Pop culture pathology (or Popular culture pathology) is the forensic study of popular culture in fields such as celebrity, music, fashion, food, aesthetic desire, television, as well as additional and often obscure media and stimuli. Pop culture pathology is an obscure branch of both Critical Theory and Cultural Studies.
Contents
- The Botto Experiment
- Implications of Popular Culture Pathology
- Failures of Popular Culture Pathology
- Macro Ventures in PCP
- What comes next
- References
Originating in private universities in the United States around the turn of the millennium, pop culture pathology is the systematic attempt to analyze trends in culture in order to examine more closely the relationships that the individual has to the world around them. The studies include experiments with the aesthetic experiences that people have in common, with the goal being to uncover the intrinsic trend that allows for the phenomenon of extrinsic trends. Some common philosophical foundations for this tradition are Michel Foucault and the philosophy of deconstruction pioneered by Jacques Derrida.
The Botto Experiment
The most common way to test theories in pop culture pathology is to attempt to simulate situations of complete cultural ignorance. For example, a test done in 2005 at University of California, Berkeley, is referred to as the "Botto Experiment". A young student named Nicholas Botto was given a CD on its release date that had received no radio play and which he had no exposure to. He listened to only this album for two months and was readmitted to society. He was told to return in a year's time with 5 albums that he found he enjoyed in light of the album he had been assigned. In the experiment the album that was famously used was In An Aeroplane Over The Sea by the indie rock band Neutral Milk Hotel. The style of music was known as "Lo-Fi" which was uncommon at the time. A year later Botto returned with five similar albums. His choices perfectly predicted a generation of music in the Lo-Fi genre, opening the door for pop culture pathology to be known as a legitimate subject.
Implications of Popular Culture Pathology
The postmodern implications of this type of experimentation are still being realized by scientists and philosophers. By assigning meaning to a certain cultural item the person conducting the experiment is deciding what will matter in the entirety of the next year for the subject. It seems to go without saying that this type of influence poses solutions for current cultural trends that are deemed "immoral." By making the greater good more fashionable socially many of the worlds problems have the potential to be fixed in the future.
Failures of Popular Culture Pathology
Unfortunately the Botto Experiment caused irreversible side effects. The cultural boom that the experiment predicted engulfed the subject forcing an end to the next stage of the experiment. Next, the subject was supposed to be given the same album a second time and told to return with an additional five. The second phase was supposed to show the instability of modern society and the impossibility of forcing the individual to move against it. This was proven wrong as the subject returned to the same five albums as before, effectively ruining the study.
Macro Ventures in PCP
This type of experiment has taken place on different scales and in different ways. For example, the Music Genome Project has created a service known as Pandora Radio that allows the user to connect with various types of music according to extremely limited initial criteria. This type of conditioning is also present in the latest incarnation of Apple's iTunes. The new "Genius" feature allows the user to discover music that perpetuates their current cultural trend, furthering the flawed results of the perplexing but vastly studied Botto Experiment.
What comes next?
Academia has been waiting anxiously for the next manifestation of popular culture pathology. The anticipation has caused the creation of two different views on the subject. One, pioneered in the United States, predicts that the science will next try to cause moral reform. Much fear surrounds this popular view but more than that there is suspicion that the sentiment has simply been placed at the influence of another experiment in the field itself. Given the ironic nature of the study it seems likely that the next manifestation will be at the hands of the next philosopher daring enough to repeat the Botto Experiment with a focus on the field of popular culture pathology instead of popular culture itself.
The second prediction arose in Europe and is more secular. Philosophers there believe that popular culture pathology is the end of the moral focus of the "new world." The term "new world" has been used here in order to call attention to the fact that the Americas have habitually been ahead of Europe technologically, but far behind intellectually. The idea that morality is facing its doom is generally coming, again, from postmodern European philosophy (see Nietzsche, Baudrillard, Heidegger) predicting the realization that meaning is being assigned by the institution not the individual. This brings the field back to Michel Foucault and the problem of the individual. This view harbors intense curiosity at the cyclical nature of the study. In the end only time will tell the future of this curious new field of study.