‘Popular culture’ in popular culture: academic and vernacular usage

Abstract

ABSTRACT The term ‘popular culture’ was not invented by those who consume the forms of culture it designates but by those who took them as objects of study. The term has now migrated outside of the academy and is used differently in vernacular compared to academic contexts. In this article I argue that academics can take three lessons from vernacular usage of the term ‘popular culture’. The first is to be precise in our definitions of our objects of study. The second is that discussions about whether popular forms of culture are authentically of the people are unanswerable as they are currently formulated. The third is that loving something does not mean we are necessarily thoughtless about it.