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Popular Culture

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Popular American Culture
The Real Housewives of Atlanta, New Jersey, Orange County, Beverly Hills, and Miami; Love and Hip-Hop Atlanta; along with various other “reality” television are some of the guilty programming that draws my attention. The integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations or b : the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group; also : the characteristic features of everyday existence (as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time (Merriam-Webster, Incorporated , 2013). Embracing culture, especially popular culture can have varying meaning depending on one’s environment. The recognition of the iconic one-liners, the names of “reality” television show stars that may otherwise go unknown to the American public is a key indicator of trends in American culture. Three trends in America’s societal popular culture seem to be the fascination with other individuals lifestyles or their reality, the shift in political participation could be considered a trend linked to the election of an African-American as president a president that made varying pop culture references during speeches (ESPN Internet Ventures, 2012), and a third trend may be the continuously growing popularity of hip-hop music. The impactful nature of the trends in pop culture from relating to politics to fashion sense, is impacted by popular American culture.

Journaling
June 1, 2013: Keeping up the Kardashians; a marathon is on television of this “reality” TV show. This show seems to offer Americans a depiction inside the lives of celebrity’s that would not otherwise as famous. The show provides an “inside” look at the relationships of these individuals. They drive expensive cars, and were expensive cloths. These individuals have a lot of drama in their life. They have nice homes. And overall seem to be happy.

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