Marxism, created by Karl Marx, is an ideology that came about during the second industrial revolution in Europe. Marx noticed how the families with in the working class in the factories were being exploited by the factory owners who were taking advantage of the capitalist system during the industrial revolution. Marx's idea was the idea that there should be a working class uprising against the factory owners. It is the belief that the economy should control everything, not those with the money power. Looking at popular culture from this economic sense, both population controls the price of goods and services through their demand. They consume the product based on its popularity. The more popular, the more demand for the product to be consumed, and allowing for the price to become more expensive. This then leads to a sense of status that a person belongs to if they own this more expensive product.
Hegemony, another ideology that deals with social aspects in a Marxist way, that I am not very familiar with at all so I am going to define it through pop culture as best as I can. Many things in popular culture can be taken out of context. When popular culture, started becoming "popular" as globalization increased, ideologies, brand names, and styles increasingly became double sided. Today, the popularity of products and goods are driven by both the population and the business owners. Something today can become very popular from with in the middle class population as people influence each other what is "cool" and what is not. Something can also become very popular today with the drive of the corporation owners. They have the ability to force a product to become popular through advertisement and marketing. Once a few people accept it from the population, the product has the chance to become apart of popular culture. There is a "spontaneous consent" from the culture.
In both a sense of Marxism and hegemony, The Real World series went from just another show on television to one of the most talked about television shows for teens on television. In the beginning of the series, the Real World house was big, but it wasn't "hooked up." Now, one of the most important aspects of each season, is the location of where it takes place, how big and stocked the house is with indoor pools and hot tubs, and the kinds of jobs that the cast mates get to experience. None of this is even remotely close to real life. The demographic that the show is supposed to attract would never be able to live in the types of houses that these cast mates get to live in.
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Hey Brit, I thought that you did a great job by starting off giving a describtion of what Marxism and Hegemony are. I also really liked how you were able to work popular culture into those explainations as well. When you started talking about MTV's Real World and how it Marxism and Hegemony worked into it the development of the show and how it has grown that was a great idea. Giving us how the show started off and what it has grown into was a great way to look at these two idelogies. Also, how the places and location are such a big deal along with the "toys" that come along with this pimped out palace has to be a dream for these young kids that are around our age, so I totally agree with you on that. Great Job and I'll see you tomorrow.
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