I found this podcast interesting because my research paper is connecting leadership and popular culture. In my project, I’ve been researching how the leadership and influence of Jennifer Lopez has increased Latinx representation on screen, and in all aspects of entertainment. Before her, only 1% of stories told on screen were about Latinx people. Although representation has increased, there still isn’t enough representation of all races and ethnicities in entertainment today. Like Dr. Bezio said, representation of viewpoints matter. The average American audience is more than just middle-aged white men, and our shows, movies, and music need to represent that. Every young boy and girl should be able to see themselves in a TV show, and see that everyone from all backgrounds is represented.
While listening to the podcast, it was interesting to realize that something like Shakespeare, what we would consider old, was at some point pop culture. What is and what isn’t pop culture just depends on the context in which you are looking at it. Someone could study how Shakespeare’s plays were pop culture at that time, but not necessarily now. What is old-school or 80’s for us now was at some point the latest trend. That was a fascinating realization for me, and one day our current pop culture will be a thing of the past as well.
I think its so cool that you are researching Jennifer Lopez in terms of Latinx representation in pop culture. Representation of different view points is so important because people of all backgrounds deserve to be not only heard, but celebrated. Growing up, I feel like we saw very little diversity in the shows and movies we watched and it’s surprising that the entertainment industry is just now putting an emphasis on representation, in my opinion.
I really like your research idea – I think it is great that there has been a huge shift towards being more inclusive and diverse in various forms of popular culture, but there obviously is still a lot of room to grow. Of course regular people can push organizations and companies to be more inclusive, but in the end the power lies in the hands of companies’ leadership. I also was interested by the idea about the pop culture being so specific to its time period. With time moving so fast, it can be difficult to necessarily pin point different sections of pop culture unlike when you look back through history decades ago.
I think that your research on Jennifer Lopez is awesome and also can be applied to other celebrities. The person that pops into my mind is Chadwick Boseman. As Dr. B discussed, Black Panther is one of the highest grossing movies of all time. Black Panther is so much more than this. Chadwick Boseman allowed all generations to see a black superhero within the MCU that is predominatly made up of white characters for the first time. Chadwick Boseman was a role model for young black children and he did so with such enthusiasm and honor.
It will definitely be interesting to see what parts of our popular culture today will be claimed as high culture in the eyes of future generations. The way we perceive entertainment and art is dependent on the context we are living in, so the same things we see today will be looked at differently in the future because culture will be different. It is also fascinating to think about what pop culture will transcend time and what themes will still be popular in the future.