Popular Culture:HOUSINGChapter 4, Key Issue #3

Popular Housing

•As opposed to folk culture, which varies more based on place, popular culture housing varies more from time to time than it does from place to place.

(1945-1960)

Minimal Traditional: Simple, affordable, young WWII veteran families, 1940s-1950s

Ranch: 1 story, required large lot and encouraged suburban sprawl, 1950s-1960s

Split-Level: Family room & garage on lower level, dining room, living room, bedrooms, kitchen on second level above garage, 1950s-1970s

Contemporary: Flat roofs, very “geometric,” late 1960s-1970s

(1960- Present)

Mansard: Entire second story walls covered in shingles, sloped into roof (late 1960s- 1970s)

Neo-Tudor: Dominant, steep front face gables (see above) and half-timbered detailing (1970s)

Neo-French: (1970s-1980s) High roofs, large, round top windows (1970s-1980s)

Neo-Colonial: Continuously popular since 1980s, though has adapted to include open area living/dining rooms & kitchens

http://pixdaus.com/single.php?id=39311

Shenyang, China

Hopefully you though of some of the following:

(1) Uniformity(2) Materials need not be local(3) Planned communities as opposed to

spontaneous placement of houses(4) Larger than most folk houses– are more

than just “functional”

Popular Culture: CLOTHINGChapter 4, Key Issue #3

Popular Clothing

•Clothing reflective of popular culture can spread across an area (region, country, world) with little regard to the distinctive physical characteristics of a given place

What are some of the influences on clothing

styles in MDCs?

Hopefully you mentioned:• Clothing often reflects occupation(i.e. lawyer, construction worker, teacher)

• Income effects fashion choices if people buy what is “in style” that particular year (or month!)

• Increase communications have allowed for the rapid diffusion of clothing styles as well as the “popularizing” of folk clothing styles

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Popular Culture:FOODChapter 4, Key Issue #3

Food in MDCs•First of all, we eat A LOT

▫Consumption of large quantities of snacks and alcoholic beverages is a popular food custom

This displays how popular food can be influenced by local food availability or proximity to certain produce…

• Where are tequila & Canadian whisky consumed the most, respectively? Why?

Total per capita consumption in gallons of ethanol by State, United States, 2006

•Consumption of certain items (i.e. alcohol) may vary by states based on advertising or religious differences

Notice how Utah and areas of the South have low

consumption because of

Mormon and Baptist beliefs

On the other hand, places like Nevada rely on

the sale of alcohol to accompany gambling and

other entertainment in

the state.

Finally,• Income and food advertising play a large

role in what Americans (or citizens of other MDCs) eat

• Distribution of popular food customs can relate to environments OR religious values

• Consider the production of wine▫ Vineyards cultivated in temperate climates of moderately cold, rainy winters

and fairly long, hot summers▫ Wines today can be identified (by avid drinkers) by region or place of origin

based on the taste

NPR: “Climate Change has California Vitners Rethinking Grapes”

Click here to read story