Popular culture can be defined as a set of values, practices, beliefs, and objects that dominate and the moment and are shared by people across the world (Ousborne, 2015). Today, because of the rise of media, social networks, and the Internet, the given phenomenon acquires outstanding importance as it influences people in all regions and alters their lifestyles, behaviors, and attitudes to some ideas.
Today, Western culture can also be associated with the idea of pop culture. This statement is also applicable to American culture, which is one of the most known in the world. The movies, music, and fashion peculiar to this worldview influence individual in different countries. One of the examples of how popular culture affects people is the rise and extreme popularity of K-pop. This genre of music emerged in South Korea as an attempt to copy western and American performers and create bright and unique shows (Romano, 2018). The success of this movement preconditioned the emergence of multiple followers and the formation of a certain lifestyle presupposing specific clothing, behavior, and manner of behavior (Romano, 2018. In such a way, pop culture triggered a radical change in Korean society and especially among the youth.
Pop culture can also serve as a potent globalization tool. It popularizes different ideas and makes them familiar to people from various countries, which enhances their collaboration and helps to minimize the number of misunderstandings. However, there is another side of this process, as pop culture might precondition the unification of other cultures and loss of their unique features, which is observed in some states today (Ousborne, 2015). For this reason, pop culture should be viewed as an extremely potent factor today, which influences millions of people in all regions.
References
Ousborne, J. (2015). Reading pop culture: A portable anthology (2nd ed.). Bedford.
Romano, A. (2018). How K-pop became a global phenomenon. Vox. Web.