ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Popular culture studies

Popular culture studies is like learning about all the cool things that people like to watch, listen to, read or talk about! Just like how you love watching cartoons or playing with your favourite toys, grownups too have their own favourite shows or music or games they love to spend time with.

These grownups who like to study and research about popular culture also want to know more about why people like certain things so much. They want to understand how pop culture (short for popular culture) impacts our lives and how it is influenced by different factors like society, history and technology.

For example, let's say you love watching superhero movies. A popular culture studies expert will try to find out why superheroes are so popular right now. They might think about how our world is changing, and how people need a hero to look up to. They might research about the history of superheroes in comics and how they have evolved over time. They might also look into how movies are made and marketed to audiences to make them successful.

So in a way, popular culture studies is like trying to figure out why we like what we like, and what that tells us about ourselves and our society. It's like looking at a big puzzle of all the things people like, and trying to put the pieces together to understand why they fit together the way they do!
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