Popular Culture in the Twenty-First Century - Bill Ivey and Steven J. Tepper

This reading first asks us to consider what it would be like to live in the late nineteenth century. Our values and activities would have been shaped primarily by local experiences. But there has been a transformation in American culture. Technology, art and entertainment, and the rise in amateur art-making have all contributed greatly to this change. An interesting part of this reading was the mentioning of rap musicians who got their start by making homemade tape recordings. This stood out to me because my brother is into rap music and listens to a lot of mixtapes and demos of his favorite rappers. This reading also points out the fact that "through new devices like the iPod or TiVo, citizens are increasingly capable of curating their own cultural experiences - exploring new types of culture, choosing when and how they want to experience art and entertainment." I never thought of it like that, but I agree with it. I also found the mentioning of the "creative energy that is animating a new generation of young people" to be very intriguing, especially because we've been talking about what creativity means in one of my other classes (Creativity in the Classroom). In that class we've decided that creativity has to involve something new or unique. This relates to this text because in talking about this creative energy permeating through young people it tells of a survey of incoming college freshmen. The survey reported that more students today than a decade ago want to produce an original piece of art or become accomplished in a performing art or writing. It was cool to make a connection from this class to another one!