studying the studies

Part of what is so interesting about the study of popular culture is the debate whether much of it is forced upon us, or whether we as a society, dictate what becomes popular. This is an awareness of culture industry and by whom it is controlled. Is the influential media made because of audience choice (from the bottom up) or from the elitist corporate market-makers (the top down)? 

This history of the study of popular culture ("The Rise of Popular Culture: A Historiographical Sketch," by LeRoy Ashby) shows that although there was a point in time where media may have been created purely from a "high-minded", powerful, Caucasian male framework, the audience is now directly involved in the creation of new markets and therefore new popular culture. Although capitalism is always the shining sun pouring down on any American mass-media, consumers approve of and participate in these markets. Is it simply wishful thinking to see this interplay as a “balance of producer planned consumption and consumer influenced production”? How do we prove this balance exists? 

American culture is interesting in many ways and although we may run the risk of a “lop-sided equation” when we document the struggle between producer and audience, this relationship shows how much of our lives, for generations now, are dictated by whom and who may take the more powerful, influential, and seemingly important places in our society.