Dissemination of mass culture type of society. The emergence of mass culture

Within a certain historical era have always existed various cultures: international and national, secular and religious, adults and youth, Western and Eastern. IN modern society Mass and elite culture acquired enormous importance.

Mass culture(Latin massa - lump, piece) - a concept that in modern cultural studies is associated with such social groups that are characterized by an “average” level of spiritual needs.

“Mass culture” was formed simultaneously with the society of mass production and consumption. Radio, television, modern communications, and then video and computer technology contributed to its spread. There are several opinions regarding its origin and existence as such.

1. American cultural scientist Mac Donald believes that mass culture is not culture at all, but a parody of it; it cannot contain moral and artistic values. There is one point of view,

2. that mass culture is modern industrial folklore, but there is an inconsistency here, since folklore comes from the people’s environment, and mass culture is imposed from above.

3. Another position is that mass culture is a product of American culture, which is international in nature. It arose because a unified national culture(there were no speakers there traditional culture) It is mass culture that is an indicator of many aspects of the life of society and at the same time a collective propagandist and organizer of it, society, and moods. Within mass culture there is its own hierarchy of values and hierarchy of persons. A balanced rating system and, on the contrary, scandalous brawls, a fight for a place at the throne.

Popular culture is a type of cultural product that is produced in large volumes every day. It is assumed that mass culture is consumed by all people, regardless of their place of birth and country of residence. Characterizing her, the American philologist M. Bell emphasizes: “This culture is democratic. It is addressed to all people without distinction of classes, nations, levels of poverty and wealth.” This is the culture of everyday life, presented to the widest audience through various channels, including media and communications.

Mass culture is called differently: entertainment art, anti-fatigue art, kitsch, semi-culture, pop culture.

Mass culture manifested itself for the first time in the United States in turn of XIX-XX centuries Famous American political scientist Zbigniew Brzezinski liked to repeat a phrase that over time became commonplace: “If Rome gave the world rights, England - parliamentary activity, France - culture and republican nationalism, then modern USA gave to the world scientific and technological revolution and popular culture."

IN socially mass culture is shaping a new social order, called " middle class" The processes of its formation and functioning in the field of culture are most specifically described in the book of the French philosopher and sociologist E. Morena "Zeitgeist" (1962). The concept of “middle class” has become fundamental in Western culture and philosophy.

The purpose of mass culture is not so much to fill leisure time and relieve tension and stress in a person of industrial and post-industrial society, but rather to stimulate consumer consciousness in the viewer, listener, reader, which, in turn, forms a special type of passive, uncritical perception of this culture in a person. In other words, the human psyche is manipulated and the emotions and instincts of the subconscious sphere of human feelings and, above all, feelings of loneliness, guilt, hostility, and fear are exploited.

Stages of formation of mass culture:

1. The prerequisites for mass culture have been formed since the birth of humanity, at the dawn of Christian civilization. As an example, simplified versions of the Holy Books (for example, the “Bible for the Beggars”), designed for a mass audience, are usually given.

2. The origins of mass culture are associated with the appearance in European literature XVII-XVIII centuries of adventure, detective, adventure novel, which significantly expanded the readership due to huge circulations. Here, as a rule, they cite as an example the work of two writers: the Englishman Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) - the author of a widely famous novel“Robinson Crusoe” and 481 more biographies of people in so-called risky professions: investigators, military men, thieves, prostitutes, etc. and our compatriot Matvey Komarov (1730-1812) - creator of the sensational bestseller of the 18th-19th centuries “Tales of the Adventures of an English Mylord George" and other equally popular books. The books by both authors are written in brilliant, simple and clear language.

3. Big influence The law on compulsory universal literacy, adopted in 1870 in Great Britain, also influenced the development of mass culture.

The phenomenon of the emergence of mass culture seems to be:

For turn of the XIX century In the 20th century, a comprehensive massification of life became characteristic. It affected all its spheres: economics and politics, management and communication between people. The active role of the human masses in various social spheres has been analyzed in a number of philosophical works XX century.

Economic background and social functions"mass" culture

The origins of the widespread spread of mass culture in modern world lie in the commercialization of all social relations, which was pointed out by K. Marx in Capital. In this essay, K. Marx examined through the prism of the concept “commodity” the entire diversity social relations in bourgeois society.

The desire to see a product in the field of spiritual activity in combination with powerful development funds mass communication and led to the creation of a new phenomenon - mass culture. Predetermined commercial installation, assembly line production - all this largely means transfer to the sphere artistic culture the same financial-industrial approach that prevails in other branches of industrial production. In addition, many creative organizations are closely connected with banking and industrial capital, which initially predetermines them (be it cinema, design, TV) to produce commercial, box office, and entertainment works. In turn, the consumption of these products is mass consumption, because the audience that perceives this culture- this is a mass audience of large halls, stadiums, millions of viewers of television and movie screens.

Socially, mass culture forms a new social stratum, called the “middle class”. The processes of its formation and functioning in the field of culture are outlined in the most detailed way in the book French philosopher and sociologist E. Morin, “The Zeitgeist” (1962). The concept of “middle class” has become fundamental in Western culture and philosophy. This “middle class” also became the core of life in industrial society. He also made mass culture so popular.

Mass culture mythologizes human consciousness, mystifies real processes occurring in nature and in human society. There is a rejection of the rational principle in consciousness. The purpose of mass culture is not so much to fill leisure time and relieve tension and stress in a person of industrial and post-industrial society, but to stimulate consumer consciousness in the recipient (i.e., viewer, listener, reader), which in turn forms a special type - passive, uncritical person's perception of this culture. All this creates a personality that is quite easy to manipulate. In other words, the human psyche is manipulated and the emotions and instincts of the subconscious sphere of human feelings are exploited, and above all feelings of loneliness, guilt, hostility, fear, and self-preservation.

Shaped by popular culture mass consciousness diverse in its manifestation. However, it is distinguished by its conservatism, inertia, and limitations. It cannot cover all processes in development, in all the complexity of their interaction. In the practice of mass culture, mass consciousness has specific means of expression. Popular culture in to a greater extent focuses not on realistic images, but on artificially created images (image) and stereotypes. In popular culture, the formula (and this is the essence of artificially created image- image or stereotype) - this is the main thing. Similar situation encourages idolatry.

Mass culture in artistic creativity performs specific social functions. Among them, the main one is illusory-compensatory: introducing a person to the world of illusory experience and unrealistic dreams. And all this is combined with open or hidden propaganda of the dominant way of life, which has as its ultimate goal the distraction of the masses from social activity, people's adaptation to existing conditions, conformism.

Hence the use in popular culture of such genres of art as detective, western, melodrama, musical, comic book. It is within these genres that simplified “versions of life” are created that reduce social evil to psychological and moral factors. This is also supported by such ritual formulas of mass culture as “virtue is always rewarded”, “love and faith (in oneself, in God) always conquers everything.”

main manifestations and trends of mass culture:

- childhood industry (works of art for children, toys and industrially produced games, products for specific children's consumption, children's clubs and camps, etc.) pursuing the goals of explicit or camouflaged standardization of the content and forms of raising children, introducing ideologically oriented worldviews into their consciousness, laying the foundations of basic value systems , officially promoted in given society;

- massive comprehensive school . At the same time, it standardizes the listed knowledge and ideas on the basis of standard programs and reduces the transmitted knowledge to simplified forms of children's consciousness and understanding;
- facilities mass media (printed and electronic), broadcasting current relevant information to the general population, “interpreting” to the average person the meaning of ongoing events, judgments and actions of figures from various specialized spheres of social practice.
- system of national (state) ideology and propaganda of “patriotic” education, controlling and shaping the political and ideological orientations of the population and its individual groups (for example, political and educational work with military personnel), manipulating the consciousness of people in the interests of the ruling elites;
- mass political movements (party and youth organizations, manifestations, demonstrations, propaganda and election campaigns), initiated by the ruling or opposition elites with the aim of involving broad layers of the population in political actions, most of them very far from the political interests of the elites, who have little understanding of the meaning of the proposed political programs, for the support of which people are mobilized by whipping up political, nationalistic, religious and other psychosis;
- mass social mythology (national chauvinism and hysterical “patriotism”, social demagoguery, populism, quasi-religious and parascientific teachings and movements, extrasensory perception, “idol mania”, “spy mania”, rumors, gossip, etc.), simplifying complex system value orientations human beings and the variety of shades of worldview down to elementary dual oppositions (“ours – not ours”).
- entertainment industry , which includes mass artistic culture (in almost all types of literature and art, perhaps with the certain exception of architecture), mass staged entertainment performances (from sports and circus to erotic), professional sports(as a spectacle for fans), structures for organized entertainment (appropriate types of clubs, discos, dance floors) and other types of mass shows.

Origins the wide spread of mass culture in the modern world lies in the commercialization of all social relations. A predetermined commercial installation, conveyor production - all this largely means the transfer to the spheres of artistic culture of the same financial-industrial approach that prevails in other branches of industrial production. In turn, the consumption of these products is mass consumption, because the audience that perceives this culture is the mass audience of large halls, stadiums, millions of viewers of television and movie screens.

Specific features :

1) mass culture belongs to the majority; this is culture Everyday life;

2) mass culture is not the culture of the social “lower classes”; it exists in addition to and “above” social entities;

4) standard and stereotypical;

5) limited by conservatism (unable to quickly and adequately respond to changes in culture);

6) is more often of a consumer nature, which in turn forms a special type of passive, uncritical perception of this culture in a person; there is manipulation of the human psyche and exploitation of emotions and instincts of the subconscious sphere of human feelings and, above all, feelings of loneliness, guilt, hostility, fear, self-preservation;

7) in mass culture there is a mechanical replication of spiritual values.
Spheres of Manifestation : media, the system of state ideology (manipulating consciousness), mass political movements, secondary schools, the system of organizing and stimulating mass consumer demand, the system of image formation, leisure, etc.

There are quite contradictory points of view on the question of the time of the emergence of “mass culture”. Some consider it an eternal by-product of culture and therefore find it already in ancient times. There are much more grounds for attempts to connect the emergence of “mass culture” with the scientific and technological revolution, which gave rise to new ways of producing, distributing and consuming culture. Bourgeois “mass culture” first formed in the USA. On the one hand, this democratized the sphere of culture, on the other hand, it contributed to the penetration of commercial, political interests, and the pursuit of profit into this sphere.

American sociologist D. White believes that the first elements of mass culture include, for example, Roman gladiator fights, which attracted numerous spectators. According to A. Adorno, the prototypes of modern mass culture should be considered the forms of culture that appeared during the formation of capitalism in England, that is, at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries. He is convinced that the novels written during this period (Defoe, Richardson) were intended for the market and had a clear commercial orientation. Consequently, they gravitated towards “mass” rather than “elite” culture. However, Russian opponents (E. P. Smolskaya and others) point out that these works did not contain well-known templates that are characteristic of works of mass culture.

Probably, the starting point in the emergence and development of mass culture should still be considered the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century.

In Europe, “mass culture” (folk entertainment, the art of jugglers, mimes) has always been opposed to the official culture, which was controlled by the state and the church. In the USA, “mass culture” initially promoted stereotypes and ideas official culture, the main regulator of which was advertising. “Mass culture” has become such an integral part of the culture of American society, its cultural awareness that its study exceeds in the system, for example, American higher education. 56% training courses in the USA are devoted to the study of “popular” types of culture (courses on television, cinema, advertising, journalism). In England, the university education system includes special courses that include materials from the culture of cinema, music, science fiction and even football. In America, “mass culture” has acquired a dual character: the American mind, which is not occupied with practical concerns, remains at rest, while the other part of it is occupied with discoveries, production and social organization. The American will is embodied in the skyscraper, the American intellect is embodied in colonial buildings.

What is “mass culture”? As in the case of traditional culture, a universal definition of mass culture still does not exist. This situation has its own rational explanation. The fact is that, as a scientific and philosophical category, “mass culture” includes three concepts. Firstly, “culture”, as the special nature of the product. Secondly, “mass”, as the degree of distribution of the product. Thirdly, “culture” as a spiritual value.

One of the most interesting and productive is the approach to the definition of “mass culture” by D. Bell, according to which mass culture is a kind of organization ordinary consciousness in the information society, a special sign system or a special language in which members of the information society achieve mutual understanding.

Nowadays, mass culture penetrates almost all spheres of social life and forms its own unified semiotic space.

Obviously, mass culture is far from a homogeneous phenomenon. It has its own structure and levels. In modern cultural studies, as a rule, there are three main levels of mass culture:

* kitsch culture (i.e. low-grade, even vulgar culture);

* mid-culture (so to speak, the culture of the “middle hand”);

*art culture (mass culture, not devoid of a certain, sometimes even high, artistic content and aesthetic expression).

When analyzing mass culture as a special socio-cultural phenomenon, it is necessary to indicate its main characteristics. These characteristics, in my opinion, are:

* targeting a homogeneous audience;

* reliance on the emotional, irrational, collective, unconscious;

* escapism;

* quick availability;

* easy to forget;

* traditionalism and conservatism;

* operating with the average linguistic semiotic norm;

* entertaining.

“Mass culture” pays special attention to the topic of aggression. The brutality of the scenes of violence on the screen impresses the performance both in quantity and in its naturalness. The merits of this or that action film are often assessed in proportion to the number of corpses - visual violence beckons like a drug. An explanation for this fact is given on the basis of the philosophy of S. Freud. Since culture oppresses the natural principle in a person, instincts, he is forced to look for the illusory realization of his unsatisfied passions in art. This is why there is so much sex and aggression in “mass culture”. Another favorite topic is fear: such genres of popular culture as thriller, horror film, disaster film, etc. exploit this topic very actively. As a result, the human psyche, “tempered” by modern mass culture, becomes less sensitive to what is happening in reality. A person gets used to murder and violence. Mental indifference today is becoming the rule rather than the exception.

Before the emergence of technological society, man was connected with nature; thanks to religion, he felt like an organic part of the world and, in constant communication with others, drew vital energy. In a modern artificial world, surrounded by concrete, steel and glass industrial civilization person's connection with higher powers, with the organics of nature and with other people was narrowed to an absolute minimum and, left in the vacuum of his loneliness, a person began to need “drugs” much more than ever before. Moreover, the world has become so overcomplicated that it has become pointless to try to understand it. But there's a need to fill inner world was saved and this request could not be answered traditional forms escape from reality - alcoholism, drugs, sexuality, especially since these forms of escapism (escape from reality) are considered an anomaly, and the only acceptable form of escapism has become art, which transforms reality into aesthetically acceptable forms.

When the masses came to the forefront of history, the entire civilized world, regardless of political system each country, faced the question of how to control these millions and direct their energy in a direction that is safe for the authorities.

Culture previous centuries could not be used, the ideas it contained contradicted the tasks that the authorities set for themselves, and was too complex, it required many years of education.

Culture, like science, cannot exist without a customer; in the words of Scott Fitzgerald, “culture follows the money.” The new masters of life ordered music from performers and armed them with new technical means.

New technologies made it possible to simplify culture and make it accessible to wide consumption. As one of the customers, Lenin, said, “The most important of all arts for us is cinema, because our population is mostly illiterate.”

Radio, cinema, and then television, the very nature of these new technical means simplified ideas and images of traditional culture, and provided countless opportunities for the gradual replacement of a broad vision of the world with that flat, one-dimensional world that is understandable to the viewer and necessary for the customer.

The cinema lens breaks out real life a fragment defined by the director separates it from everything else with a frame and, as a result of the montage of images, a picture of the world is created that corresponds to the tasks that its creator sets for himself.

The television screen creates a window into a huge world, narrowing its multidimensionality to a few tens of centimeters of a flat image, and this is no longer the volumetric reality of the world, but its pale, simplified copy, devoid of the broad content of the original.

Another Soviet ideologist, Arbatov, thus defined the tasks for the creators of proletarian mass culture - “... the artist is imbued with the idea of expediency, processing the material not to please subjective tastes, but according to the objective tasks of production, ... artists become collaborators with engineers and scientists , administrators. Organize a common product guided not by personal motives, but by the objective needs of production, completing class assignments..."

“Objective needs of production” - to distract the masses from the real problems of their lives and force them to see the world the way the customer wants it.

“Mass culture, compensating for the feeling of helplessness of the average person, creates images of supermen, overcoming those obstacles that in practice are insurmountable, winning where the average person inevitably faces defeat. Supermen do not go to work from nine to five, do not tremble in front of their superiors, are not afraid, that tomorrow they will be fired without any explanation... They have no problem how to pay monthly bills. Supermen alone solve everything social problems, in a simple and understandable form - more often physical strength. These fairy tales do not reduce stress, but at least for a while, before going to sleep, they bring a state of sweet slumber. "Alexander Zinoviev.

The Nazis burned books in the streets and squares, Soviet authority books rotted in library archives, which aroused public interest in forbidden knowledge. The market makes it more effective way- it instills indifference to knowledge.

Ray Bradbury was afraid that the state would ban reading books. Aldous Huxley feared something else, that conditions would be created in which people would no longer want to read books. But they were both wrong; today they read much more than before.

Today, 1,500 daily newspapers and 7,000 weeklies are published. 75,000 new books are published annually. This is primarily entertainment literature, and there is a mass demand only for it, for “hamburger” type literature, for informational chewing gum simplified to the level of mass taste, “literature for the poor.”

And, at the same time, serious literature that poses pressing social problems never reaches even 10 thousand copies. They are mainly acquired only by universities; they are included in learning programs many colleges, thousands of students have read these books, but this does not change anything in their attitude to the existing status quo.

Based on the first point, we can conclude that the essence of “mass culture” lies in the influence of “mass culture” on a person’s consciousness, his attitude to reality and spiritual sensibility. The reason for the emergence of “mass culture” was the need of the authorities to control millions of masses and direct their energy in a direction that was safe for the authorities. Nowadays, mass culture penetrates almost all spheres of social life and forms its own unified semiotic space.

There are quite contradictory points of view on the question of the time of the emergence of “mass culture”. Some consider it an eternal by-product of culture and therefore discover it already in ancient times. There are much more grounds for attempts to connect the emergence of “mass culture” with the scientific and technological revolution, which gave rise to new ways of producing, distributing and consuming culture.

There are a number of points of view regarding the origins of mass culture in cultural studies:

1. The prerequisites for mass culture have been formed since the birth of humanity, and, in any case, at the dawn of Christian civilization. As an example, simplified versions of the Holy Books (for example, the “Bible for Beginners”), designed for a mass audience, are usually given.
2. The origins of mass culture are associated with the appearance in European literature XVII-XVIII centuries adventure, detective, adventurous novel, which significantly expanded the readership due to huge circulations. Here, as a rule, they cite as an example the work of two writers: the Englishman Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) - the author of the well-known novel "Robinson Crusoe" and 481 other biographies of people in so-called risky professions: investigators, military men, thieves, prostitutes, etc. d. and our compatriot Matvey Komarov (1730 - 1812) - the creator of the sensational bestseller of the 18th-19th centuries "The Tale of the Adventures of the English My Lord George" and other equally popular books. The books by both authors are written in brilliant, simple and clear language.
3. The law on compulsory universal literacy, adopted in 1870 in Great Britain, had a great influence on the development of mass culture, which allowed many to master main view artistic creativity XIX century - novel.

And yet, all of the above is the prehistory of mass culture. And in the proper sense, mass culture manifested itself in the United States at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The famous American political scientist Zbigniew Brzezinski liked to repeat a phrase that became commonplace over time: “If Rome gave the world law, England - parliamentary activity, France - culture and republican nationalism, then the modern USA gave the world a scientific and technological revolution and mass culture.”

The phenomenon of the emergence of mass culture is presented as follows. The turn of the 19th and 20th centuries was characterized by a comprehensive massification of life. It affected all areas of economics and politics, management and communication between people. The active role of the human masses in various social spheres was analyzed in a number of philosophical works of the 20th century.

Of course, these days the mass has changed significantly. The masses have become educated and informed. In addition, the subjects of mass culture today are not just the masses, but also individuals united by various connections. Since people act simultaneously as individuals, and as members of local groups, and as members of mass social communities, insofar as the subject of “mass culture” can be considered as dual, that is, both individual and mass. In turn, the concept of “mass culture” characterizes the features of production cultural values in modern industrial society, designed for mass consumption of this crop. At the same time, mass production of culture is understood by analogy with the conveyor belt industry.

What are economic prerequisites formation and social functions of mass culture? The origins of the wide spread of mass culture in the modern world lie in the commercialization of all social relations, which was pointed out by K. Marx in Capital. In this essay, K. Marx examined through the prism of the concept of “commodity” the entire diversity of social relations in bourgeois society.

The desire to see a product in the sphere of spiritual activity, combined with the powerful development of mass communication, led to the creation of a new phenomenon - mass culture. A predetermined commercial installation, conveyor production - all this largely means the transfer to the sphere of artistic culture of the same financial-industrial approach that prevails in other branches of industrial production. In addition, many creative organizations are closely connected with banking and industrial capital, which initially predetermines them (be it cinema, design, TV) to produce commercial, box office, and entertainment works. In turn, the consumption of these products is mass consumption, because the audience that perceives this culture is the mass audience of large halls, stadiums, millions of viewers of television and movie screens. Socially, mass culture forms a new social stratum, called the “middle class”. The processes of its formation and functioning in the field of culture are most concretely described in the book of the French philosopher and sociologist E. Moreng “The Zeitgeist” (1962). The concept of "middle class" has become fundamental in Western culture and philosophy. This “middle class” also became the core of life in industrial society. He also made mass culture so popular. Mass culture mythologizes human consciousness, mystifies real processes occurring in nature and in human society. There is a rejection of the rational principle in consciousness. The purpose of mass culture is not so much to fill leisure time and relieve tension and stress in a person of industrial and post-industrial society, but to stimulate consumer consciousness in the recipient (that is, the viewer, listener, reader), which in turn forms a special type - passive, uncritical perception of this culture in humans. All this creates a personality that is quite easy to manipulate. In other words, the human psyche is manipulated and the emotions and instincts of the subconscious sphere of human feelings are exploited, and above all feelings of loneliness, guilt, hostility, fear, and self-preservation.

Features of the production and consumption of cultural values have allowed culturologists to identify two social forms existence of culture: mass culture and elite culture. Mass culture is a type of cultural product that is produced in large volumes every day. It is assumed that mass culture is consumed by all people, regardless of place and country of residence. It is the culture of everyday life, presented to the widest audience through various channels, including the media and communications.

When and how did mass culture appear? There are a number of points of view regarding the origins of mass culture in cultural studies.

Let us give as an example the most frequently found in the scientific literature:

1. The prerequisites for mass culture have been formed since the birth of humanity, and, in any case, at the dawn of Christian civilization.
2. The origins of mass culture are associated with the appearance in European literature of the 17th-18th centuries of the adventure, detective, and adventurous novel, which significantly expanded the readership due to huge circulations. Here, as a rule, they cite as an example the work of two writers: the Englishman Daniel Defoe, author of the well-known novel “Robinson Crusoe” and 481 other biographies of people in the so-called risky professions: investigators, military men, thieves, etc., and our compatriot Matvey Komarova.
3. The law on compulsory universal literacy adopted in Great Britain in 1870 had a great influence on the development of mass culture, which allowed many to master the main form of artistic creativity of the 19th century - the novel.

And yet, all of the above is the prehistory of mass culture. And in the proper sense, mass culture manifested itself for the first time in the United States.

The phenomenon of the emergence of mass culture is presented as follows. The turn of the 19th century was characterized by a comprehensive massification of life. It affected all its spheres: economics and politics, management and communication between people. The active role of the human masses in various social spheres was analyzed in a number of philosophical works of the 20th century.

X. Ortega y Gasset in his work “The Revolt of the Masses” derives the very concept of “mass” from the definition of “crowd”. A crowd, in quantitative and visual terms, is a multitude, and a multitude, from a sociological point of view, is a mass,” explains Ortega. And further he writes: “Society has always been a mobile unity of the minority and the masses. A minority is a set of persons who are specially singled out; the mass is a group of people who are not singled out in any way. Mass is average person. Thus, a purely quantitative definition turns into a qualitative one.”

An even more in-depth analysis of “mass culture” was made by the Canadian sociologist M. McLuhan. He, like D. Bell, comes to the conclusion that mass communications give rise to new type culture. McLuhan emphasizes that the starting point of the era of “industrial and typographical man” was the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. McLuhan, defining art as the leading element of spiritual culture, emphasized the escapist (i.e., leading away from reality) function of artistic culture.

Of course, these days the mass has changed significantly. The masses have become educated and informed. In addition, the subjects of mass culture today are not just the masses, but also individuals united by various connections. In turn, the concept of “mass culture” characterizes the features of the production of cultural values in modern industrial society, designed for mass consumption of this culture.

History of the emergence of the subculture

Non-normative (deviating from socially accepted norms, antisocial) behavior of young people first became the object of attention of scientists in the United States of America in the 30-50s. XX century.

Sociologists, psychologists, and lawyers have studied the emergence and functioning of youth gangs in big cities, first of all, Chicago (many of you will remember the resoundingly successful American film "Gangs of Chicago" with Leonardo DiCaprio in leading role). Here, non-normative (that is, non-standard from the point of view of social norms) behavior of young people was considered. The film, naturally, due to the specifics of the genre, somewhat romanticizes images and situations; researchers analyzed their causes and essence. Research has shown that members of such gangster associations live in accordance with their own rules and norms, which are a deviation from the basic socio-cultural norm. It was to them, these associations, that the concept of “subculture” was first applied. Subculture began to be called a subsystem of society that is not recognized by society as a whole, primarily by state authorities.

After the Second World War, the term “youth subculture” came into use among sociologists and began to be used not only in relation to criminal groups, but also to all cultural phenomena associated with youth. It was noted that growing prosperity leads to an increase in the purchasing power of young people, and this in turn gives rise to the emergence of a new, independent market for goods and services aimed at young buyers. It has been called a "teen culture breakthrough." However, during this period, deviations from the basic norms and values of society among young people were insignificant and many researchers, on this basis, denied the existence of the concept " youth culture", arguing their position by the fact that powerful means of influence and control over the lifestyle of the younger generation are concentrated in the hands of the older generation.

But those who viewed adolescence as the beginning of a new intracultural process were right. The production of widely available “cultural goods” (pop music, fashion, etc.) has led to the fact that teenagers have become an international style movement, producing and consuming not only a variety of fashion and music. youth subculture gradually differentiated, various movements arose in it, which were associated not only and not so much with fashion and music, but with socio-political views - this process covered culture in the 60-70s. Then they started talking about the “conflict of generations”, and as a result, interest in research studying this problem sharply increased.

History of the emergence of mass culture

The emergence of mass culture is associated with the formation at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. mass society. The material basis of what happened in the 19th century. Significant changes were the transition to machine production. But industrial machine production presupposes standardization, not only of equipment, raw materials, technical documentation, but also of workers’ skills, working hours, etc. Standardization processes and spiritual culture were also affected.

Two spheres of a working person’s life have become quite clearly defined: work and leisure. As a result, effective demand arose for those goods and services that helped to spend leisure time. The market responded to this demand by offering a “standard” cultural product: books, films, gramophone records, etc. They were intended primarily to help people have an interesting time. free time, take a break from monotonous work.

The use of new technologies in production and the expansion of mass participation in politics required certain educational preparation. In industrial developed countries Important steps are being taken aimed at developing education, especially primary education. As a result, a large readership appeared in a number of countries, and after this, one of the first genres of mass culture arose - mass literature.

Weakened with the transition from traditional society By the industrial era, direct connections between people were partly replaced by the emerging means of mass communication, capable of quickly broadcasting various kinds of messages to a large audience.

Mass society, as many researchers have noted, gave birth to its typical representative - the “man of the masses” - the main consumer of mass culture. Philosophers of the early 20th century. gave him predominantly negative characteristics- “a man without a face”, “a man like everyone else”. In the first half of the last century, the Spanish philosopher X. Ortega y Gaset was one of the first to give critical analysis this new social phenomenon- “mass man”. It is with the “mass man” that the philosopher associates the crisis of high European culture, the existing system of public power. The masses displace the elite minority (“people with special qualities") from a leading position in society, replaces it, begins to dictate its terms, its views, its tastes. The elite minority are those who demand a lot from themselves and shoulder burdens and obligations on themselves. The majority does not demand anything; for them, living means going with the flow, remaining as they are, without trying to surpass themselves. X. Ortega y Gaset considered the main features of the “mass man” to be the unbridled growth of life’s demands and innate ingratitude towards everything that satisfies these demands. Mediocrity with an unbridled thirst for consumption, “barbarians who poured out of the hatch onto the stage of the complex civilization that gave birth to them” - this is how unflatteringly characterizes most philosopher of his contemporaries.

In the middle of the 20th century. The “mass man” increasingly began to be correlated not with “rebellious” violators of the foundations, but, on the contrary, with a completely well-intentioned part of society - with the middle class. Realizing that they are not the elite of society, middle class people are nevertheless satisfied with their material and social status. Their standards, norms, rules, language, preferences, tastes are accepted by society as normal and generally accepted. For them, consumption and leisure are no less important than work and career. The expression “mass middle class society” appeared in the works of sociologists.

There is another point of view in science today. According to it, mass society disappears from the historical stage altogether, and so-called demassification occurs. Uniformity and unification are being replaced by emphasizing the characteristics of an individual person, personalization of personality, replacing “ to the mass person From the industrial era comes the “individualist” of post-industrial society. So, from the “barbarian who burst onto the scene” to the “respectable ordinary citizen“- such is the diversity of views on the “mass person”.

The term "mass culture" covers various cultural products, as well as the system of their distribution and creation. First of all, these are works of literature, music, visual arts, films and videos. It also includes patterns of everyday behavior, appearance. These products and samples come into every home thanks to the media, advertising, and the fashion institute.