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122-563: Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare , with use of melodramatic , risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance . Set mainly or entirely in outer space , it features technological and social advancements (or lack thereof) in faster-than-light travel , futuristic weapons , and sophisticated technology, on a backdrop of galactic empires and interstellar wars with fictional aliens , often in fictional galaxies. The term does not refer to opera music , but instead originally referred to

244-505: A society at a given point in time. As celebrities online identities are extremely important in order to create a brand to line-up sponsorships, jobs, and opportunities. As influencers , micro-celebrities, and users constantly need to find new ways to be unique or stay updated with trends, in order to maintain followers, views, and likes. For example, Ellen DeGeneres has created her own personal branding through her talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show . As she developed her brand we can see

366-824: A balance between both or simultaneously hard and soft science fiction such as the Dune prequel series by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert or the Star Wars series created by George Lucas . Early works which preceded the subgenre contained many elements of what would become space opera. They are today referred to as proto-space opera. Early proto-space opera was written by several 19th century French authors, for example, Les Posthumes (1802) by Nicolas-Edme Rétif , Star ou Psi de Cassiopée: Histoire Merveilleuse de l'un des Mondes de l'Espace (1854) by C. I. Defontenay and Lumen (1872) by Camille Flammarion . Not widely popular, proto-space operas were nevertheless occasionally written during

488-599: A broad spectrum of the public. Important contemporary contributions to understanding what popular culture means have been given by the German researcher Ronald Daus , who studies the impact of extra-European cultures in North America , Asia , and especially in Latin America . Within the realm of popular culture, there exists an organizational culture. From its beginning, popular culture has revolved around classes in society and

610-450: A classification system for ancient Greek literature , as set out in Aristotle's Poetics . For Aristotle, poetry ( odes , epics , etc.), prose , and performance each had specific features that supported appropriate content of each genre. Speech patterns for comedy would not be appropriate for tragedy, for example, and even actors were restricted to their genre under the assumption that

732-504: A commercial, trailer, or other content not serving as attraction for viewership). Television programs may be fictional (as in comedies and dramas ), or non-fictional (as in documentary , light entertainment , news and reality television ). They may be topical (as in the case of a local newscast and some made-for-television movies), or historical (as in the case of many documentaries and fictional series). They can be primarily instructional or educational , or entertaining as

854-456: A commodity reinforced by capitalist corporations complicit in imperialism and patriarchy. Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky critiqued the mass media in their 1988 work Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media . They argue that mass media is controlled by a powerful hegemonic elite who are motivated by their own interests that determine and manipulate what information

976-501: A fierce humanoid race headquartered on Sirius . However, the idea for the novel arises out of a nationalistic genre of fiction popular from 1880 to 1914 called future-war fiction. Despite this seemingly early beginning, it was not until the late 1920s that the space opera proper began to appear regularly in pulp magazines such as Amazing Stories . In film, the genre probably began with the 1918 Danish film, Himmelskibet . Unlike earlier stories of space adventure, which either related

1098-459: A form separate from mass-produced popular culture, propagating by word of mouth rather than via mass media, e.g. in the form of jokes or urban legends . With the widespread use of the Internet from the 1990s, the distinction between mass media and word-of-mouth has become blurred. Although the folkloric element of popular culture engages heavily with the commercial element, communities amongst

1220-602: A frontier settlement in a classic Western. Six-shooters and horses may be replaced by ray guns and rockets. Harry Harrison 's novels Bill, the Galactic Hero and Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers , as well as the film adaptation of the former, the films Galaxy Quest and Mel Brooks ' Spaceballs , and Family Guy ' s Laugh It Up, Fuzzball trilogy parody the conventions of classic space opera. Subgenre Critical discussion of genre perhaps began with

1342-426: A known massive influencer to popular culture yet not all films create a movement that contributes enough to be part of the popular culture that starts movements. The content must resonate to most of the public so the knowledge in the material connects with the majority. Popular culture is a set of beliefs in trends and entail to change a person's set of ideologies and create social transformation. The beliefs are still

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1464-432: A moral exploration of contemporary social issues. McAuley and Michael Levy identify Iain M. Banks , Stephen Baxter , M. John Harrison , Alastair Reynolds , McAuley himself, Ken MacLeod , Peter F. Hamilton , Ann Leckie , and Justina Robson as the most-notable practitioners of the new space opera. One of the most notable publishers Baen Books specialises in space opera and military science fiction, publishing many of

1586-530: A more subtle influence in space opera. Gene Roddenberry described Star Trek: The Original Series as a space Western (or more poetically, as “ Wagon Train to the stars”). Firefly and its cinematic follow-up Serenity literalized the Western aspects of the genre popularized by Star Trek : it used frontier towns, horses, and the styling of classic John Ford Westerns. Worlds that have been terraformed may be depicted as presenting similar challenges as that of

1708-582: A number of subgenres, for example by setting or subject, or a distinctive national style, for example in the Indian Bollywood musical. A music genre is a conventional category that identifies pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions. It is to be distinguished from musical form and musical style , although in practice these terms are sometimes used interchangeably. There are numerous genres in Western classical music and popular music , as well as musical theatre and

1830-411: A particular culture or community. The work of Georg Lukács also touches on the nature of literary genres , appearing separately but around the same time (1920s–1930s) as Bakhtin. Norman Fairclough has a similar concept of genre that emphasizes the social context of the text: Genres are "different ways of (inter)acting discoursally" (Fairclough, 2003: 26). A text's genre may be determined by its: In

1952-766: A person or commodity must conform to the hegemonic groups that determine what makes up a phenomenon." According to John M. MacKenzie , many products of popular culture have been designed to promote imperialist ideologies and to glorify the British upper classes rather than present a democratic view of the world. Although there are many films which do not contain such propaganda, there have been many films that promote racism and militarist imperialism. bell hooks , an influential feminist, argues that commercial commodities and celebrities cannot be symbols of progressiveness when they collaborate with imperialist capitalism and promote ideals of beauty; hooks uses Beyoncé as an example of

2074-492: A sovereignty to consumers that they do not really have. In Baudrillard's understanding, the products of capitalist popular culture can only give the illusion of rebellion, since they are still produced by a system controlled by the powerful. Baudrillard stated in an interview, critiquing the content and production of The Matrix : The Matrix paints the picture of a monopolistic superpower, like we see today, and then collaborates in its refraction. Basically, its dissemination on

2196-481: A story, or allegorical personifications. They usually deal with subjects drawn from "everyday life". These are distinguished from staffage : incidental figures in what is primarily a landscape or architectural painting. "Genre" is also be used to refer to specialized types of art such as still-life , landscapes, marine paintings and animal paintings, or groups of artworks with other particular features in terms of subject-matter, style or iconography . The concept of

2318-531: A structured classification system of genre, as opposed to a more contemporary rhetorical model of genre. The basic genres of film can be regarded as drama, in the feature film and most cartoons , and documentary . Most dramatic feature films, especially from Hollywood fall fairly comfortably into one of a long list of film genres such as the Western , war film , horror film , romantic comedy film , musical , crime film , and many others. Many of these genres have

2440-444: A trend that change more rapidly in the modern age that carries a continuation of outpouring media and more specifically films. The trend does not last but it also carries a different effect based on individuals that can be grouped to generalized groups based on age and education. The creation of culture by films is seen in fandoms, religions, ideologies, and movements. The culture of film is more evident through social media. Social media

2562-436: A type of person could tell one type of story best. Genres proliferate and develop beyond Aristotle's classifications— in response to changes in audiences and creators. Genre has become a dynamic tool to help the public make sense out of unpredictability through artistic expression. Given that art is often a response to a social state, in that people write, paint, sing, dance, and otherwise produce art about what they know about,

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2684-510: A viable mode. He then uses two additional criteria to distinguish the system. The first of the criteria is the object to be imitated, whether superior or inferior. The second criterion is the medium of presentation: words, gestures, or verse. Essentially, the three categories of mode , object , and medium can be visualized along an XYZ axis. Excluding the criteria of medium, Aristotle's system distinguished four types of classical genres: tragedy , epic , comedy , and parody . Genette explained

2806-410: A world scale is complicit with the film itself. On this point it is worth recalling Marshall McLuhan: the medium is the message. The message of The Matrix is its own diffusion by an uncontrollable and proliferating contamination. With the invention of the printing press in the sixteenth century, mass-produced, cheap books, pamphlets and periodicals became widely available to the public. With this,

2928-514: Is a highly specialized, narrow classification of a cultural practice. The term has come into usage in the 21st century, and most commonly refers to music. It is also associated with the hyper-specific categories used in recommendations for television shows and movies on digital streaming platforms such as Netflix , and is sometimes used more broadly by scholars analyzing niche forms in other periods and other media. Popular culture Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture )

3050-545: Is also defined as the culture that is "leftover" when we have decided what high culture is. However, many works straddle the boundaries, e.g., William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens , Leo Tolstoy , and George Orwell . A third definition equates pop culture with "mass culture" and ideas. This is seen as a commercial culture, mass-produced for mass consumption by mass media . From a Western European perspective, this may be compared to American culture . Alternatively, "pop culture" can be defined as an "authentic" culture of

3172-452: Is an instant source of feedback and creates discussion on films. A repeating event that has been set in modern culture within the trend setting phase is the creation of movements in social media platforms to defend a featured subject on a film. Popular culture or mass culture, is reached easily with films which are easily shared and reached worldwide. A television program is a segment of audiovisual content intended for broadcast (other than

3294-407: Is artificially reinforced by transnational media corporations. Globalized pop culture can contribute to the homogenization of cultural identities, erasing or diluting diverse local traditions and practices in favor of standardized, marketable forms of entertainment and consumption. Jack Zipes , a professor of German and literature, critiqued the mass commercialization and corporate hegemony behind

3416-479: Is constantly evolving and occurs uniquely in place and time . It forms currents and eddies, and represents a complex of mutually interdependent perspectives and values that influence society and its institutions in various ways. For example, certain currents of pop culture may originate from, (or diverge into) a subculture , representing perspectives with which the mainstream popular culture has only limited familiarity. Items of popular culture most typically appeal to

3538-467: Is epic in scale and personal with characters. It is about people taking on something bigger than themselves and their struggles to prevail. Though a setting beyond Earth is central, being on a spaceship or visiting another planet isn't the only qualifier. There must also be drama and sufficiently large scope to elevate a tale from being simply space-based to being real space opera. Space opera can be contrasted in outline with " hard science fiction ", in which

3660-446: Is further subdivided into epic , lyric , and drama . The divisions are recognized as being set by Aristotle and Plato ; however, they were not the only ones. Many genre theorists added to these accepted forms of poetry . The earliest recorded systems of genre in Western history can be traced back to Plato and Aristotle . Gérard Genette explains his interpretation of the history of genre in "The Architext". He described Plato as

3782-522: Is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices , beliefs , artistic output (also known as popular art [cf. pop art ] or mass art , sometimes contrasted with fine art ) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a society at a given point in time. Popular culture also encompasses the activities and feelings produced as a result of interaction with these dominant objects. The primary driving forces behind popular culture, especially when speaking of Western popular cultures, are

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3904-524: Is massive and systematic: not only are choices for publicity and suppression comprehensible in terms of system advantage, but the modes of handling favored and inconvenient materials (placement, tone, context, fullness of treatment) differ in ways that serve political ends. According to the postmodern sociologist Jean Baudrillard , the individual is trained into the duty of seeking the relentless maximization of pleasure lest he or she become asocial. Therefore, "enjoyment" and "fun" become indistinguishable from

4026-521: Is met or not. Many genres have built-in audiences and corresponding publications that support them, such as magazines and websites. Inversely, audiences may call out for change in an antecedent genre and create an entirely new genre. The term may be used in categorizing web pages , like "news page" and "fan page", with both very different layout, audience, and intention (Rosso, 2008). Some search engines like Vivísimo try to group found web pages into automated categories in an attempt to show various genres

4148-419: Is narrower. Pop is specific to something containing qualities of mass appeal, while "popular" refers to what has gained popularity, regardless of its style. According to author John Storey, there are various definitions of popular culture. The quantitative definition of culture has the problem that too much " high culture " (e.g., television dramatizations of Jane Austen ) is also "popular". "Pop culture"

4270-583: Is not used in face-to-face conversations, thus, adding to a persona users create through the screens of technology. For example, some individuals respond to situations with a hashtag or emojis. Social media influencers have become trendsetters through their direct engagement with large audiences, upending conventional marketing and advertising techniques. Consumer purchase choices have been impacted by fashion partnerships, sponsored material and outfit ideas offered by influencers. Social media has also made fashion more accessible by fostering uniqueness, expanding

4392-407: Is often applied, sometimes rather loosely, to other media with an artistic element, such as video game genres . Genre, and numerous minutely divided subgenres, affect popular culture very significantly, not least as they are used to classify it for publicity purposes. The vastly increased output of popular culture in the age of electronic media encourages dividing cultural products by genre to simplify

4514-494: Is often called the first great space opera. It merges the traditional tale of a scientist inventing a space-drive with planetary romance in the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs . Smith's later Lensman series and the works of Edmond Hamilton , John W. Campbell , and Jack Williamson in the 1930s and 1940s were popular with readers and much imitated by other writers. By the early 1940s, the repetitiousness and extravagance of some of these stories led to objections from some fans and

4636-413: Is present in the mainstream. The mass media is therefore a system of propaganda. In sum, a propaganda approach to media coverage suggests a systematic and highly political dichotomization in news coverage based on serviceability to important domestic power interests. This should be observable in dichotomized choices of story and in the volume and quality of coverage... such dichotomization in the mass media

4758-541: Is significant in recent times because there is an influx of sport history to keep track of, as sports journalists produce quality pieces, more sports museums are developed, and there are various radio, film, and television documentaries. Sport history has embraced popular culture as it has expanded its horizons on elite athletes and governing bodies, to the study of every day activities. It has broadened its perspective by connecting sports and athletes with class, gender, ethnicity, and disability. Sports are becoming more popular in

4880-532: Is something that can be defined in a variety of conflicting ways by different people across different contexts. It is generally viewed in contrast to other forms of culture such as folk culture , working-class culture , or high culture , and also from different academic perspectives such as psychoanalysis , structuralism , postmodernism , and more. The common pop-culture categories are entertainment (such as film , music , television , literature and video games ), sports , news (as in people / places in

5002-433: Is something that designers are actively pursuing as well. Connolly, a British menswear brand, is just one example of the many who are challenging designers and stylists to revamp and upcycle pieces of clothing from past collections. Further, the past few decades have seen the reintroduction of old designs, which have been revitalized and improvised to fit the current market needs. Additionally, celebrities and influencers are at

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5124-403: Is the case in situation comedy and game shows . Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry . These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training . It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional or "folk" music . Art music was historically disseminated through

5246-452: Is the most successful space opera book series ever written. The Star Trek TV series (1966–) by Gene Roddenberry and the Star Wars films (1977–) by George Lucas brought a great deal of attention to the sub-genre. After the convention-breaking "new wave", followed by the enormous success of the franchises, space opera became once again a critically acceptable sub-genre. From 1982 to 2002,

5368-845: The Battlestar Galactica franchise and Robert A. Heinlein 's 1959 novel Starship Troopers . The key distinction of military science fiction from space opera as part of the space warfare in science fiction is that the principal characters in a space opera are not military personnel, but civilians or paramilitary . That which brings them together under a common denominator is that military science fiction like space opera often concerns an interstellar war . Military science fiction however does not necessarily always include an outer space or multi-planetary setting like space opera and space Western. Space Western also may emphasize space exploration as “the final frontier”. These Western themes may be explicit, such as cowboys in outer space, or they can be

5490-533: The Frankfurt School during the twentieth century. Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer analyzed the dangers of the culture industry in their influential work the Dialectic of Enlightenment by drawing upon the works of Kant , Marx , Nietzsche and others. Capitalist popular culture, as Adorno argued, was not an authentic culture of the people but a system of homogenous and standardized products manufactured in

5612-470: The Harry Potter franchise . He argued that the commodities of the culture industry are "popular" because they are homogenous and obey standard conventions; the media then influences the tastes of children. In his analysis of Harry Potter's global brand, Zipes wrote, "It must conform to the standards of exception set by the mass media and promoted by the culture industry in general. To be a phenomenon means that

5734-467: The Hugo Award for Best Novel was often given to a space opera nominee. Space opera has been defined as "a television or radio drama or motion picture that is a science-fiction adventure story". Some critics distinguish between space opera and planetary romance . Both feature adventures in exotic settings, but space opera emphasizes space travel, while planetary romances focus on alien worlds. In this view,

5856-511: The Renaissance period. According to Green, "Beethoven's Op. 61 and Mendelssohn's Op. 64 are identical in genre – both are violin concertos – but different in form. However, Mozart's Rondo for Piano, K. 511 , and the Agnus Dei from his Mass, K. 317 are quite different in genre but happen to be similar in form." Some, like Peter van der Merwe , treat the terms genre and style as

5978-405: The commercial . Films and cinema are highly influential to popular culture, as films as an art form are what people seem to respond to the most. With moving pictures being first captured by Eadweard Muybridge in 1877, films have evolved into elements that can be cast into different digital formats, spreading to different cultures. The impact of films and cinema are most evident when analyzing in

6100-490: The mass media , mass appeal, marketing and capitalism ; and it is produced by what philosopher Theodor Adorno refers to as the " culture industry ". Heavily influenced in modern times by mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday lives of people in a given society. Therefore, popular culture has a way of influencing an individual's attitudes towards certain topics. However, there are various ways to define pop culture. Because of this, popular culture

6222-527: The " hierarchy of genres " was a powerful one in artistic theory, especially between the 17th and 19th centuries. It was strongest in France, where it was associated with the Académie française which held a central role in academic art . The genres, which were mainly applied to painting, in hierarchical order are: The hierarchy was based on a distinction between art that made an intellectual effort to "render visible

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6344-466: The "triumph of mankind" template of older space opera, involves newer technologies, and has stronger characterization than the space opera of old. While it does retain the interstellar scale and scope of traditional space opera, it can also be scientifically rigorous. The new space opera was a reaction against the old. 'New space opera' proponents claim that the genre centers on character development, fine writing, high literary standards, verisimilitude, and

6466-417: The 1900s fashion began to take a more individualistic tone. Primarily marked by the turbulence of the 1960s and momentous social change, younger generations started to develop their own sense of style. Catapulting influences of things like different prints or patterns that can still be seen in the present day. The future of fashion is promising and is significantly inspired by past trends. Despite that influence,

6588-589: The 1950s as a reaction and a counter to traditional and high-class art by including common and well-known images and references. Artists known during this movement include  Eduardo Paolozzi , Richard Hamilton , Larry Rivers ,  Robert Rauschenberg  and  Andy Warhol . Pop music is a wide-ranging genre of music whose characteristics include styles and tones that have a wider and more massive appeal to all kinds of consumers. Oftentimes, many examples of these music contain influences from other pre-existing works. The origins of popular music began in

6710-443: The 1970s. By this time, "space opera" was for many readers no longer a term of insult but a simple description of a particular kind of science fiction adventure story. According to author Paul J. McAuley , a number of mostly British writers began to reinvent space opera in the 1970s (although most non-British critics tend to dispute the British claim to dominance in the new space opera arena). Significant events in this process include

6832-570: The Conqueror (1925), and Edmond Hamilton's Across Space (1926) and Crashing Suns ( Weird Tales , August–September 1928). Similar stories by other writers followed through 1929 and 1930. By 1931, the space opera was well established as a major subgenre of science fiction. However, the author cited most often as the true father of the genre is E. E. "Doc" Smith . His first published work, The Skylark of Space ( Amazing Stories , August–October 1928), written in collaboration with Lee Hawkins Garby ,

6954-517: The Martian, Venusian, and lunar-setting stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs would be planetary romances (and among the earliest), as would be Leigh Brackett 's Burroughs-influenced Eric John Stark stories. The term "space opera" was coined in 1941 by fan writer and author Wilson Tucker as a pejorative term in an article in Le Zombie (a science fiction fanzine ). At the time, serial radio dramas in

7076-555: The United States had become popularly known as soap operas because many were sponsored by soap manufacturers. The term " horse opera " had also come into use to describe formulaic Western films . Tucker defined space opera as the science fiction equivalent: A "hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn, spaceship yarn". Fans and critics have noted that the plots of space operas have sometimes been taken from horse operas and simply translated into an outer space environment, as famously parodied on

7198-469: The Victorian equivalent of video games, The Guardian in 2016 described penny fiction as "Britain's first taste of mass-produced popular culture for the young". A growing consumer culture and an increased capacity for travel via the newly invented railway (the first public railway, Stockton and Darlington Railway , opened in north-east England in 1825) created both a market for cheap popular literature and

7320-426: The ability for its distribution on a large scale. The first penny serials were published in the 1830s to meet the growing demand. The stress on the distinction from "official culture" became more pronounced towards the end of the 19th century, a usage that became established by the interbellum period. From the end of World War II , following major cultural and social changes brought by mass media innovations,

7442-459: The aforementioned authors, who have won Hugo Awards. Several subsets of space opera overlap with military science fiction, concentrating on large-scale space battles with futuristic weapons in an interstellar war . Many series can be considered to belong and fall in two genres or even overlap all like Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card or the Honorverse by David Weber . At one extreme,

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7564-516: The audience becomes accustomed to these formulaic conventions, making intellectual contemplation impossible. Adorno's work has had a considerable influence on culture studies, philosophy, and the New Left . Writing in the New Yorker in 2014, music critic Alex Ross , argued that Adorno's work has a renewed importance in the digital age: "The pop hegemony is all but complete, its superstars dominating

7686-493: The average man, but its vocabulary...is always familiar. It is tempting to confuse pop music with popular music . The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , the musicologist 's ultimate reference resource, identifies popular music as the music since industrialization in the 1800s that is most in line with the tastes and interests of the urban middle class. This would include an extremely wide range of music from vaudeville and minstrel shows to heavy metal . Pop music, on

7808-563: The back cover of the first issue of Galaxy Science Fiction . During the late 1920s and early 1930s, when the stories were printed in science-fiction magazines, they were often referred to as "super-science epics". Beginning in the 1960s, and widely accepted by the 1970s, the space opera was redefined, following Brian Aldiss ' definition in Space Opera (1974) as – paraphrased by Hartwell and Cramer – "the good old stuff". Yet soon after his redefinition, it began to be challenged, for example, by

7930-434: The branches she created to extend her fan base such as Ellen clothing, socks, pet beds, and more. Social media is interactive computer -mediated technologies that facilitate the creation or sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks. Social media platforms such as Instagram , Facebook , Twitter , YouTube , Pinterest , TikTok and Snapchat are

8052-487: The classical baggy and oversized pieces to trendy and slim-fit clothes for both males and females. Fashion trends and what has been considered popular have been directly influenced and affected by the environment and the state of the world. Dating back to the First and Second World Wars, clothing was designed for functionality as well as to be made in the cheapest way possible. This was due to collective preparation efforts through

8174-484: The closely related concept of "genre ecologies". Reiff and Bawarshi define genre analysis as a critical reading of people's patterns of communication in different situations. This tradition has had implications for the teaching of writing in American colleges and universities. Combining rhetorical genre theory with activity theory , David Russell has proposed that standard English composition courses are ill-suited to teach

8296-511: The conservation of materials. This trend can also be seen throughout the 1930s, or the Great Depression era of history. Due to the state of the economy, clothing yet again faced fundamental changes in shape and function. The term utility clothing was coined, meaning that fashion had taken a turn to more reserved silhouettes. For efficiency, handmade clothing became encouraged through government-backed campaigns. Post-war and continuing throughout

8418-453: The consumption may arise from an active choice, the choice is still the consequence of a social conditioning that the individual is unconscious of. Baudrillard says, "One is permanently governed by a code whose rules and meaning—constraints—like those of language—are, for the most part, beyond the grasp of individuals". Jean Baudrillard argued that the vague conception "Public Opinion" is a subjective and inaccurate illusion, for it attributes

8540-418: The creator of three imitational, mimetic genres distinguished by mode of imitation rather than content. These three imitational genres include dramatic dialogue, the drama ; pure narrative, the dithyramb ; and a mixture of the two, the epic . Plato excluded lyric poetry as a non-mimetic, imitational mode. Genette further discussed how Aristotle revised Plato's system by first eliminating the pure narrative as

8662-667: The depiction of trends, and facilitating the rise of niche influencers. The influencer-driven fashion industry, nevertheless, has also come under fire for encouraging excessive consumerism, inflated beauty ideals, and labour exploitation. The fashion industry has witnessed tremendous, rapid, and applaudable changes over the years, culminating in the production of masterpieces unimaginable in the past decades. This dynamic trend has compelled renowned clothing lines such as Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, and Balenciaga to intensify research and creative imagination to develop appealing designs that are outstanding and fascinating. Fashion has changed from

8784-610: The distinction between high and popular culture". Storey claims that popular culture emerged from the urbanization of the Industrial Revolution . Studies of Shakespeare (by Weimann, Barber, or Bristol, for example) locate much of the characteristic vitality of his drama in its participation in Renaissance popular culture, while contemporary practitioners like Dario Fo and John McGrath use popular culture in its Gramscian sense that includes ancient folk traditions (the commedia dell'arte for example). Popular culture

8906-621: The early 1990s did the term space opera begin to be recognized as a legitimate genre of science fiction. Hartwell and Cramer define space opera as: ... colorful, dramatic, large-scale science fiction adventure, competently and sometimes beautifully written, usually focused on a sympathetic, heroic central character and plot action, and usually set in the relatively distant future, and in space or on other worlds, characteristically optimistic in tone. It often deals with war, piracy, military virtues, and very large-scale action, large stakes. Author A.K. DuBoff defines space opera as: True space opera

9028-431: The editorial practice and marketing of Judy-Lynn del Rey and in the reviews of her husband and colleague Lester del Rey . In particular, they disputed the claims that space operas were obsolete, and Del Rey Books labeled reissues of earlier work of Leigh Brackett as space opera. By the early 1980s, space operas were again redefined, and the label was attached to major popular culture works such as Star Wars . Only in

9150-446: The effects and influences of pop culture in society and history. Ray B. Browne is one of the first academicians to conduct courses on the studies about pop culture. Pop Culture–although big, mercurial, and slippery to define—is really an umbrella term that covers anything currently in fashion, all or most of whose ingredients are familiar to the public-at-large. The new dances are a perfect example... Pop Art itself may mean little to

9272-520: The emphasis is on the effects of technological progress and inventions, and where the settings are carefully worked out to obey the laws of physics, cosmology, mathematics, and biology. Examples are seen in the works of Alastair Reynolds or the movie The Last Starfighter . At other times, space opera can concur with hard science fiction and differ from soft science fiction by instead focusing on scientific accuracy such as The Risen Empire by Scott Westerfeld . Other space opera works may be defined as

9394-545: The eyes of society, and impacting human culture as they get more invested in the game, and perhaps even play the sports themselves in their neighborhoods. Museums also show sports as popular culture, such as Stuart Clarke’s “The Homes of Football” photographic collection in the National Football Museum. Corporate branding refers to the practice of promoting the brand name of a corporate entity, as opposed to specific products or services. Personal branding includes

9516-418: The fashion industry is moving towards a goal of sustainability. This is due to past actions of intense consumerism and fast fashion usage, as well as increasing environmental threats. The state of the economy continues to have a great effect on fashion, as consumers will be looking to make more of an investment in the items that they purchase, rather than participating in a constant cycle of buying. Sustainability

9638-948: The field of rhetoric , genre theorists usually understand genres as types of actions rather than types or forms of texts. On this perspective, texts are channels through which genres are enacted. Carolyn Miller's work has been especially important for this perspective. Drawing on Lloyd Bitzer 's concept of rhetorical situation, Miller reasons that recurring rhetorical problems tend to elicit recurring responses; drawing on Alfred Schütz , she reasons that these recurring responses become "typified" – that is, socially constructed as recognizable types. Miller argues that these "typified rhetorical actions" (p. 151) are properly understood as genres. Building off of Miller, Charles Bazerman and Clay Spinuzzi have argued that genres understood as actions derive their meaning from other genres – that is, other actions. Bazerman therefore proposes that we analyze genres in terms of "genre systems", while Spinuzzi prefers

9760-433: The forefront of setting fashion trends through various platforms. Clothing will continue to act as an area for personal expression no matter the trends, constantly shaped by the world around us. Pop culture has had a lasting influence to the products being released in their time. Many examples of art, books, films and others, have been inspired by pop culture. These include: Pop art is an art movement that first emerged in

9882-593: The fourth and final type of Greek literature , was excluded by Plato as a non-mimetic mode. Aristotle later revised Plato's system by eliminating the pure narrative as a viable mode and distinguishing by two additional criteria: the object to be imitated, as objects could be either superior or inferior, and the medium of presentation such as words, gestures or verse. Essentially, the three categories of mode, object, and medium dialogue, epic (superior-mixed narrative), comedy (inferior-dramatic dialogue), and parody (inferior-mixed narrative). Genette continues by explaining

10004-540: The genre is used to speculate about future wars involving space travel, or the effects of such a war on humans; at the other, it consists of the use of military fiction plots with some superficial science-fiction trappings in fictional planets with fictional civilizations and fictional extraterrestrials . The term "military space opera" is occasionally used to denote this subgenre, as used for example by critic Sylvia Kelso when describing Lois McMaster Bujold 's Vorkosigan Saga . Other examples of military space opera include

10126-401: The genres prose or poetry , which shows best how loosely genres are defined. Additionally, a genre such as satire might appear in any of the above, not only as a subgenre but as a mixture of genres. Finally, they are defined by the general cultural movement of the historical period in which they were composed. In popular fiction , which is especially divided by genres, genre fiction is

10248-492: The genres that students will write in other contexts across the university and beyond. Elizabeth Wardle contends that standard composition courses do teach genres, but that these are inauthentic "mutt genres" that are often of little use outside composition courses. Genre is effective as a tool in rhetoric because it allows a speaker to set the context for a rhetorical discussion. Devitt, Reiff, and Bawarshi suggest that rhetorical genres may be assigned based on careful analysis of

10370-573: The integration of lyric poetry into the classical system by replacing the removed pure narrative mode. Lyric poetry , once considered non-mimetic, was deemed to imitate feelings, becoming the third "Architext", a term coined by Gennette, of a new long-enduring tripartite system: lyrical; epical, the mixed narrative; and dramatic, the dialogue. This new system that came to "dominate all the literary theory of German romanticism " (Genette 38) has seen numerous attempts at expansion and revision. Such attempts include Friedrich Schlegel 's triad of subjective form,

10492-562: The invasion of Earth by extraterrestrials, or concentrated on the invention of a space vehicle by a genius inventor, pure space opera simply took space travel for granted (usually by setting the story in the far future), skipped the preliminaries, and launched straight into tales of derring-do among the stars. Early stories of this type include J. Schlossel 's "Invaders from Outside" ( Weird Tales , January 1925), The Second Swarm ( Amazing Stories Quarterly , spring 1928) and The Star Stealers ( Weird Tales , February 1929), Ray Cummings ' Tarrano

10614-510: The late Victorian and Edwardian science-fiction era. Examples may be found in the works of Percy Greg , Garrett P. Serviss , George Griffith , and Robert Cromie . Science fiction scholar E. F. Bleiler cites Robert William Cole 's The Struggle for Empire: A Story of the Year 2236 as the first space opera in his 1990 reference work Science-Fiction: The Early Years . The novel depicts an interstellar conflict between solar men of Earth and

10736-513: The late 1800s with the inventions of Edison’s phonograph and Berliner’s gramophone, both of which allowed for music to be available for purchase to the public rather than access to just the elites. Due to the almost nonexistent copyright laws, the early 1900s flourished with composers and publishers aiming to make and sell as much music as they could. The hub for this activity was a small area of New York known as Tin Pan Alley, which quickly became one of

10858-520: The later integration of lyric poetry into the classical system during the romantic period , replacing the now removed pure narrative mode. Lyric poetry, once considered non-mimetic, was deemed to imitate feelings, becoming the third leg of a new tripartite system: lyrical, epical, and dramatic dialogue. This system, which came to "dominate all the literary theory of German romanticism (and therefore well beyond)…" (38), has seen numerous attempts at expansion or revision. However, more ambitious efforts to expand

10980-496: The lyric; objective form, the dramatic; and subjective-objective form, the epic. However, more ambitious efforts to expand the tripartite system resulted in new taxonomic systems of increasing complexity. Gennette reflected upon these various systems, comparing them to the original tripartite arrangement: "its structure is somewhat superior to most of those that have come after, fundamentally flawed as they are by their inclusive and hierarchical taxonomy, which each time immediately brings

11102-427: The major spots for popular music as the demand grew intensely. Technological advances in the 1940s only furthered the success and popularity of the genre. The reel-to-tape recorder was groundbreaking in terms of innovation and served as the baseline for many more transformations this genre and the music industry as a whole will endure. Along with the continued innovation of popular music, multiple subset genres emerged as

11224-413: The meaning of "popular culture" began to overlap with the connotations of "mass culture", " media culture ", " image culture ", " consumer culture ", and "culture for mass consumption ". The abbreviated form "pop" for "popular", as in " pop music ", dates from the late 1950s. Although the terms "pop" and "popular" are in some cases used interchangeably, and their meaning partially overlap, the term "pop"

11346-417: The media and wielding the economic might of tycoons...Culture appears more monolithic than ever, with a few gigantic corporations—Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon—presiding over unprecedented monopolies". There is much scholarship on how Western entertainment industries strengthen transnational capitalism and reinforce Western cultural dominance. Hence, rather than being a local culture, commercial entertainment

11468-470: The melodrama, scope, and formulaic stories of operas, much as used in " horse opera ", a 1930s phrase for a clichéd and formulaic Western film , and " soap opera ", a melodramatic domestic drama. Space operas emerged in the 1930s and continue to be produced in literature, film, comics, television, video games and board games. An early film which was based on space-opera comic strips was Flash Gordon (1936) , created by Alex Raymond . Perry Rhodan (1961–)

11590-510: The more usual term. In literature , genre has been known as an intangible taxonomy . This taxonomy implies a concept of containment or that an idea will be stable forever. The earliest recorded systems of genre in Western history can be traced back to Plato and Aristotle. Gérard Genette , a French literary theorist and author of The Architext , describes Plato as creating three Imitational genres: dramatic dialogue, pure narrative, and epic (a mixture of dialogue and narrative). Lyric poetry ,

11712-401: The most popular applications used on a daily basis by younger generations. Social media tends to be implemented into the daily routine of individuals in our current society. Social media is a vital part of our culture as it continues to impact the forms of communication used to connect with those in our communities, families, or friend groups. We often see that terms or slang are used online that

11834-841: The music of non-Western cultures. The term is now perhaps over-used to describe relatively small differences in musical style in modern rock music , that also may reflect sociological differences in their audiences. Timothy Laurie suggests that in the context of rock and pop music studies, the "appeal of genre criticism is that it makes narratives out of musical worlds that often seem to lack them". Music can be divided into different genres in several ways. The artistic nature of music means that these classifications are often arbitrary and controversial, and some genres may overlap. There are several academic approaches to genres. In his book Form in Tonal Music , Douglass M. Green lists madrigal , motet , canzona , ricercar , and dance as examples of genres from

11956-477: The need to consume. Whereas the Frankfurt School believed consumers were passive, Baudrillard argued that consumers were trained to consume products in the form of active labor in order to achieve upward social mobility. Thus, consumers under capitalism are trained to purchase products such as pop albums and consumable fiction in order to signal their devotion to social trends, fashions, and subcultures. Although

12078-545: The new faces of popular music, all with the foundation of jazz and blues. Some of those genres include Rock and Roll, Punk, and Hip Hop. Due to the increasing mainstream success of popular music, artists of the genre grew in fame and popularity. A few of the major singers and musicians of this genre include Michael Jackson , Madonna , Britney Spears , Justin Bieber , Elvis Presley , Beatles , Beyonce and Taylor Swift . Popular music will continue to be shaped by, and evolve to fit

12200-409: The news), politics , fashion , technology , and slang . In the past, folk culture functioned analogously to the popular culture of the masses and of the nations. The phrase "popular culture" was coined in the 19th century or earlier. Traditionally, popular culture was associated with poor education and with the lower classes , as opposed to the "official culture" and higher education of

12322-459: The people, but this can be problematic as there are many ways of defining the "people". Storey argued that there is a political dimension to popular culture; neo-Gramscian hegemony theory "sees popular culture as a site of struggle between the 'resistance' of subordinate groups in society and the forces of 'incorporation' operating in the interests of dominant groups in society". A postmodernist approach to popular culture would "no longer recognize

12444-593: The performances of written music , although since the beginning of the recording industry , it is also disseminated through recordings . Traditional music forms such as early blues songs or hymns were passed along orally, or to smaller, local audiences. Sports include all forms of competitive physical activity or games which, through casual or organized participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants, and in some cases, entertainment for spectators. The connection between sports and popular culture

12566-483: The public have their own tastes and they may not always embrace every cultural or subcultural item sold. Moreover, certain beliefs and opinions about the products of commercial culture may spread by word-of-mouth, and become modified in the process and in the same manner that folklore evolves. Popular culture in the West has been critiqued for being a system of commercialism that privileges products selected and mass-marketed by

12688-517: The publication of M. John Harrison 's The Centauri Device in 1975 and a "call to arms" editorial by David Pringle and Colin Greenland in the Summer 1984 issue of Interzone ; and the financial success of Star Wars , which follows some traditional space opera conventions. This "new space opera", which evolved around the same time cyberpunk emerged and was influenced by it, is darker, moves away from

12810-454: The push-back between them. Within popular culture, there are two levels that have emerged, high and low. High culture can be described as art and works considered of superior value, historically, aesthetically and socially. Low culture is regarded by some as that of the lower classes, historically. Adaptations based on traditional folklore provide a source of popular culture. This early layer of cultural mainstream still persists today, in

12932-406: The return of the term in its original and pejorative sense. Eventually, though, a fondness for the best examples of the genre led to a re-evaluation of the term and a resurrection of the subgenre's traditions. Writers such as Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson had kept the large-scale space adventure form alive through the 1950s, followed by writers like M. John Harrison and C. J. Cherryh in

13054-431: The same, saying that genre should be defined as pieces of music that share a certain style or "basic musical language". Others, such as Allan F. Moore, state that genre and style are two separate terms, and that secondary characteristics such as subject matter can also differentiate between genres. A music genre or subgenre may be defined by the musical techniques , the styles, the context, and content and spirit of

13176-614: The search for products by consumers, a trend the Internet has only intensified. In philosophy of language , genre figures prominently in the works of philosopher and literary scholar Mikhail Bakhtin . Bakhtin's basic observations were of "speech genres" (the idea of heteroglossia ), modes of speaking or writing that people learn to mimic, weave together, and manipulate (such as "formal letter" and "grocery list", or "university lecture" and "personal anecdote"). In this sense, genres are socially specified: recognized and defined (often informally) by

13298-429: The search hits might fit. A subgenre is a subordinate within a genre, Two stories being the same genre can still sometimes differ in subgenre. For example, if a fantasy story has darker and more frightening elements of fantasy, it would belong in the subgenre of dark fantasy ; whereas another fantasy story that features magic swords and wizards would belong to the subgenre of sword and sorcery . A microgenre

13420-453: The search of what the films aim to portray. Films are used to seek acceptance and understanding of many subjects because of the influence the films carry—an example of an early representation of this can be seen in Casablanca (1942): the film introduced war subjects to the public after the United States entered World War II, and it meant to increase pro-war sentiment for the allies. Films are

13542-494: The service of capitalist domination by the elite. The consumer demand for Hollywood films , pop tunes, and consumable books is influenced by capitalist industries like Hollywood and the elite who decide which commodities are to be promoted in the media, including television and print journalism. Adorno wrote, "The industry bows to the vote it has itself rigged". It is the elite who commodify products in accordance with their narrow ideological values and criteria, and Adorno argues that

13664-534: The subject matter and consideration of the audience. Genre is related to Ludwig Wittgenstein's theory of Family resemblance in which he describes how genres act like a family tree, where members of a family are related, but not exact copies of one another. This concept of genre originated from the classification systems created by Plato . Plato divided literature into the three classic genres accepted in Ancient Greece : poetry , drama , and prose . Poetry

13786-641: The tastes and preferences of the public. Pop culture fiction is a genre in books , comics , films , shows , and many other story-telling media that depicts stories that are purposely filled with easter eggs and references to pop culture. The genre often overlaps with satire and parody , but the most-well known are considered to be more serious works of literature . Writers of this genre include Ernest Cline , Bret Easton Ellis , Bryan Lee O'Malley , and Louis Bulaong . Pop culture studies are researches thesis , and other academic works that analyzes various trends of pop and mass culture, pop icons , or

13908-623: The themes. Geographical origin is sometimes used to identify a music genre, though a single geographical category will often include a wide variety of subgenres. Several music scholars have criticized the priority accorded to genre-based communities and listening practices. For example, Laurie argues that "music genres do not belong to isolated, self-sufficient communities. People constantly move between environments where diverse forms of music are heard, advertised and accessorised with distinctive iconographies, narratives and celebrity identities that also touch on non-musical worlds." The concept of genre

14030-427: The transmission of common knowledge and ideas was possible. In the 1890s, Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi created the radiotelegraph , allowing for the modern radio to be born. This led to the radio being able to influence a more "listened-to" culture, with individuals being able to feel like they have a more direct impact. This radio culture is vital, because it was imperative to advertising, and it introduced

14152-456: The tripartite system resulted in new taxonomic systems of increasing scope and complexity. Genette reflects upon these various systems, comparing them to the original tripartite arrangement: "its structure is somewhat superior to…those that have come after, fundamentally flawed as they are by their inclusive and hierarchical taxonomy, which each time immediately brings the whole game to a standstill and produces an impasse" (74). Taxonomy allows for

14274-947: The universal essence of things" ( imitare in Italian) and that which merely consisted of "mechanical copying of particular appearances" ( ritrarre ). Idealism was privileged over realism in line with Renaissance Neo-Platonist philosophy. A literary genre is a category of literary composition. Genres may be determined by literary technique , tone , content , or even (as in the case of fiction) length. Genre should not be confused with age category, by which literature may be classified as either adult, young adult , or children's . They also must not be confused with format, such as graphic novel or picture book. The distinctions between genres and categories are flexible and loosely defined, often with subgroups. The most general genres in literature are (in loose chronological order) epic , tragedy , comedy , novel , and short story . They can all be in

14396-404: The upper classes. With the rise of the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Britain experienced social changes that resulted in increased literacy rates, and with the rise of capitalism and industrialization , people began to spend more money on entertainment, such as (commercialised) public houses and sports. Reading also gained traction. Labeling penny dreadfuls

14518-520: The upper-class capitalist elite; such criticisms are most notable in many Marxist theorists such as Herbert Marcuse , Theodor Adorno , Max Horkheimer , bell hooks , Antonio Gramsci , Guy Debord , Fredric Jameson , Terry Eagleton , as well as certain postmodern philosophers such as Jean-François Lyotard , who has written about the commercialisation of information under capitalism, and Jean Baudrillard , as well as others. The most influential critiques of popular culture came from Marxist theorists of

14640-414: The use of genre as a tool must be able to adapt to changing meanings. The term genre is much used in the history and criticism of visual art, but in art history has meanings that overlap rather confusingly. Genre painting is a term for paintings where the main subject features human figures to whom no specific identity attaches – in other words, figures are not portraits, characters from

14762-467: The use of social media to promotion to brands and topics to further good repute among professionals in a given field, produce an iconic relationship between a professional, a brand and its audience that extends networks past the conventional lines established by the mainstream and to enhance personal visibility. Popular culture: is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of the practices , beliefs , and objects that are dominant or prevalent in

14884-399: The whole game to a standstill and produces an impasse". Although genres are not always precisely definable, genre considerations are one of the most important factors in determining what a person will see or read. The classification properties of genre can attract or repel potential users depending on the individual's understanding of a genre. Genre creates an expectation in that expectation

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