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popular culture

activities, experiences, or artistic products that pervade society in a particular time

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A bedroom decorated with Bob Marley merchandise and the Jamaican flag.

Bob Marley’s ‘Legend’ Is One of the Bestselling Albums Ever. But Does It Tell His Full Story?

After 40 years and more than 25 million copies sold, what story does ‘Legend’ tell us about Bob Marley and the people listening to it?
by Eric Ducker via The Ringer on February 14, 2024
Jewish moneylender choking debtor

"A Fiendish Fascination"

The representation of Jews in antebellum popular culture reveals that many Americans found them both cartoonishly villainous and enticingly exotic.
by David S. Reynolds via New York Review of Books on February 1, 2024
Bottom half of a red sheet music cover with the words "Sung by Aida Overton Walker with the Smart Set Co" written on it with a portrait of Aida to the right

Sheet Music Covers for the Gotham-Attucks Company, ca. 1905–1911

Beginning in 1905, one star-studded song-publishing company would push the aesthetic limits of how Black popular music was shown to the public.
by Dorothy Berry via The Public Domain Review on February 1, 2024
Green frog with white circles and squiggly lines surrounding it denoting sound

The Many Lives of ‘Sounds of North American Frogs’

This metamorphic record is a teaching tool, a flirtation device, a college radio favorite, a nostalgic object, and more. BOOP!
by Cara Giaimo via Atlas Obscura on January 23, 2024
Parental advisory sticker warning of explicit content.
partner

Who Gets to Regulate #*%&? Free Speech in Popular Culture

When speech offends, who decides where boundaries should be drawn?
via Retro Report on January 18, 2024
John Montgomery Ward and Helen Dauvray.

Before Taylor and Travis, There Was Helen and John

She was an actress. He was a shortstop. What we can learn from the press parade around this 19th-century power couple.
by Scott D. Peterson via Zócalo Public Square on January 11, 2024
Two American soldiers in UCP uniforms with an Iraqi man in the background.

Universal Failure

Universal Camouflage Pattern became a symbol of an unpopular war. Today, it’s being reappraised by those too young to remember the invasion of Iraq.
by Charles McFarlane via The Baffler on January 4, 2024
A turntable and records.

What’s Old is New Again (and Again): On the Cyclical Nature of Nostalgia

Retro was not the antithesis to the sub- and countercultural experiments of the 1960s, it grew directly out of them.
by Tobias Becker via Literary Hub on December 13, 2023
Sly Stone with daughter Nove, ca. 1980.

On the Sly

A memoir of the Family Stone.
by Carl Wilson via Bookforum on December 4, 2023
Cover of "Outrageous," with tomato on face of man holding microphone

Endless Culture Wars

On Kliph Nesteroff’s book, “Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars.”
by Chris Yogerst via Los Angeles Review of Books on December 1, 2023
Person holding a blonde American Girl doll and American Girl bag

All Dolled Up

How American Girl transformed the doll world—and why millennials love it so.
by Jayne Ross via The American Scholar on November 30, 2023
Girl holding a pile of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls

The Droll Capitalist Parable of Cabbage Patch Kids

A new documentary, “Billion Dollar Babies,” shows how a product of Appalachian folk art drew the blueprint for all holiday toy crazes to come.
by Jessica Winter via The New Yorker on November 20, 2023
A photograph of the back of a woman's head, superimposed over a photograph of a body of water as if looking out over it.

What if Nostalgia Isn’t What It Used to Be?

As our faith in the future plummets and the present blends with the past, we feel certain that we’ve reached the point where history has fallen apart.
by Thomas Mallon via The New Yorker on November 20, 2023
Snoop Dogg.

The Snoop Dogg Manifesto

A pop star’s road map to decadence.
by Armond White via National Review on November 15, 2023
Members of the Wu-Tang Clan.

'Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)' Turns 30

How the album pays homage to hip-hop's mythical and martial arts origins.
by Marcus Evans via The Conversation on October 31, 2023
Collage of Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet, waving, and smoking, and a picture of his home in Queens.

Louis Armstrong Gets the Last Word on Louis Armstrong

For decades, Americans have argued over the icon’s legacy. But his archives show that he had his own plans.
by Ethan Iverson via The Nation on October 30, 2023
Charlie Chaplin.

A Man Without a Country: On Scott Eyman’s “Charlie Chaplin vs. America”

Our favorite artists may not be our favorite people.
by Chris Yogerst via Los Angeles Review of Books on October 26, 2023
A woman volunteering with the Salvation Army serving doughnuts to American servicemen.

We Have the Salvation Army to Thank for the Hipster Doughnut

Even during the worst of war, the ring-shaped confections offered a bite of joy and a much-needed morale boost to weary soldiers during World War I.
by Claudia Geib via Eater on October 24, 2023

Why Generational Thinking Isn't Bull

Reflections on Pavement, Nirvana, the very meaning of history, and the end of neoliberalism.
by Charles Petersen via Making History on October 8, 2023
Jewish characters in television and film

The Long History of Jewface

Bradley Cooper’s prosthetic nose is the latest example of the struggles around Jewish representation on the stage and screen.
by Jody Rosen via The New Yorker on October 7, 2023
Sly Stone performing at a concert.

The Undoing of a Great American Band

Sly and the Family Stone suggested new possibilities in music and life—until it all fell apart.
by James Parker via The Atlantic on September 16, 2023
A man sits at a bar countertop. His face is turned away from the camera.

1973: A Golden Year for Film That Rewrote the Rules of Cinema

It was a year that showcased the audacious talent in Hollywood experimenting with darker themes and new film techniques.
by Lesley Harbidge via The Conversation on September 12, 2023
NY skyline including 33 Thomas Street, a skyscraper in the Tribeca neighborhood of Southern Manhattan, New York City.

Apocalypse-Proof

A windowless telecommunications hub, 33 Thomas Street in New York City embodies an architecture of surveillance and paranoia, an ideal set for conspiracy thrillers.
by Zach Mortice via Places Journal on September 12, 2023
Captain Lightfood on horseback firing a pistol.

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot: The American Creation of Irish Outlaw Folk Heroes

Martin’s confession relates outlaw adventures that appear to be original. But were they real? 
by Jerry Kuntz via Commonplace on August 8, 2023
The Sugarhill Gang's Wonder Mike, Master Gee and Hen Dogg in November 2019.

The Unlikely Origins of ‘Rapper’s Delight,’ Hip-Hop’s First Mainstream Hit

The Sugarhill Gang song remains one of rap's most beloved. But it took serendipity, a book of rhymes, and an agreement to settle a lawsuit for it to survive.
by Kim Bellware via Retropolis on August 8, 2023
Charles Dickens as he appears when reading, Harper’s Weekly (December 7th, 1867).

A Christmas Carol In Nineteenth-Century America, 1844-1870

What were Americans' immediate responses to "A Christmas Carol," and how did Dickens' reading tours and eventual death reshape its meaning?
by Thomas Ruys Smith via Comparative American Studies on July 27, 2023
Actor portraying Oppenheimer.

The Real History Behind Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer'

The "father of the atomic bomb" has long been misunderstood. Will the new film finally get J. Robert Oppenheimer right?
by Andy Kifer via Smithsonian on July 18, 2023
The iconic white lettered Hollywood sign

The Hidden History of the Hollywood Sign

“The sign has become a worldwide symbol of the Hollywood of the imagination, and it allows anyone who sees it to fill it with whatever meaning they want.”
by Nathan Smith via Smithsonian on July 13, 2023
Margot Robbie in "Barbie" film.

This is the Real History of Barbie

Before the eagerly-anticipated film hits our screens, we take a look back at the story of the world's most famous doll.
by Marie-Claire Chappet via Harper's Bazaar on July 13, 2023
Scene from "The Sugarland Express." A woman is leaning out the window of police car.

Hot Pursuit: The Brief Rise of 1970s Hixploitation Cinema

On the drive-in movie culture that captured a yearning for fast cars on dusty roads.
by Scott Von Doviak via CrimeReads on July 11, 2023
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