Is Pop Culture simply a shorthand way of saying popular culture or does it mean more? I have always felt that pop culture was unique to itself and lived outside the modern understanding of popular culture. I asked “Alexa” to define pop culture for me and all she said was that it is generally defined as “Popular Culture”, but what the heck does she know anyway.

I like to think that it is a way of amassing all the various sub-cultures into one arena. Take for example, video games, anime, or music. These genres or artistic expressions each live in their own space with their own ardent followers, but when the genres start to blend and cross over into one another’s realm, that to me is pop culture. If you were to create a mashup video of your favorite anime character training to your favorite music, bam, pop culture. Or if your favorite video game starts to bring in characters from your favorite movie, wham, pop culture.

Does that mean that all pop culture is a mish-mash of more than one genre?

Not really. But, these days, isn’t that what we are used to? Tik-Tok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and all the various social media have become the go-to way to measure trends and to keep a pulse on pop culture. Haven’t these sites steered us towards mixing and matching our favorite interests to share with the world, or least our friends and family. And by sharing our own thoughts and creations, we also contribute to the zeitgiest.

From its inception pop culture has all been for and about the masses. It is a way to unite us, a way to tie us together to root for a common hope or thread. I for one am certainly glad that it exists, in all of its various renditions, and that the internet has become a one stop shop for me to indulge in all of it.

I will see you next time, just gonna sit back here and blast some Lady Gaga while sharing cat videos with strangers and reading the latest tweets on the happenings in the Star Wars universe. Cheers!