Higher/popular culture task

Luciano Pavarotti Opera Vs. Cinderella Pantomime

Cinderella- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BRMwSIHk6s

Luciano Pavarotti- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRI5F54kc_g

Luciano Pavarotti is a famous Italian opera singer, he eventually became very known for his televised concerts and media appearances for his amazing tone. His career highlights included opera house performances, and celebrity duets.

A pantomime is a type of musical comedy stage production which is designed for entertainment. It is usually performed during the Christmas and new years period, it includes dancing, singing and comedy. It is particularly a form of theatre, in which audience usually sing along to certain parts of the music and shout out phrases to the performers.

The famous opera singer Luciano Pavarotti is entertainment for a lot of people. Whereas other people relax while listening to him which shows his functionalist approach of being useful because he serves the function to relax or entertain people. I think Luciano Pavarotti is valued because he is a inspiration for a lot of people especially for the higher culture as opera is very significant for them. Pavarotti is still very popular, this is because he served as the musical guest on the popular late night NBC series, Saturday Night Live, in 1998. He also won the prestigious Concorso Internazionale.During his career, Luciano performed a total of 379 times at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. He fulfils a lot of needs for society and different individuals because he wants people enjoy themselves and feel like they are begining to live again, like he once said before. He also said "To the man you have to give the spirit, and when you give him the spirit, you have done everything". However pop culture of a pantomime is much more different to the higher culture of opera. A pantomime is more of a comedy which can be seen my middle class and even lower class people, where as most upper class people would watch opera. For this particular example i have picked cinderella because this movie explains the important things in life andshows you the realistic side to the world. Cinderella shows that some people struggle alot to earn money and live a good life, which pop culture understands however it would be difficult to understand for the higher culture as they live a "perfect" life without any distributions. This is why it is so popular and why people value it because it opens your eyes to see the wider, more realistic part of the world.People in our society, understand what it is to work hard and earn the money you need to live a good life but some dont, people from higher culture do not understand this because sometimes they may not even need to work hard to get a lot of money, which is why it is difficult for them to understand the difference between middle class and upper class. The fact that they watch opera makes them apparently more significant but that is wrong, because people of lower class watch opera but they are still classed as 'lower class'. Watching a pantomime doesnt make you less important but it does put you in a different culture type according to society which is why the functionalist approach can appeal to the difference beetween higher culture and pop culture (a opera singer and a pantomime). 

In my personal opinion i think both of these pieces can be descirbed as art. Both the higher culture and popular culture are art to me. This is because they both try to put forward a meaning behind their shows, one is to entertain people and the other is to inspire people. Even tho higher class people may not think panto is a type of art because it is a type of comedy i still think it is because it can share a lot of different meanings. They both need different skills to be a type of art and they both do. The opera singer needs to do many cultural practices to develop his skills to have a beauty of a tone. These cultural practices include things like singing, practicing, doing tone exercies to get the right pitch etc. Where as with the panto the cultural practices they need to do are things like dancing, singing, acting, showing confidence and miming and even more. This shows the values of each of these types of art, they both need skills which go into a cultural practice to actually perform something out of it. 

I think we can clearly see the difference between the cinderella pantomime and the opera, that one is pop culture and the other is higher. The things that make cinderella pop culture is the fact that tickets to see that are probably much cheaper compared to seeing opera, this lets standard middle class people see it. Whereas with opera less people go to watch it because it is far more expensive.  The still-popular story of "Cinderella" continues to influence popular culture internationally, because of the different plot elements, allusions, and because it has became so popular you can see it everyday of the wide variety of media. However, in contrast to this opera is a very formal and peaceful show to mainly relax or entertain people, the difference with this is that it is not usually seen on television. Many people only watch it live. This is because upper class people would see watching it on televsion as being less well-educated.

Personally, in my opinion out of the two i value the cinderella pantomime the most. This is not to do with the fact that i may be classed as 'middle class'. The reason that i value it the most is that i prefer it a lot more compared to opera. Opera to me is very dull and monotonous, in contrast to this i find cinderella very fascinating and lively this is because the characters show emotion and interest in what they are doing but the opera singers seem to carry on repeating what they are doing non stop which is why i have a alck of interest in that type of genre of art. The qualities i love about a pantomime is that the characters exagerrate and make their acting skills bigger than in real life. Also the fact that they make their actions more definite, sharper and and bigger is also a big advantage to a pantomime. I admire these qualities because it shows the different feeling and values of the different characters and lets me understand what they are feeling very clearly. Also as the main purpose of a pantomime is to entertain, the skills they have to act clearly outlines the purpose of the show. However opposite to this I do not enjoy opera as it doesn't show too many skills except for singing and maybe some acting which is not very emotional, so therefore it is very blank. Many people would probably see it as being passionate but in my opinoin i do not enjoy it as it is very emotionless, because throughout the whole of the opera they usually have a straight face which shows no emotion or passion in what they are doing.

Exam style question

"Popular culture is a form of culture pollution, which undermines traditional values and standards" 

I disagree with this statement because pop  culture is definitely needed in today's world. One of the reasons for that is applied through the gratification theory. Escapism is definitely one of the main aspects that challenge that theory. I think this because many people want to express their feelings or thoughts on social medias to relate to others or feel better. This shows that pop culture is necessary because without it many people would build up feelings inside of them witch can be dangerous.

Another reason why i disagree is that compared to higher culture popular culture is used more. This is because popular culture helps to show yourself as our true self where as higher culture is most likely done because people want to present themselves better than they actually are in real life. For example more people would shop in high street stores rather than designed store because they are cheaper and to some people things are worth the same even if they are more expensive.

I think personal identity really supports my response to this quote because many people want aspects of other people to be part of their identity. This can be from things like their outfit to things like their hair. I think this is a good thing because if people like something they can have a similar look, even though it does change their own identity it lets them experience new things which is important. Also because of pop culture many people have role models which they want to be like, so popular culture helps them to express themselves and look up to them to try and be like them. This shows that people can change aspects of their identity if they want to and this means it will benefit many people because they get to experience different aspects of their identity and experiment with many different things. 

Facebook Dislike Button...

So, facebook might have a dislike button coming out? Good idea? I really do not think so. The famous Mark Zuckerburg thinks it will be a great oppurtinity to guive empathy to people if something bad has happened in their life's because not all statuses are always happy. However personally i highly doubt it that people will use it like that.

Most people will use it to express their thoughts on how others look (for example in pictures) and how others sound (in statues), this will mostly be negative thoughts. I think this because people will take advantage of the dislike button and probably want to make people feel uncomfortable and upset. If someone disliked your selfie, you would not be happy, would you? This could lead to people deactivating their facebook account which is not a good thing for Zuckerberg. Unfortunately the dislike button is not a good idea at all, it will cause arguments, sadness and even bullying, the worst part about it is that people might only mean to dislike something for "banter" but most people will not realise that.

On the other hand, it could be useful for some things. These things include people wanting to show others that they are wrong. For example if a argument breaks out on facebook and someone thinks that everything they said was right, others might dislike it to show them that they are wrong, which will make them realise that. Also it gives a chance for people to express their opinons, they might have a strong view point on something which they clearly disagree on, so they would dislike it, but it can lead to a lot of negativity. So overall it probably won't be one of best Mark Zuckerburg's inventions. However some people may use it in the way he wantsto them, but most of them probably won'. We will just have to see...

 

I am who I am because of everyone

I am who I am because of everyone

I am the people who tell me they love me,

I am the haters that hate me but made make stronger,

I am the family who help me succeed, 

I am the people who support me in all my decisions,

I am the people who help me through those decisions,

I am the songs which make me happy,

I am the purse I made for my mum when i was eight,

I am the new girl who met new, welcoming and lovely people,

I am who i am because of everyone.

Identity task on Social Medias

Your task is to try to apply identity theory to your performance online. Choose one particular social media platform (e.g. Twitter / Instagram) – or you can discuss all of them at once - and link it to the theory we have learned. How do you perform your identity online?  What kind of person are you? What do you share with others?

Twitter

Personally I think I perform my identity online as my true self, well it mostly depends on the social media. For example with twitter, I am very close to my true self because I express my thoughts and feelings in 140 characters. This supports Goffman’s theory because my performance is very sincere. Even though I may not be very specific in the posts I put online I still think I clearly let my followers know what I am feeling. So according to Rogers theory I would say that I show my private self quite a lot on twitter. Even though my followers are not my closest friends or some are people who I do not know I still like to reveal my feelings to them, this is because most of the time it kind of makes me feel better by writing something online because I got a feeling that someone is reading it and are interested in what I have to say.

Instagram & Facebook

On Instagram I think I am mostly closest to my ideal self, this is probably the same with Facebook. I think this because I try to make myself look good and I show what other people would like to see. For example on my ‘selfies’ on Instagram I always try to look ‘good’ in them because I don’t want to look bad where the whole world can see it. If that would happen my self-esteem would definitely go down which is why I try to have a good self-image on Instagram and Facebook. Facebook is the app or social media where I hardly ever post anything. I mostly share things, like things and change my profile picture every now and then. This is because that’s what most people want, they don’t want you posting loads of pictures all the time or keep updating your statuses. I am what society wants me to be like.

However even though I am what other people want me to be like on Instagram and Facebook, Johari’s Window theory proves that I can also be my blind self on Instagram, also on Facebook. This is because if I think I look ‘good’ in a selfie others might think that I look horrible but I will not know that. Or if I share something on Facebook because I found it very funny, others might think it’s stupid and not funny at all. This shows that there are many things that other people can notice about you but you don’t realise them.

So overall I think that identity really depends on the context and the situation which explains Goffman’s theory. You act different and show yourself differently on social medias, depending on what one it is. So from Goffman’s theory I can see that we have many different identities dependant on the social role we are doing.

Practice Exam Question

"We develop our identities in response to the ways in which others communicate with us"

Why so you agree with this statement?

I agree with this statement because Joahri's Window theory shows that everyone has a few different selves to themselves which means that you communicate with others in different ways. Also my personal experience from meeting new friends has shows that my identity shifts depending on the different situation.

Also my public self and private self are two different identity types which you show to different people. For example i am emotional but also outgoing as my private self, similarly i am confident as my public self but not emotional. This shows that identities are developed by people around us and in the way we communicate with them. If i knew someone and got really close with them i would reveal my private self to them but if i just met someone i would be my public self, so quite bubbly and very friendly. So my identity slowly shifts depending on my self esteem because off how confident i am around someone and also dependent on the context.