From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Popular culture
is
culture
which interests the general masses of people. It is influenced and spread by
mass media
. People experience or learn popular culture by hearing
popular music
on the
radio
, watching
television
, playing
video games
, or reading popular books and
magazines
. Popular culture may affect all kinds of knowledge or thought, including
art
,
religion
, or
language
.
Popular culture does not follow any one system of ideas,
customs
,
philosophy
,
religion
, or
morality
. Some of its forms include grammar, language, or pictures that are not accepted under a society's customs. For this reason a
society
or
government
may not approve of popular culture. If a government thinks that any form of it may
harm
people or cause society to change in a bad way, the government may ban it. This practice is known as
censorship
. In some countries popular culture is protected under
freedom of speech
or other
rights
.
The
United States
is an industrialized country (see
industrialization
) in which citizens use mass media. Its government protects language and cultures under freedom of speech. The U.S. has had periods of popular culture since the
20th century
. For instance, after
World War II
a group of children known as
Baby boomers
experienced a sudden expansion of popular culture.
