Critical Theories of Popular Culture

David Dobrik is objectively one of the most recognized YouTubers of all time. He is known to dress in his signature monochromatic black outfit – consisting of a simple t-shirt, baseball cap, and pants. His viewers range mostly from teenagers to young adults who enjoy watching fun, energetic, and informal videos. Viewers often identify him with his distinctive segmented vlogging style – which includes pranks, elaborate parties, expensive gifts, celebrity appearances, various types of animals, montages, sponsored messages, and skits – that are always 4 minutes and 20 seconds long (with the exception of his older videos, his break up video, and his 420th video). His vlogs consist of 3 parts – an intro, outro, and the main segment – that revolves around the vibrant lives of him and his friends.           YouTube thrives on popular culture, which can be defined as content that is “widely favoured or well liked by many people” (Storey, 2009, p. 6). Many YouTubers s...

YouTube as a Political Platform Anna T. Do University of Pennsylvania               The American internet personality Mark Fischbach heads a YouTube video game channel called Markiplier, for which he is known for his sensationalized commentary, which involves profanity, and thrilling humor. He created his channel in 2012 and has since accumulated 11 billion video views and 24 million YouTube subscribers. This internet fame grants Fischbach great leverage in pushing his opinions upon his viewership, which comprises primarily of children, teenagers, and young adults. Though most of his videos are gaming videos, which are typically void of his personal political perspectives, he regularly publishes “vlogs”—video blogs—that tend to feature more intimate, less exaggerated speech. These discrete videos, though harboring a separate mood from the rest of his videos, are just as, if not more influential than, the rest of his videos, especially due...

Graffiti Art: Margins to Center From Cornbread to Banksy—A Look at Race, Class, and Commercialization On October 5, 2018, the anonymous graffiti artist Banksy pulled one of his biggest pranks at an art auction: he triggered the  self -destruction of his most famous artwork  Balloon Girl , the second it sold for $1.4 million (Ellsworth-Jones, 2013). Despite the genre’s current popularity, graffiti art started out quite differently. Juxtaposing two key artists temporally, Cornbread and Banksy, the transformation of graffiti art from a countercultural, marginalized subculture to this commercialized mainstream phenomenon is evident. Origins After World War II, deindustrialization transformed the demographics of urban neighborhoods: increasingly concentrated high-poverty areas born out of the racial and class segregation reinforced existing inequalities (McDonald, 2013). It was then that graffiti art began as a niche underground movement in the 1960s. Cornbread, a Wes...

Sia: “Music is for your ears, not your eyes.” but MV is for both By XINYI WU | October 9, 2019 The two music videos I chose are from the Australian singer, Sia. One is Chandelier and the other is the Greatest. The former is an implication of children and domestic violence, while the latter is based on the tragedy “Orlando nightclub shooting”. After spectators finish watching these videos, it can take them a long time to emotionally recover from the sorrow and distress that these videos may cause. The pattern of these two music videos shed light on the function of art - to shock people. There are users who do not watch musical videos and only listen to the song itself. But through the visual elements of music videos, spectators can further grasp the singer’s intent and have a deeper understanding of the message being transmitted.    (https://youtu.be/2vjPBrBU-TM & https://youtu.be/GKSRyLdjsPA ) In Chandelier, the musical video is a combination of ballet and modern da...

How Very: Heathers Over Time If you thought the classic trio was Harry, Ron, and Hermione, think again--it is clearly Heather, Heather, and Heather. In the 1988 teenage cult classic movie Heathers , these three girls dominate Westerberg High School with their shoulder pads, college parties, and unforgiving pranks. But unlike descendants such as Mean Girls, the movie touches on more than just social cliques and image issues. The central plot follows a popular girl, Veronica, who has long been absorbed into the Heather posse and recognizes its toxicity. She sees a way out through the mysterious JD, who becomes her lover and partner in crime as they begin to murder and feign the suicide of many of Westerberg’s populars. However, this sardonic comedy is not just commentary on teenage suicide; it takes on issues of rape, mental health, eating disorders, and descrimination based on sexual orientation (just to name a few). As director Michael Lehmann explains, “‘ It’s a satire ab...

What K-pop says?! [Topic 6] Lu Yin K-pop is super popular in this era. Although I don’t listen to Korean songs that often, group names like BTS, EXO, Bigbang, and Blackpink are never unfamiliar to me, as these names are frequently brought up by my friends in our conversations. Curious about why K-pop is so fascinating to my peers, I started to watch K-pop music videos. BTS’ “Boy with Luv” and Blackpink’s “Kill This Love” soon captured my eyes. While both “Boy With Luv” and “Kill This Love” pursue a colorful, youthful aesthetic pattern and portray the luxuriousness that is associated with the privileged class, they also challenge the gender norm by showing male bodies in non-masculine ways and women to acclaim greater agency in their relationships with men. Colorfulness and youthfulness are the main elements of the aesthetic pattern we see in “Boy with Luv” and “Kill This Love.” In the beginning of “Boy with Luv,” the background is a building of warm orange, b...