High School Confidential Analysis

What defines a work as “pop culture?” And conversely, what defines a work as “art?” What magical quality distinguishes the seemingly unremarkable projects of Bay, Warhol, and Collins from the prestigious masterpieces of Welles, Rembrandt, and Tolstoy? Popular culture is the ocean in which the arts swim, and when one contemplates and examines “the arts” it is done in a world defined by popular culture. (Or, in cultural theory terms, popular culture is the Other, for the arts — the thing the arts supposedly are not.) In this definition, it is stated, implicitly or explicitly, that the arts are something different. This difference between art and pop culture is its ability to overcome social divisions and inspire true emotion and change in the …show more content…
stems from its ability to branch across social constraints, national borders, language barriers, and general ethnic/cultural difference. As MacDonald states, “Art transcends all human boundaries.” Unlike “pop culture”, “art” is recognized and understood around the world. For example, the English pop culture with its X-Factor and Wimbledon tennis, for the most part, does not surpass the national or cultural barriers of the British Isles, and therefore is not art. However, the writings of Shakespeare and Wordsworth are prime examples of art, their messages and themes have not only overcome social, national, and ethnic barriers, they have influenced and promoted art as well. In the case of our Williams’, their words have reached not just the people of England but the people of the …show more content…
When a work transcends into art, it surpasses its cultural restraints and touches us. We are moved; we are transported to a new place that is, nevertheless, strongly rooted in a physical experience, in our bodies. When we focus on works such as Van Gogh’s “Old Man in Sorrow” or Velazquez’s “Christ Crucified” rather than “The Scream” or “Campbell’s Soup Cans”, we become aware of a feeling that may not be unfamiliar to us but which we did not actively focus on before. Unlike popular culture, this transformative experience is what art is constantly seeking. The emotions invoked from a reading of Yeats or Frost pulls the strings of our conscience and heart and most importantly, they inspire and motivate us to change ourselves and/or the world around us. No amount of Meyer or Collins can bring forth the willingness to examine and investigate our lives or the lives of others. The felt feeling of art spurs thinking, engagement, and even action. Only art alone helps people get to know and understand something with their minds and feel it emotionally and physically. By doing this, art can mitigate the almost numbing effect created by modern pop culture and society and motivate people to start thinking and doing. Some contemporary critics, however, propose that popular culture cannot defined as something commercial or even “popular”, and claim that in its subjective nature, it has evolved