What counts as popular culture is defined by power relations, not by content inventory

Evidence

So I settle for a third definition of “popular,” though it is a rather uneasy one. This looks, in any particular period, at those forms and activities which have their roots in the social and material conditions of particular classes; which have been embodied in popular traditions and practices. In this sense, it retains what is valuable in the descriptive definition. But it goes on to insist that what is essential to the definition of popular culture is the relations which define “popular culture” in a continuing tension (relationship, influence, and antagonism) to the dominant culture. It is a conception of culture which is polarized around this cultural dialectic. It treats the domain of cultural forms and activities as a constantly changing field. Then it looks at the relations which constantly structure this field into dominant and subordinate formations. It looks at the process by which these relations of dominance and subordination are articulated. It treats them as a process: the process by means of which some things are actively preferred so that others can be dethroned. It has at its center the changing and uneven relations of force which define the field of culture—that is, the question of cultural struggle and its many forms. Its main focus of attention is the relation between culture and questions of hegemony. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1011 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The popular is defined by relations of power, not by a fixed content; Popular culture is a contested site of consent and resistance, not pure authenticity; Popular culture is defined by its tension with dominant culture — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1011 (+8 more)

Related

• The popular is defined by relations of power, not by a fixed content (similarity 0.95)
• Popular culture is a contested site of consent and resistance, not pure authenticity (similarity 0.92)
• Popular culture is defined by its tension with dominant culture (similarity 0.92)
• Popular culture is a contested site where meanings get struggled over (similarity 0.90)
• The popular is defined relationally by opposition to elite culture, not by its contents (similarity 0.90)
• Popular culture is a site of fantasy and identification, not authentic self-discovery (similarity 0.87)
• Popular-class culture is always shaped by dominant cultural production institutions (similarity 0.85)
• Eighteenth-century popular culture operated outside the law yet inside networks of social force (similarity 0.84)
• The ‘popular’ marks subordinate culture’s resistance to being cast as low (similarity 0.84)
• Popular culture is a site of hegemonic struggle, not mere expression (similarity 0.83)
• Culture names the forms, not the content, of social relationships (similarity 0.82)
• Popular culture cannot be studied apart from dominant cultural production. (similarity 0.80)
• Cultural value is historically mobile as forms move between elite and popular (similarity 0.80)
• Popular culture can be won position by position but never captured outright. (similarity 0.79)
• Popular culture is simultaneously authentic and expropriated by capital, necessarily. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• The popular is defined relationally by opposition to elite culture, not by its contents #corroborates (0.90)
• Popular culture is defined by its tension with dominant culture #expands (0.70) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1011
• Popular-class culture is always shaped by dominant cultural production institutions #qualifies (0.60)
• Media’s ties to economic and political power are its everyday context, not external influence #expands (0.60)
• Cultural value is historically mobile as forms move between elite and popular #expands (0.60)
• Culture names the forms, not the content, of social relationships #exemplifies (0.50) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 882