Contents What Is Popular Culture Culture in the Shadow of War Going to the Movies Home Entertainment Music Design and Clothes The Printed Word The Birth of the Teenager Changing Times What Did the 1940s and 1950s Do for Us Timeline Best of the Era Notes on Sources Find Out More Glossary Index
What Is Popular Culture On the evening of September 9 1956 eight out of ten people watching television in America were tuned into The Ed Sullivan Show The awestruck studio audience and millions watching at home had not tuned in to see the show’s host Ed Sullivan was not even appearing that night They all wanted to catch a glimpse of a young singer from Memphis Tennessee Elvis Presley was already hugely popular with young people and his appearance on the show was a major step in establishing him as one of the most famous faces and voices in the history of popular culture 1 Presley’s music and the huge numbers of people he could reach through the new medium of TV are examples of pop culture at its most exciting Pop or popular culture is designed to be seen or heard by as many people as possible It appeals to the general public or a section of the general public rather than a cultural elite Pop culture includes films music magazines and even advertisements Even the design styles of products such as cars and household appliances can be part of pop culture because they are produced to appeal to people as desirable as well as useful objects Most of the things we think of as popular culture began to develop from the late nineteenth century Just as industrial
processes and new forms of transportation enabled consumer goods to be produced in huge numbers and distributed around a country or across the world these changes also enabled culture such as films and music to be circulated in the same way Before that time culture was aimed at wealthy people in cities who attended theaters or concert halls or was produced by people on a local scale to entertain friends and neighbors Mass media culture Pop culture as we know it today would be impossible without electronic mass media like radio and TV to distribute it to a wider audience Mass media means that huge numbers of people can be aware of cultural trends and products at the same time such as when hearing a song on the radio or watching a popular program on TV Postwar pop culture The 1940s and 1950s were an important period in the development of pop culture as we know it today World War II raged from 1939 to 1945 claiming millions of lives and bringing huge changes to societies around the world The outbreak of war had temporarily halted the development of a new medium of communication that would bring popular culture into people’s home as never before Televisions were very rare in the 1940s
but by 1959 they had become established as part of living rooms across the world The period also saw changes in technology and society that influenced and in turn were influenced by popular culture When World War II came to an end cinemas and dance halls were the main places to go for entertainment Did you know Today we take for granted that pop culture is often produced distributed and consumed using computers and the Internet In the 40s and 50s computers were huge machines used by governments and the military One of the first electronic computers unveiled in 1946 weighed 30
