Blog Post #1

Hello my name is Daniel Pak. I am a sophomore here at Portland State University. My major is accounting. I am from Beaverton, which is about a 20 minute drive from Portland. The ways I consume pop culture are through the news, the internet, social media, celebrities, athletes, music, television, video games, movies, and other ways I can’t think of right now. My favorite is the NBA. Basketball is super important to me, so I always want to stay on top of trends and news. The reason I engage in the forms of pop culture that I do is the way I was raised. My dad has always been into media. He has gone to the library to rent the latest DVD’s that come out on every Tuesday since I was in elementary school. He loves watching moves, television, and especially sports. Growing up, it was a family event to gather around the TV and comment on what was happening. As society has evolved, I feel like I’ve evolved with it. I’m not terribly addicted to social media, but I do get my fix. I love looking at memes and peeking into the life of my favorite celebrities. My evolution is especially apparent in music. When I was a kid, I was super into the soft rock and pop that dominated the airways in the early 2000’s. However, recently music has shifted. Rap has dominated that past 10 years and I’ve kept up with it. Soundcloud rap is my guilty pleasure. My favorites are XXXtentacion, Juice Wrld, YK Osiris, Jay Critch, and the YBN. Pop culture marketing affects all my decisions subconsciously. I’ve always been about branding. I love supporting the brands that are important to me. Once someone has something to latch on to, I reach for it and show it off. What’s crazy is that I’m fully aware of this. I think I’ve just embraced it. I’ve never been afraid of drawing attention and I love supporting the things that are important to me. I have a business mindset. Unlike some of my classmates, I don’t mind the constant advertisement. I see it as part of the game. How else are businesses supposed to survive? As you saw in The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, companies need to uphold their image in order to survive. The best way to protect that image is to show it off in a positive light via advertising. One thing I’ve never understood is consumer rights. I understand it may be an ethical dilemma to sneak advertising, but the nature of business is pushing the boundaries. Taking things to the extent of the law is the best way to be successful, which is all businesses care about. In the same way that societies values have shifted my music taste, they have also shifted our consumer preferences. In chapter 5 we saw how, over time, we moved from religion to materialism (although they are not necessarily two ends of a spectrum). Personally, I think the industrial revolution had a lot to do with that. Once we had the capacity to create more, it distracted us from the traditional values of family. However, in present day it seems like the world has grown smaller. With social media and improvements in cross-continent travel, the ability to meet people from other parts of the world has changed our interactions with other people. Simultaneously, it seems like we are growing farther and farther apart from our fellow man. More screens and less face-to-face interaction has caused our relationships to be more shallow. Some people do things they would never do in person, like rain down heinous insults. Pop culture changes society daily. From facebook to twitter to vine to snapchat to tiktok, society is constantly moving and meeting the next trend that comes up. They’re changing our lives. For example, right now the number one song in the country is “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X. Lil Nas X is a social media influencer who plays off of memes. Because of the song, people have embraced country (at least for the moment). Before, country was seen as the most uncool genre. I heard people say all the time “I listen to everything except country.” By blending trap rap and country, Lil Nas X started a wave of pandemonium. It’s left to see if he will continue the momentum.