Folk and Popular Culture

 How people live varies from place to place  To understand other people, we need to understand their culture  Culture is a way of life  It looks at what we care for and what we take care of  Geographers study three parts of it: values/beliefs, material artifacts, and political institutions

 To understand the world and its people, we must try to understand the different cultures  All are, to some degree, influenced by their geography  Some say it is all determined by geography- environmental determinism  Others say geography has an impact, but humans can modify and adapt to their environments as well

 Often confused with custom and habit  A habit is a repetitive act that a particular individual performs- not a whole society  A custom is a repetitive act of a group- not just an individual  Customs, collectively, can represent a material culture  This chapter focuses on material artifacts, we’ll study the beliefs/values and political institutions in later chapters

 Folk culture is traditionally practiced primarily by small, homogeneous groups living in isolated rural areas  Popular culture is found in large, heterogeneous societies that share certain habits despite differences in other characteristics  Folk culture is more an example of local diversity, while popular culture is more an example of globalization

 Folk culture is more limiting  Local culture is what makes a particular area unique- local diversity  A local culture is a group of people in a particular place who see themselves as a collective or a community, sharing experiences, customs, and traits, and work to preserve those unique characteristics\  Folk/local culture can exist in rural and urban areas, but are more common in rural  Ethnic communities in cities are examples of urban local cultures

Chapter 4 Section 1

 Customs originate at a hearth- a starting point  Folk customs often have anonymous hearths, unknown start dates, unknown originators  They may also start at different places, independently  They can start in LDCs, in MDCs, in rural areas, and urban areas  Local music, local art, handmade goods, local trends, and local cuisine are often products of folk culture

 Sweetgrass basket making has been a part of the Mount Pleasant, SC community for nearly 400 year. Natural Palmetto, Long Pine Needles, Bulrush and Sweetgrass. Brought to the area by slaves who came from West Africa, basket making is a traditional art form which has been passed on from generation to generation. Today, it is one of the oldest art forms of African origin in the United States.

 Popular culture is most often a product of MDCs than LDCs and urban rather than rural areas  The origin is generally known  Some folk culture turns into popular culture ultimately  Popular music and fast food restaurants and television shows and clothing trends are often examples  Industrialized nations can produce these products in large quantities efficiently

 From the US  First focused on US and other MDCs  Sales plateau as population levels in those countries  New focus is on LDCs  Growing populations and rising standard of living

 Big tobacco  Smoking is decreasing in popularity in MDCs  Health concerns, government restrictions, bans on it in areas, limits on advertising (no tv, movie commercials, etc…), major lawsuits  They are focusing on LDCs  Particularly the youth

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 Music is one of the best examples of differences between folk and popular culture  Music goes way back in human history and has evolved over time, although many basics still remain the same  Folk music is some of the oldest  It is usually composed anonymously and spread orally, in-person

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 Folk music often centers on the local way of life or experiences  It often reflects true-life events  It often tells about day-to-day life, local beliefs, legends, and the local environment  They might not translate very well to other cultural groups (particularly if there is a language barrier)

 Popular music is written by specific individuals for the purpose of selling the material so it targets its audience and wants to appeal to as many people as possible  The themes tend to be broad- heartache, love, etc…  It often reflects lots of technical skill and studio help  Popular music started emerging around 1900 and really took off with the introduction of the radio in the 1920s/1930s to homes in MDCs

 The first stage was Vaudeville in the US (the variety stage)  A music industry developed on a street in NY that became nicknamed Tin Pan Alley to provide music for Vaudeville  Their acts travelled and spread this music around America (particularly urban areas)

Fig. 4-1: Writers and publishers of popular music were clustered in Tin Pan Alley in New York in the early 20th c. The area later moved north from 28th St to Times Square.

 Their acts travelled and spread this music around America (particularly urban areas)  In the 1920s/1930s, radios became commonplace- in the early 1920s, the first public broadcast aired  Soon most people bought radios and others capitalized on this and played music and shows  The industry really grew during the Great Depression- it was a form of escapism  During WWII, the Armed Forces Radio Network made the radio even more widespread and popular

 WWII spread American music to other parts of the world- wherever our soldiers were, our music went, influencing countries from America to Germany to Japan to Hawaii and back  Radio and the introduction of television into most American homes in the 1950s made popular musicians even more popular  Variety shows like the Ed Sullivan Show aired performances by popular musicians  Rock and Roll changed the music scene and made it appeal even more for American youth

 Motown and Rhythm and Blues became popular in the 1950s and 1960s as well  Harder rock in the 1960s and 1970s changed most people’s view of Rock and Roll- splitting it between harder rock and pop  Pop music maintained popular throughout the 20 th century to the present  Country music also persisted, although in different phases from the Nashville Sound of the 1950s to Outlaw Country in the 1970s to Pop Country in the 1990s to present  Rap music emerged on the popular front in the 1980s and grew in acceptance and popularity from the 1990s to the present

Fig. 4-2: This mental map places major hip hop performers near other similar performers and in the portion of the country where they performed.

 Origin of folk and popular cultures  Origin of folk music  Origin of popular music  Diffusion of folk and popular cultures  The Amish: Relocation diffusion of folk culture  Sports: Hierarchical diffusion of popular culture

 Diffusion is the spread of something  Remember the types of diffusion?  Hierarchical diffusion: the spread from an authority figure or source  Stimulus diffusion: one thing spreading spreads another thing with it  Relocation diffusion: people move from one area to another and take their culture and stuff with them  Contagious diffusion: the fast, widespread diffusion of something by contact  Which type do you think spreads these types of cultures?

 Popular culture is spread often by broadcasting using lots of technology  This is hierarchical diffusion because it often goes from the powerful or MDCs to the masses who have less power or money or LDCs  It is also so widespread and can be broadcasts so efficiently that it is like contagious diffusion because of its efficiency

 Folk culture is spread more often by relocation diffusion or stimulus diffusion  People take their local culture with them when they move and spread it, often unwittingly  People also spread it with other products like through trade or parts of culture as stimulus diffusion

 One of the more than 50 Anabaptist groups in North America  Anabaptists originated in southern Germany and Switzerland in the 1500s when the Protestant Reformation was going on- they broke from the Catholic and Protestant churches  Anabaptist means baptize again- they believe in adult baptism  They also stress pacifism and were persecuted in Europe and fled to the Americas

 Examples: The Hutterites, Amish, Mennonites, Brethren  Hutterites live in Minnesota, South and North Dakota, Montana, and southern Saskatchewan and Alberta in Canada  The Hutterites are the only Anabaptists that practice a communal form of living rather than living with your immediate family in a community  They use more modern technology than other groups like the Amish- but avoid tv, cameras, and cell phones

 Relocation diffusion example- where they go they take their culture  They have distinctive culture, clothing, farming techniques, religious practices, and customs  They shun mechanical and electrical power and live like most people lived a hundred plus years ago now  They live in the US and number about 80,000 people (about.03 of the whole US pop.)  They are in at least 17 states

 They are an example of folk culture- their culture is localized and not widespread  Migration spread their culture through relocation diffusion  They began in the 1600s in Bern, Switzerland, Alsace, France, and the southwestern portion of Germany  They migrated to other parts of Europe in the 1700s and to the US in the 1700s-1800s  Most went to Pennsylvania

 They helped give Pennsylvania (along with the Quakers) the reputation for being one of the most tolerant colonies under England and later of the states  They chose isolated areas to practice their traditional customs more easily  People go to Amish country today to see how they live  Amish folk culture diffuses slowly through interregional migration within the US

Fig. 4-3: Amish settlements are distributed through the northeast U.S.

 Sports are played around the world  Some are localized and don’t become popular  But many sports that are played from Mountain City, TN to Paris, France are part of popular culture now  The most commonly played are popular culture products

 Organized sports are good examples of how popular culture is diffused  Many started out as part of folk culture and were diffused like other folk culture- through the migration of people  Contemporary diffusion though shows how they are popular culture  People learn about them by radios/televisions and other systems of mass communication and marketing strategies- putting balls and games in local stores

 Soccer is the world’s most popular sport (football outside of the US)  Kicking a ball or something around has emerged in most parts of the world- the oldest documented contest though was in England in the eleventh century  Many say it emerged by boys trying to imitate the “Kicking of the Danish Head” after the Danish invasion of England between 1018 and 1042  It quickly spread as football across the island

 It was actually banned by Henry II in the late 1300s and only made legal again in 1603 by James I  It was still folk culture at this point  It started to turn to popular culture in the 1800s- recreation clubs were formed across Britain for leisure time  With Britain being an imperial power with colonies around the world and soccer being popular especially with young men (many of whom joined the military, it was spread to all those colonial holdings

 Different sports emerged in different areas and spread  Lacrosse was a product of the Iroquois  Ice Hockey in cold climates  Cricket in Britain  Baseball, basketball, and America football in America  TV and radio have spread them even more

French, German, and Italian fans at 2006 World Cup (eventually won by Italy).

 MDCs tend to have more of a monopoly over pop culture  But they are still influenced too  The big three American sports- basketball, baseball, and football- have had to compete with new additions that are consistently getting more and more participants and fans  Soccer, surfing, skateboarding, skiing, X- Games, etc… have been growing in popularity- particularly since the 60s and 70s