Popular Culture

'Popular culture (or pop culture) is the entirety of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes,mages, and other phenomena that are within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the late 20th and early 21st century. Heavily influenced by mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday lives of the society.
Popular culture is often viewed as being trivial and "dumbed down" in order to find consensual acceptance throughout the mainstream. As a result, it comes under heavy criticism from various non-mainstream sources (most notably religious groups and countercultural groups) which deem it superficial, consumerist,sensationalist, or corrupt.' - 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_culture

Popular culture is everywhere. You know it when you come to the Internet, listen to music, watch television or go to a movie, concert or stage show. You the know the artists, the actors and actresses, sports personalities and the games they play. Today, anything with a buzz is deemed pop culture. The book definition says pop culture is a collection of thoughts, ideas, attitudes, perspectives, images (you name it) preferred by the mainstream population. A sort of common denominator.  
The most common pop culture catagories are: entertainment (movies, music, TV), sports, news (as in people/places in news), politics, fashion/clothes and technologySlang, has also become popular in our culture as each year seems to have its own slang signature, especially with tweens and teens. Terms such as "going viral" are new pop culture - not only the term, but the viral product itself.   
-http://www.mrpopculture.com/what-is-pop-culture
 Used in Context - An artist or designer could take popular culture into consideration to market, inspire, influence or to support their work.

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