- Introduction
The term "popular culture" can mean different things to different people. It is usually recognized that it involves aspects of social life most actively involving the public.
As the ‘culture of the people’, popular culture is determined by the interactions between people in their everyday activities: styles of dress, the use of slang, greeting rituals and the foods that people eat are all examples of popular culture. Popular culture is also informed by the mass media.
Examples of popular culture come from a wide array of genres, including popular music, print, cyber-culture, sports, entertainment, leisure, fads, advertising and television. Sports and television are arguably two of the most widely consumed examples of popular culture, and they also represent two examples of popular culture with great staying power.
Delaney, Tim, 2007, Pop culture: An overview, Philosophy Now
Library resources
Use the Library catalogue to locate resources for this topic on our shelves:
- Advertising
- Art: Pop art
- Comics and graphic novels
- Fashion - 20th century
- Film
- Mass media
- Online media
- Television
The following series Object Lessons, described by the publisher as 'a book series about the hidden lives of ordinary things' may help with some aspects of your research:
eBooks
Issues in Society:
- Advertising standards and ethics. Vol. 394
- Privacy and information rights. Vol. 341
- Social impacts of digital media. Vol. 324
- Social media and young people. Vol. 415
Library subject guides
Technology has had a significant impact on popular culture. For a full coverage go the following Library subject guide. This includes a timeline of significant developments - with multiple links where you can search for more information.
Collection highlights
Study guides
Online:
- CliffsNotes: The Role and the influence of mass media
Web resources
General:
- ABC Education: Popular culture
- How Pop Culture affects teens
- Oxford University Press: Oxford Big Ideas 10: Unit 10 - Popular culture [PDF - 23 pages]
- Wiley: Popular culture (1945 - present) [PDF - 42 pages]
Australia:
- Brisbane: World Expo 88
- National Film and Sound Archive: The sounds of Australia
- National Museum of Australia: 1966: Switch to decimal currency
- National Museum of Australia: The 80s are back
- National Museum of Australia: Post war immigration drive
- Martin, Elaine, 2003, Social work, the family and women's equality in post-war Australia, Women's History,
International
- NASA: Apollo 11, July 20, 1969: One giant leap for mankind
Youth culture
- Borgman, Dean 2015, 'The Evolution, components, and study of youth culture', Culture and Youth Studies.
- Petridis, Alexis 2014, 'Youth subcultures: What are they now?'The Guardian, 21 March
- University of New South Wales, 2017, 'How social media changed Australian youth culture' The Digital Age
Advertising
Library resources:
On our shelves:
Use the Library catalogue to quickly locate resources on this topic on the shelves:
Web resources:
Australia:
- AdNews: Thirty years of Tourism Australia: a history of iconic ads
- Morris, Linda 2015, 'Electric viagra: How advertising shaped Australia from the early 19th century
- National Library of Australia: The Sell: Australian advertising 1790s to 1990s
- Signal: Australian advertisers ramp up digital ad spending but struggle to engage consumers
- WebAlive: 2018, Online advertising: trends in Australia
Popular ads in Australia:
- Aeroplane Jelly - History - National Film and Sound Archive of Australia: The Aeroplane Jelly Song by Joy King
- Mortein: Louie the Fly National Film and Sound Archive of Australia: Louie the Fly The Making of an iconic jingle
- National Boys Choir of Australia: 50th anniversary of the Qantas advertisement 'I still call Australia home'
- National Film and Sound Archive of Australia: A collection of Holden car ads
- National Film and Sound Archive of Australia: A look back at Cadbury ads from 1955 to 1970
- Sun Smart: Slip! Slop! Slap! Original SunSmart Campaign
International:
- AdAGe: Popular culture
- How stuff works? How TV commercials influence American culture
- Time: The 25 most influential Super Bowl ads of all time
- Weiss, Elizabeth 2014, 'American ads, American values', The New Yorker, 14 March
Art
There are many movements and artists not listed here .. the list is exhaustive. Use the books and general web resources to research for and find significant artists of this period.
On our shelves:
Collection highlights:
- The Birth of contemporary art: 1946-1968
- The Field revisited
- 100 works of art that will define our age
- Show time: The 50 most influential exhibitions of contemporary art
Library subject guides:
The Library already has several visual art subject guides which could help you with your research in this area:
1940s - 1950s:
Abstract Expressionism:
Definition:
- TATE: Abstract Expressionism
Artists associated with Abstract Expressionism:
- The Art Story: Jasper Johns
- The Art Story: Robert Rauschenberg
- Guggenheim: William de Kooning
- Jackson Pollock - National Gallery of Australia: Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles
- National Gallery of Art: Mark Rothko
Figurative art
Definition:
- TATE: Figurative art
Artists associated with Figurative Art:
- The Art Story: Lucien Freud
- Sotheby's: 21 facts about Alberto Giacometti
- TATE: Frances Bacon
1960s -1970s:
Pop Art
Definition:
- TATE: Pop Art
Artists associated with Pop Art:
- Andy Warhol Museum
- The Art Story: David Hockney
- The Art Story: Richard Hamilton
- Southeby's: 21 facts about Roy Lichtenstein
- TATE: Peter Blake
1980s - 2000s
Graffiti & Street art
Definition:
- BBC Arts: Trainspotting: Shooting the graffiti of New York's subway cars
- Culture Trip: The 5 best Melbourne street artists and where to find them
- MoSA: A vertical love letter
- TATE: Graffiti
- Widewalls: Street art
Artists associated with Graffiti & Street art:
- BBC: How did Bansky become the world's most famous vandal?
- The Keith Haring Foundation
- Stencil Revolution: Blek le Rat
- Widewalls: Shephard Fairey
Neo-Expressionism
Definition:
- The Art Story: Neo-Expressionism
Artists associated with Neo-expressionism:
- TATE: Anselm Kiefer
- Widewalls: 10 Masterpieces of Late Neo-expressionism art movement
Neo-Pop Art
Definition:
- The Art History Archive: Neo-Pop Art
Artists associated with Neo- Pop Art:
- Gagosian: Damien Hirst
- Guggenheim: Jeff Koons
Film
On our shelves:
Series:
- Masters of Cinema (5 titles)
- Taschen Movies of 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s (4 volumes)
Collection highlights:
- Film noir: the directors
- The Last sitting: = 101 Ausgewahlte photographien / Bert Stern, Marilyn Monroe,
- The Movie Book
- The Oxford Companion to Australian Film
Web resources:
Australia:
Early Australian film:
- National Film and Sound Archive: The Story of the Kelly Gang (1904) - the world's first feature length film
- National Film and Sound Archive: The Sentimental Bloke (1919)
- Australian Screen: For the term of his natural life (1927)
- Australian Screen: In the Wake of the Bounty (1933) - the first film to star Errol Flynn
- Australian War Memorial: Forty thousand horsemen (1940)
Post 1950-
- Australian Screen -Jedda (1955) - the first Australian film to have two indigenous lead actors
- They're a Weird Mob (1966) - said to be one factor in the establishment of the founding of the Australian film industry
- Guida, James 2012, 'Wake in Fright: prepare to be disturbed, mate' The New Yorker, October 4 (1970s)
- National Film and Sound Archive of Australia: Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
- Screen Australia: Mad Max (1979)
- SBS: Gallipoli: cheat sheet (1981)
- SBS: Strictly Ballroom (1992)
- National Film and Sound Archive of Australia: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994))
- SBS: Rabbit Proof Fence: cheat sheet (2002)
- Australian Screen: Harvie Krumpet by Adam Elliot (2003) - Academy Award Winner
- Screen Australia: The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan (2010) - Academy Award Winner
- Haebich, Anna: 'On "Bran Nue Dae", by Jimmy Chi, Griffith Review (2010))
- Creative Spirits: The Sapphires (2012)
- Screen Australia: Breath by Simon Baker from the book by Tim Winton (2017)
International:
1900 - 1945
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: Metropolis (1927)
- Charlie Chaplin: City Lights (1931)
- AMC Filmsite: King Kong (1933)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: Citizen Kane (1941)
- BFI: Film Forever: Casablanca (1942)
Post 1945-
- AMC Filmsite: Singin' in the rain (1952)
- AMC Filmsite: Rebel without a cause (1955)
- Brody, Richard, 'The Greatness of "Psycho"' The New Yorker (1960)
- AMC Filmsite: Easy Rider (1969)
- Kermode, Mark, 2015, 'Jaws, 40 years on: one of the truly great and lasting classics of American cinema', The Guardian, 31 May
- Lucas Films Ltd: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1979)
- Lucas Films Ltd: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
- Newton, Michael, 2015, 'Tears in the rain? Why Blade Runner is timeless.' The Guardian, 14 March (1982)
- Industrial Light & Magic: E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
- Chiasson, Dan 2018, "2001: A Space Odyssey": What is means and how it was made. Fifty years ago, Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke set out to make a new kind of sci-fi. How does the future look now that it's the past? (2001)
Food
On our shelves:
Collection highlights:
- Australian bush cooking
- The Australian country kitchen
- Milk made by Bruny Island-based Nick Haddow
- The Proud tradition of Australian cooking
Australia
General:
- Australian Geographic: Australia's cuisine culture: a history of our food
- Australian Geographic: Our top 10 most iconic Australian foods
- Bite-sized thoughts: Australian food through the years
- Catherine Saxelby: Family fare: traditions and trends in Australia
- CNN Travel: Australian food: 40 dishes locals like to call their own
- Moving to Australia: Food in Australia
- SBS: A (brief) history of Australian food
- SBS: About Native Australian food
- Taste: How Australian food has evolved
- Veenhuyzen, Max 2014, 'Meat pie: a great Australian dish' The Australian, 7 May
1900-1945
- Australian Food History Timeline: 1901 Federation banquet
- Australian Food History Timeline: 1930 Fantales introduced
- Coca Cola Australia: The history of Coca Cola 'down under'
- Good Food: Exploring Australian home cookery: a vintage cookbook from the 1930s
- Master Foods - Our history
- Meadow Lea margarine - history
- RealEstate: A Household history of the fridge
1939-1945
- Australian War Memorial: Rationing of food and clothing in the Second World War
- SBS: The World War II diet
- State Library of Victoria: Food shortages and rationing
1950s - 1999
- AMES Australia: From lamb chops to labne
- Australian Women's Weekly: How the Australian dining scene has changed
- Australian Women's Weekly: What were we cooking in the 1960s?
- Gourmet Traveller: A homage to classic 1960s recipes
- Kitchen: Retro recipes: the good, the bad, the nostalgic - Food from the 70s and 80s
2000 -
- Australia: Contemporary bush tucker in Australian restaurants
- Good Food: Why Melbourne has the best cafes in the world
- National Geographic: How did Australia become the coffee snobs we are today?
- Time Out, Sydney: The rise of bush food
- What's new in Food Technology and Manufacturing: What's going on in the Australian seafood industry?
International influences on Australian food
- Nichol, Barbara 'Sweet and sour history: Melbourne's early Chinese restaurants' National Archives of Australia [PDF - spages]
- SBS: About Italian food
Modern Australian restaurants
- The Agrarian Kitchen (Tasmania)
- Attica (Victoria)
- Brae (Cape Otway Road, Birregurra, Victoria) - On our shelves: Brae
- est (Sydney, N.S.W.)
- Laura, Point Leo Estate (Victoria)
- Quay (Sydney)
- Restaurant Orana (Adelaide)
- Sixpenny (Stanmore, N.S.W.)
- Wildflower (Perth, Western Australia)
Popular music
On our shelves:
Collection highlights:
- AC/DC: album by album
- Elvis Presley and the birth of rock and roll
- The Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop [Reference]
- The History of Rock: the definitive guide to rock, punk, metal and beyond
- The Land where the blues began
Library Subject guide:
The following guide may also provide resources you can use for you research on popular culture:
Web resources:
General:
- ABC Triple J: The Hottest 100 Archive
- Larson, Sarah, 2014, 'Pop music, explained', The New Yorker, 19 August
- Library of Congress: Lomax Collection
- Stanford University: Pop music at the core of youth culture [Review of a book on this topic]
Australia:
General:
- AllMusic: 50 years of Australian rock and roll
- Australian Anthems, The Guardian
- Beat: The Australian psychedelic revolution as told through eight bands
- Convict creations: Pushing the boundaries - Australian music
- Culture Trip: The 10 Road Songs that define Australia
- National Museum of Australia: Impact of rock 'n' roll
- SBS: The Beatles left their mark down under
- Sheddon, Ian, 'Fifty years of Australian music', The Australian
1950s:
- AllMusic: Col Joy
- Australian Dictionary of Biography: Johnny O'Keefe
- Channel 9: Brian Henderson's Bandstand
1960s:
- Australian Music Database: Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs
- Street, Andrew P. 2014, 'The Master's Apprentices: the five undeniable singles,' The Guardian, 16 June
1970s:
- ABC: Countdown
- AC/DC
- All Music: Richard Clapton
- Australian Music History: Sherbet
- Cold Chisel
- Midnight Oil
- Mushroom Group [Founded 1972]
- Skyhooks
- Webb, Carolyn, 2017, 'Nude, rude and rockin: new book tells all about Sunbury Rock Festival, The Age, 5 October
1980s:
- AllMusic: Crowded House
- AllMusic: Hunters & Collectors
- The Divinyls
- Double J: INXS
- John Farnham
- Kylie Minogue
- Yotha Yindi: Read the lyrics of Yotha Yindi song 'Treaty' [SBS] 'Treaty by Yotha Yindi - a Trojan horse in the culture wars [Guardian]
1990s:
2000s:
International:
The Blues:
- B.B. King Museum: Impact of the blues on other forms of popular music [PDF - 2 pages]
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: Blues music
- Fotheringham, Alasdair, 2011, 'Robert Johnson: Fans mark the centenary of the great bluesman's birth, The Guardian, 8 May
1950s:
- The Conversation: How Elvis Presley changed American pop culture
- History: Bill Haley and the Comets record "Rock Around The Clock"
- Rolling Stone: Chuck Berry: Farewell to the Father of Rock
- Rolling Stone: The 50s: a decade of music that changed the world
1960s:
- BBC Culture: The Rolling Stones up close
- Biography: We love them, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah: 7 ways the Beatles changed American culture
- Black, Matthew, 2018, 'Rare photos that capture the magic of Woodstock', History 101
- Monterey Pop Festival
- The Pop History Dig: Early Beach Boys: 1962-1966
- The Pop History Dig: "Burn the Beatles": 1966 Bigger than Jesus
- Time: The History of Motown
- University of Melbourne: The Myth and the magic of Sgt. Pepper
1970s:
- Discover Music: 1970s - Children of the revolution: how glam rock changed the world
- Rogers, Jude 2016, 'Shock and awe: Glam Rock and its legacy by Simon Reynolds - review, The Guardian, 10 October
1980s:
- Hebblethwaite, Phil 2013, 'How Michael Jackson's Thriller video changed music videos forever', The Guardian, 22 November
- Official Charts: Lady Gaga
- Philips: The history of the CD - The beginning
- Williams, Cameron, 2017, 'How MTV changed the world with its industry of cool', SBS, 13 February
1990s:
- BBC Culture: In Utero at 20: What is Nirvana's legacy?
- CBC: Why Britney Spears is one of pop musics most important stars
- NME: 20 Essential tracks from The Golden Age of '90s Hip Hop
- Rolling Stone: 20 Biggest songs of the summer: the 1990s
2000s:
- Rolling Stone: 100 best songs of the 2000s
Television
Library resources:
On our shelves:
Use the Library catalogue to quickly locate resources on our shelves:
Web resources:
Australia:
- ACMA: History of children's television standards
- John Oxley Library, Queensland: First public demonstration of television in Brisbane
- National Archives of Australia: Popular culture: the impact of television
- National Film and Sound Archive: Welcome to TV
- National Museum of Australia & the Powerhouse Museum: On the box: great moments in Australian television 1956-2006
Popular Australian television programmes:
- Copyright Agency: Tribute to the man behind Mr Squiggle [1959-1999]
- National Film and Sound Archive: In Melbourne Tonight [1957-1998]
- Australian Screen: Playschool [1966- ]
- Australian Screen: Skippy the bush kangaroo [1966-1969]
- ABC: Behind the News: [1969 - ]
- Australian Screen: Number 96 [1972-1977]
- Australian Screen: Aunty Jack Show [1972-1973]
- BBC Culture: Does Neighbours really represent Australia? [1985 - ]
- News.com.au: The Secrets of Rage - now the longest running-music show on TV [1987]
- TV Week: The biggest moments in Home and Away History [1988 - ]
- The Age: Sylvania Waters [1992]
- Australian Screen: Kath & Kim [2002-2007]
- SBS: The 10 most legendary collaborations on RocKwiz [2005]
International:
- Anthony, Andrew 2013, 'A History of television, the technology that seduced the world - and me', The Guardian, 8 September
- Taylor, Jim 2009, 'Popular culture: TV -- and America -- on the couch,' 3 August
- University of Minnesota: 'The Relationship between television and culture' in Understanding Media and Culture
Into the future:
- The Conversation: Can Australian streaming services survive a fresh onslaught from overseas?
- Yale Insights: What's the future of television?