average person is into. You can think about sports, movies, television, pop music, rock music, hip hop. They're all different types of popular culture.

And generally speaking, it has to do more with the middle class, the lower class, the working class. Again, it's not centered on the economic breakdown of it. But it generally is associated with those classes.

So the takeaway message-- high culture is aspects of culture associated with society's elite. And popular culture is the cultural patterns that are widespread across the society's population.

Well, that's it for this lesson. Good work. And hopefully, you'll be seeing me on your screen again soon. Peace.