Pop Culture across Generations

These interviews found to be a lot more challenging than imagined. Both my father and my grandmother had a hard time remembering things that they would consider popular. They said that the times have changed so much its hard to place different cultures with different time periods.

For the first generation (35-60) I chose to interview my dad. If he were 22 the year would be 1976 and according to him “I wasn’t really into that whole pop culture stuff”. I think this was just an excuse for his bad memory. But things he mentioned remembering from the 1970’s that he would consider popular included the punk fashion style. He said he never understood what those kids were thinking dressing like that, but he remembers how big of a deal it was. A movie that stood out to him was the movie Rocky. Music he can think back to included Queen and Paul McCartney.

The second generation (61+) I interviewed my grandma. If she were my age she would have been in the 1940s. The first thing that stood out to her was WWII. She said in this time young adults were dealing with the depression and the wake of the war. She stated that a lot of people her age were seeking for an outlet to escape reality. Things that they turned to were music and television. Music included Big Bands and jazz, including swing dancing and night clubs. Its too strange for me to imagine my little old grandma at a night club swing dancing. She also said that this was when radio was really big and that’s how people found out about the war if they couldn’t go to the movies. A person she said stands out in her mind as a 1940s pop culture symbol would be Bob Hope.

My dad was really not a lot of help as to teaching me about the pop culture of the 70s. My grandma on the other hand taught me a lot. I think that music and dancing and movies were a big part of the 40s because of what she said, young adults looking to escape the reality of the depression. Swing dancing can definitely take your mind off of what is really going on. I think that radio was really popular as well because of the war. Political leaders started using propaganda through the radio to get people to side with them on views of the war.

After conducting these interviews I began to think about what happens when I am 50. What will I remember from my 20s? I think that the pop culture of our generations are so much different but still have some of the same ideas throughout. There are young adults now trying to escape reality but they do it in different ways. Am I going to remember the rise and fall of Brittney Spears or will I remember the ipod? From this assignment I learned that pop culture can change very quickly and it is all relative to who is experiencing it. Different people can view different things as pop culture and those definitions of pop culture can be true to them.