The Evolution of a Theme/Element in Popular Culture. Industries such as the jewellery and the animation industry has managed to keep their continuity, while others such as music players and storage devices needed to be constantly changing to catch up with

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The Evolution of a Theme/Element in Popular Culture over the Last Five Decades

Popular culture or ‘pop culture’ seems to be constantly changing. But are they always changing or just elaborating their products to catch up with the new, modern consumers, without changing the initial meaning of the product. As pop culture is influenced by the prevailing corporate economy, some products can keep their continuity while others keep constantly changing. Industries such as the jewellery and the animation industry has managed to keep their continuity, while others such as music players and storage devices needed to be constantly changing to catch up with the modern need and the economy.

The animation industry has gone sea change since the first animated film was created by Charles-Emilie Reynaud by using an animation system of loops of 12 pictures way back in the 1890’s! However, the animation movies and TV shows that we see today was only introduced in the 1900’s and were mainly aimed at children. But, with the TV becoming a more convenient mode of entertainment, watching cartoons became a regular routine for the new generation of children after the 1930’s. One of the very first images to be broadcast over television was that of . One of the early cartoon characters that gained huge popularity were  and . Then came the great facilitator, Walt Disney, who quickly capitalized on the medium of television with his own weekly TV series, Disneyland. His contribution to cartoon industry has been phenomenal. The 1960s saw a decline in the entire animation industry that affected the medium as a whole for over twenty years. The cartoon creations of all the Hollywood studios seemed to be affected by an apathy that led to a general decline in quality for the industry. Creativity and originality in animation moved largely underground, to the point where quality animated films were largely produced by small, independent producers, or in countries other than America. Ralf Bakshi shocked the audience by producing the first ever animated feature film, ‘Fritz the Cat’, which was aimed directly at the adult audiences rather than the children. During the 1980s, the government put some regulations on these TV shows that it had to be considered ‘educational’ (worthy for viewing by children). Toy manufacturers and marketers took the advantage of these new standards, and the first half of the decade saw the introduction of a wave of toy-based cartoons like the ‘Transformers’ and ‘My Little Pony’. While the distinctive nature of the Japanese anime production like the ‘Star Blazers’ and ‘Robotech’, with their complex storylines and frank depiction of violence, helped create the groundswell that would lead to the major influx of anime popularity starting in the 1990’s. The rise of the music videos industry also lead to a production of a number of memorable animated videos. Towards the end of the 80’s there was a huge increase in the quantity of American animation. Cartoons were never just for children. The 1990’s saw the beginnings of a new wave of animated series targeted primarily to adults. In 1989, the ‘Simpsons’ portrayed the life of a typical middle class American family in those days. It also dealt with many political issues in the adult world, but, through an amusing, humorous way. The show was gaining a wide acclaim for its satirical handing of American culture, society as a whole and the human condition. It was a major hit and was closely followed by ‘South Park’. The American industry a sudden surge of growth in the 1990’s as yet another wild card was added, the introduction of computer animation and flash animation through the internet. This new shift of technology allowed the animation industry to take a huge step further and once again it was Disney that led the pack in this area. With the advent of advanced technology, it is expected to bring about more changes and greater developments in cartoon industry. This will indeed help convey more complicated and pressing issues in a simple way to the nations across geography, especially among children, which may include issues like environmental pollution & global warming, wild life preservation etc. But, what remained the same? The simple idea of animation and the cartoon figures stayed the same. The idea of portraying love, hate, friendship and other emotions through these figures also remained the same.  Even some characters such as Mickey Mouse still remain the same. The only thing that changed was issues shown and dealt with in this modern world.

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Music has been part of many people’s life through decades and music players have always been an essential piece of electronics. From the old fashioned Gramophone to today’s nano ipods, the technology has certainly made huge jumps. Back in 1900’s the Gramophone was one of the first music players made. The turntable was rotated using a flywheel, which was kept in motion by a hand crank on the side of the machine. They became so popular that the ‘Grammy’ nickname still lives on in the Grammy music awards. Electronic record players replaced manual phonographs in the mid-20th Century. ‘Hi-fi’ technology was ...

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