Advances in all Popular Culture

                At first while reading What is this "black" in black popular culture? (Rethinking Race) by Stuart Hall, I thought the context did not make sense and was quite scattered. In order to explain what black popular is, Hall needed to give a background of popular culture he explains and gives reasons for the ways that black pop culture has evolved and grown into its own unique genre. Postmodernism help introduce black popular culture on a nationally known scale.  Since everything about postmodernism was supposed to be different and cutting edge, it only makes sense that Hall’s third point about the moments that are important to black popular culture. “--there's nothing that global postmodernism loves better than a certain kind of difference: a touch of ethnicity, a taste of the exotic (Hall, 2)...”

                Hall is interested in cultural hegemony and how it has formed and contributed to specifically black popular culture. Cultural hegemony is produced by dominant groups to make subordinate groups feel like their opinions matter and cultural changes are being made in society. In this case, black pop culture can be a form of cultural hegemony. However, Hall contributes instances in which cultural strategies that can actually make a difference (3). When I think of black popular culture that break barriers and cultivates cultural change I think of the way that genres of music like jazz and blues. They have become iconic because of African American jazz artists.

                Despite this article being a little confusing for me, I think Hall’s main idea is that all aspects of popular culture has evolved and is continuously changing. Hall says “…popular culture, commodified and stereotyped as it often is, is not at all, as we sometimes think of it, the arena where we find who we really are, the truth of our experience (9).” Thus, black popular culture will continue to grow and become more known and integrated into society.