To what extent were changes in popular culture responsible for dividing rather than united US society in the years 1968-2001?

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Mrs Scriven

7 November 2013

History

Question: “To what extent were changes in popular culture responsible for dividing rather than united US society in the years 1968-2001?” 

 Popular culture is the entirety of , , , , and other  that are within the  of a given . Heavily influenced by , this collection of ideas permeates the  of the . Popular culture reflected the situation and issues in the society, such as sports which reflected racism, homosexuality and the emerging role of women, the media reflected the change in society as it began to display sexual explicit contents, music reflected the rejection of earlier generation and the emerge of a new and diverse culture and lastly the Internet, while some viewed the internet as a weapon of mass distraction, others viewed it as the opening of new worlds of knowledge and culture. The changes in popular culture were symbolic as factions of the society made use of popular culture to question the norms of the society, which they lived in.

Accordingly, a united American society was one which reflected the “American Way”(equal opportunities, capacity for hard work and frequent success), one of the prominent popular culture which reflected the “American Way” in the late twentieth century were sports. Sports were very influential and was seen to reflect the American way but not only was it reflective of the American way, it also reflected “American Vices”, such as excessive greed, commercialization, violence, drug abuse, racism and cheating. Los Angeles Times 1980 editorial admitted, “Sports business is rough-and-tumble competition and business. “Self - Interest rules. Money caused problems with loyalties this was shown in several cases such as the move of the Oakland raiders from their traditional home to Los Angeles and the 1992 shoe war, the refusal of Jordan to wear the official Olympic logo because it advertised Rebook. Sports no longer reflected ideal society: Athletes sometimes shaped the society. The influence of advertisements were demonstrated when products like Air Jordan was released and caused a surprising increase in violence amongst poorer society. Violence became cool in the society as athletes such as Mike Tyson, O.J Simpson reflected this to the society.

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Also sports reflected the rejection and the gradual acceptance of Homosexuals and female athletes, while it was acceptable for females to be at the sidelines to cheer it was not acceptable for them to be in the game, This was gradually changing as certain female athletes began to come into prominence such as Billie Jean King (tennis player), she threatened a boycotting in favour of equality between sexes this led to the battle of sexes between king and Bobby Riggs which was won by King. This brought several changes and was used to prove that women were quite capable as ...

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