Assignment 1-2 Popular Culture Artifact

My understanding of popular culture is anything that is popular with a small or large group, be it now or from the past. Popular culture is anything from television, music, books, movies, fashion, celebrities, historical events, internet, and technology. Some of the artifacts/icons I can think of are: music went from Elvis and The Beatles to Godsmack and Fergie, television goes from The Brady Bunch to The Soprano’s, movies from Star Wars to Harry Potter, technology goes from the typewriter to computers. Popular culture to me is things that are popular with society for a long or short time. Each decade seems to have trends that are popular culture artifacts.
Popular culture is relevant to me in a business environment due to technology is always changing. Any business needs to keep up with technology to run more efficiently. For example my boss wanted me to update the company website for him, by knowing the new technology to do so I created a more effective website for my company. Another example would be fashion in the business world. You need to dress appropriately for interviews and the type of job you hold, if you were to show up for an interview not dressed for that position you may be looked over. In my future employment popular culture will continue to shape what goes on in any business. Keeping up with technology will get you further ahead in your chosen career because technology is always changing.
An example of a popular culture artifact that I chose was Tupac Shakur. In the 1990’s Tupac was viewed as one of the greatest rappers of all time. There was much controversy from the media calling Tupac’s music gangster rap. Many people who weren’t fans said his music promoted drug abuse, violence, and sexual behavior. If you have ever listened to his music you can see the two different sides of it. One side is the hard street life side expressing how hard it was for him growing up as a young black man such as in the song “If I die 2nite.” The other side is the softer side praising women for being strong such as in the song “Dear Mama”. It all depends on your objectivity to listen to the music and hear the real meaning of it. I chose Tupac because I listened to his music and various artists like him when I was growing up. Tupac is still a part of popular culture today and will remain so through the music he wrote.