The Lord Of The Rings: Pop Culture Analysis

As stated previously, mass culture theorists believe that pop culture is done through predetermined templates (Brantlinger 280). Well, in the case of the Lord of the Rings, no project like this had ever existed. No film previously had a 100 million-person fanbase. The production crew were able to use new technologies to connect themselves to fans in creating a trilogy that would be both ones which the fans would want to see but be profitable (Shefrin 268). As well, mass culture theorists believe that the culture industry focus on the needs of the audience rather than the artist (Brantlinger 282-283). Well, in this case, the artist was a member of the audience. In a 2002 interview, Jackson stated “I really made the conscious attempt to make

Well, this leads us to the final popular culture theory, which is through people’s expression of interests, choices, and activities. This theoretical camp believes that people are active agents which create cultural meanings through commodities created by the cultural industry (Takacs 6). Yet, individuals place their own meanings in different and personal ways (Takacs 6). Suggesting that no commodity has a pre-determined culture, but it is created by individuals through how they consume or make do with it (Takacs 6). Although the mass culture theories of transmission and production are evident in the creation of the trilogy it cannot explain all of its success. The trilogy having so many pre-existing fans was a major player in the film's successes, however, the trilogies versatility also had an impact. As not everyone that watched the films, read the books. Additionally, some could have heard about the films through advertisements or were convinced through word of mouth, regardless two camps existed, book readers and non-readers. This initial divide indicates that right off the bat the film had two preconceived notions of the commodity. For book readers, it will be the books coming to life and their pre-existing notions of said books will be compared to what the film illustrates. For non-book readers, they have no preconceived notion of anything in the story. Starting off with a blank slate, and the film paints the picture of the whole story. The second distinction in interpretation is within the film itself, specifically, what it constitutes to the watcher. A 2003-4 study done on the Lord of the Rings to decipher what function the film plays in lives of various people (Barker 375). With the study producing 12 major distinct outlooks on the film: