Popular American culture essay

In my essay I will try to look at the key trends of popular American culture in the social, political, personal, and religious fields. The determination of culture includes peculiarities which passed down from generation to generation. Nowadays under the word “culture” we understand everything that takes place in our society. It is possible to say that popular culture is the culture of everyone in the whole society.

The majority of modern notions are spread by mass-media. Popular culture influences on all spheres of our lives: what we eat, what clothes we wear and what kind of books we read. Especially, popular culture plays an important role in politics. For example, the Democrats and Republicans, who so often discuss the political course of America, very often just make panic and chaos in our society, because their ideas are diametrically opposite to each other. Conflicts between two major political forces are the reasons of the conflicts between the people who support them; sometimes the matter is about racial and religious discrimination. The Republicans offer to be “rich and wealthy”, while the Democrats see future of America in existing of “Middle-Class or Poor”. Most of people sure that their current account in their banks determines their rights and status in the society. But I do not agree with such statement ”“ we are equal.

Religion is still one of the most important aspects of our life. This aspect determines the way of our life: what we are allowed to eat or to wear, what kind of music we must listen to as well as with what people we must communicate or not. About eight-in-ten Americans say they have no doubt that God exists, that prayer is an important part of their lives, and that “we will all be called before God at the Judgment Day to answer for our sins.”. About 86.8% of Americans view themselves as religious people, about 70% of Americans think that it is important for presidential candidates to be strongly religious, and 50% are very uncomfortable when presidential candidates express how religious they are. (The Pew Research Center, 2007)

Concerning to the social issues the survey finds the declining of traditional values, especially in such areas as homosexuality and the place of a woman in modern society. In 1987, about half of the survey’s respondents (49%) gave conservative answers to at least four of the six questions. In 2007, just 30% did so. This trend has occurred in all major social, political, and demographic groups in the population (The Pew Research Center, 2007). Such changes in social conservatism can be explained by the generation changes, when every new age group comes to adulthood with less conservative views than its predecessors. The answers on question “AIDS might be God’s punishment for immoral sexual behavior” also have changed. Nowadays only 23% of respondents agreed with such statement, and 72% disagreed, when this question was first asked in 1987 the results were 43% agreeing and 47% disagreeing.

Next statement is about the role of a woman, when in 1987 American people were asked “Should women return to their traditional roles in society?”, about 66% rejected this statement, while current results show that 75% of respondent are against the idea that women should return to their “traditional roles”. The percentage completely disagreeing has increased more dramatically ”“ from 29% in 1987 to 51% currently. (The Pew Research Center, 2007)