Pop culture surrounds us. Its products are the movies we watch, the music we listen to, and the books we read; they are on our televisions, phones, and computers. We are its fickle friend, loving to hate it and hating to love it. But what, exactly, is it?

Popular Culture: Introductory Perspectives seeks to answer that question by exploring our human desire for meaning and the ways that pop culture embodies meaning for us. In this text, Marcel Danesi delves into the social structures that have led to the emergence and spread of pop culture, showing how it validates our common experiences and offering a variety of perspectives on its many modes of delivery into our everyday lives. The second edition offers analysis of current contexts for popular culture, including the rise and dominance of the digital global village through technology and social media, as well as up-to-date examples that connect with today’s students.

Contents:

Preface
Chapter 1: What Is Pop Culture?
Chapter 2: Explaining Pop Culture
Chapter 3: Print
Chapter 4: Radio
Chapter 5: Music
Chapter 6: Cinema and Video
Chapter 7: Television
Chapter 8: Advertising, Branding, and Fads
Chapter 9: Pop Language
Chapter 10: Forever Pop
Glossary
References and Further Reading
Online Resources

Author:

Marcel Danesi is professor of anthropology, semiotics, and communication theory at the University of Toronto.

Reviews:

In this new edition, Marcel Danesi explores Pop Culture through its stages in history in his characteristic, compelling style that connects with readers of all backgrounds. He illustrates important concepts with brilliant examples,introduces important theoretical concepts with engaging descriptions of particular events in the history of pop culture without unnecessary jargon or ideological bias. As readers will enjoy Danesi’s expansive knowledge in music, the media, and other aspects of pop culture they will also receive an expert initiation into semiotics and critical thinking about the culture they live in.

— Prisca Augustyn, Florida Atlantic University


Marcel Danesi is renowned worldwide for his scholarship in popular culture. His completely revised edition of his Popular Culture: Introductory Perspectives contains important new information based on significant recent events in the field. In the second edition, Marcel Danesi employs his usual analytical and synthetic skills to provide readers with an enlightening, interesting, discerning, and eloquent discussion and interpretation of the evolution of trends in pop culture with his characteristic clear and comprehensible writing style. This volume is an indispensable introduction to the multi-faceted world of pop culture.

— Frank Nuessel, University of Louisville


Marcel Danesi remains a giant in the field. Since Roland Barthes, nobody has promoted the semiotics of popular culture so vigorously. In this new edition of his widely used book, revised for the digital era, Danesi provides an overview on ‘pop’ that encompasses the major media while analysing the reasons for popular culture’s power and pervasiveness. This second edition of Popular Culture: Introductory Perspectives offers an invaluable entrée into the awareness of pop’s vicissitudes for the student and the general reader alike
— Paul Cobley, London Metropolitan University