What is the relationship between popular culture and high culture? In this essay I intend to explore the terms popular culture and high culture and I will also look at how the relationship between these two terms has become distorted and blurred over time. In order to reinforce what I am saying about popular and high culture I will be using a range of examples to show how the line between high culture and popular culture has become blurred. We first need to define the term “culture”, so as to explain pop and high culture. According to Raymond Williams, culture is “one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language”. Williams suggests three definitions. First, culture can be used to refer to a general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development. A second use of the word ‘culture’ might be to suggest a particular …show more content…
Jazz and classical music are considered high cultured musical tastes, whereas rock, country and pop music are considered more popular culture. Let’s pass on food. Hot-dogs, burgers, pizza are all parts of pop culture, as anyone has access to them, while foie gras, escargots, oysters are parts of haute cuisine, hence high culture. Some popular culture of the past such as jazz and theatre, though, through time and social change has become high