Popular culture is a site of both, containment and resistance. Although a lot of the production and distribution of popular culture is controlled by the dominant class, in line with the Marxist view (Marx & Engels, 2009), Stuart Hall (2009) believed that cultural strategies can make a difference and “shift the dispositions of power.” Hall points out that in the context of the postmodern fascination with difference within culture, marginality, “though it remains peripheral to the broader mainstream, has never been such a productive space as it is now.” An example of this is black popular culture, which has firmly made its way onto the top charts of the music industry, for example, and has, in a way, become part of the mainstream. However, Hall argues that the most resistant and different forms of popular culture are underfunded and deformed, incorporated and “spectacularized.” This leads to generalisations and stereotypes that reinforce the containment function of popular cult.
Although popular culture is usually based on the experiences, pleasures, memories, and traditions of the people”, as it is becoming a site of commodification, “where culture enters directly into the circuits of a dominant technology — the circuits of power and capital. Control over narratives and representations passes into the hands of the established cultural bureaucracies.” Hall also notes that the incorporation of marginality is at times met with the “aggressive resistance to difference,” and the reaffirmation of xenophobia and racism, for example. However, according to Foucault (2009), power doesn’t only come from top down, it is present everywhere and exercised even by the subordinate groups (not just the dominant), and is always accompanied by resistance. In this sense, the persisting discourses of the dominant group can also be seen as a form of “resistance” – resistance against the encroachment of the marginal and different into the discourses of the mainstream. Furthermore, power is not only top down, but also sideways, for example misogynist hip-hop by someone like Kanye West can be opposed by feminist R&B (e.g. Beyonce) as resistance within the wider context of black popular culture.
Furthermore, both Hall and Foucault would agree that a “bad representation” is better than no representation. Foucault agues that a discourses created against homosexuality, also allowed these concepts to be reversed to speak on homosexuality’s behalf, using the same categories which disqualified it. Similarly, Hall says that although essentialism towards race is not ideal, it was once necessary to win a space within discourse, which then allowed it to be contested and modified. Judith Butler was critical of the lack of discourse on lesbianism up to the 90s, even negative discourse, suggesting it hasn’t even made it into the category of the “thinkable”. However, in 2004 the L Word TV series touched on the theme and several movies focusing on lesbian characters (such as The kids are alright and I can’t think straight) were released after the 2000s. Although these are often criticised for being misrepresentative of the lesbian community, by making these discourses publicly available they allow open the topic up to be contestation and challenged.
Furthermore, the growing usage of the Internet, means of distribution and production are less controlled by the dominant class and opens another channel for resistance. A video was posted on youtube earlier this year, entitled “If Asians Said The Stuff White People Say”. It stars american kids of Asian descents and humorously addresses the inappropriateness of white discourse towards other races. The video was re-posted by “Stuff”, New Zealand’s leading news website, as the issues are relevant here.
Overall, Hall is right in pointing out that popular culture is a site of both, containment and resistance. Even though means of production are often controlled by the dominant groups, popular culure, especially today, allows to produce discourses that represent the dominated and marginal groups. Even if these discourses are not always positive, it opens them to the possibility of being contested and challenged. Furthermore, even opposition to such discourses can be viewed as resistance, if applying Focault’s model that suggests that both power and resistance come from all direction. This also means that both containment and resistance exist within all groups of popular culture, not just in the negotiations between the dominant and marginal.
References
Butler, J. (2009). “Imitation and Gender Insubordination.” Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Anthology. Ed. J. Storey. Harlow: Pearson. (224 – 238)
Foucault, M (2009). “Method.” Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Anthology. Ed. J. Storey. Harlow: Pearson, (313 – 319)
Hall, S (2009). “What is this ‘Black’ in Black Popular Culture?” Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Anthology. Ed. J. Storey. Harlow: Pearson, (374 – 382)
Marx, K., & Engels, F. (2009). Ruling Class and Ruling Ideas. In J. Storey (Ed.), Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader (4th ed.) (pp. 58-59). Harlow: Pearson
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