Popular culture studies finds itself in a peculiar position in relation to our cultural moment. It shares its mixed theoretical and methodological roots with cultural studies, a term first used by Richard Hoggart and associated with British universities in the 1950s through the 1970s. Under Hoggart and Stuart Hall, the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in Birmingham interrogated relations between the “superstructure” (cultural forms) and the “base” (political economy). While undergoing constant dialogic evolution—from Althusser on—this essentially dialectical approach has remained a central tenant of cultural studies to this day. At the outset, popular culture tended to be seen as something connected with the masses, giving ideological impetus to its impartial, if often impassioned, appropriation as a valid object of study. Broader critical theory, both of the social scientific Frankfurt School variety and the more “literary” French philosophes, provided popular culture studies with varied and often complementary lenses for...
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