Fredericton High School Makes a Pop out of Culture
By Kyle M.
Pop culture has made an immense impact around the world, but in Fredericton High School, it shows the most progress.
Looking around Fredericton High School, typically someone would see different cliques and groups of friends. Generally the groups of friends look like they all have one thing in common, pop culture. Different things have come around to influence each and every student in the school, even if it doesn’t show as much on the exterior, the interior shows a lot of influence of popular culture.
Pop artists such as Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Adele and Katy Perry have all revolutionized music in their own way. They break records everyday and they show everyone that you can come from any background and still succeed. Before the current generation, we had the previous generation that we would call legendary icons. Remember Britney Spears? Yeah, the one who danced around in a school girl outfit? She’s sold over 150 million records and is a Grammy award winning singer/songwriter 13 years later. I’m sure everyone knows of the familiar name Madonna? She’s sold over 200 million records and finished a 320 million dollar tour back in 2009. But, what does this all have to do with popular culture?
Britney Spears helped sell Pepsi in our popular culture
“Teenagers are affected by pop culture in almost every aspect of life whether it is music, media, celebrities fashion and even literature,” says Ms. Marion Hiltz, who is a business and marketing teacher at the school. “These kinds of things have become top priority for teenagers of today’s world.” Popular musicians such as Britney Spears, Madonna, Janet Jackson and even Mariah Carey have all influenced what has been going on today. The innovation of all of these popular musicians has created a new era of fashion, music and visual.
Amongst the vast majority of popular solo artists, bands have also created a mass influence on the popular culture we have revolved ourselves around. No matter what era they’re from, it’s all gradually built itself on top of each other and will continue to do so until either popular culture fades into something else, or the world ends. Ranging from the Spice Girls all the way to Nirvana, they’re both influences on the teenagers. Back in the 1990’s, Nirvana made a huge impact on teenagers, bringing in the grunge phase that a lot of people went through. Then, Spice Girls introduced the high top shoes. Even today, bands like Coldplay and Metallica leave a lasting impression on students.
“If you think about it, celebrities affect our everyday lives. They are on TV, on the radio, in movies, playing sports, and even in newspapers,” says Ms. Hiltz “There is no way that we can escape them. With all these celebrities around, teenagers are looking up to them as a guide. They get fashion trends, how they act, even sometimes how they talk, all from celebrities.” Reality television has changed the way for popular culture and how it can influence teenagers. Shows like Jersey Shore have worked their way into a lifestyle in teenagers’ lives. A lot of the students will be going around saying phrases like “Yeah Buddy” or “GTL”. These are popular phrases – or in this case, acronyms – are said by television personalities like Paul “Pauly D” DelVecchio and Vinny Guadagnino. “I’ve never really associated myself with Jersey Shore,” says Brandon Pugh, a grade twelve student “I don’t hold anything against anyone who watches the show, but it’s not something I would watch.”
Not only have reality shows changed everything, but television shows themselves have worked their way into the teenage way of life. In the 90’s, shows like Beverly Hills 90210 had made a huge phenomenon and brought in the trend of dramatized shows directed to the teenage audience. Shows like the Vampire Diaries, the O.C., and even the spin-off 90210 have made their way into the lives of teenagers in the present times.
All of this is made by the endorsement deals that are done to promote all of these shows, promote albums, tours, etc. It’s all how products are pressured into a teenager’s life. “They endorse everything for clothing to electronics to food. Having celebrities endorse things help the companies to sell their products,” says Ms. Marion Hiltz “Another thing celebrities do is influence on what we wear. If there is something cool or in fashion that the celebrities are wearing then all of the kids will try to go out and get them so they can be “cool”. People wear shirts with names of bands on them or even cute things that they see on television just to stay with the trends of the celebrities.” Marketing the products with celebrities is what is going to get students attached. If you were to take a walk around Fredericton High School, you would be able to see that there are numerous students representing themselves with products that are more than likely advertised by celebrities.
Popular endorsements influence students to buy popular products. Want a pepsi? Well, you’ll have to get your way past Britney Spears and various other celebrity endorsers. Want some perfume? You’re going to have to either give into the celebrity perfumes such as Jennifer Lopez, Paris Hilton and David Beckham, or you’re going to have to go for the expensive brand name such as Prada or Versache. Every product has a popular brand name stuck to it; even No Name has become a popular brand name. With every brand name, there’s always someone there to endorse it, whether it be celebrity or just an “average” person.
“I don’t find myself buying products because of celebrities,” says Brandon Pugh “I know a lot of people that do, they’re obsessed with a certain artist and/or band that they have to have EVERYTHING that they do and anything that they’re on. But, I don’t find myself to be influenced by what celebrities do.” Students vary with their opinions. Normally, you would see a lot of people with your average $20 headphones by Sony, but then some students fall into the marketing ploy made by Lady Gaga or Dr. Dre and they buy the $100-300 headphones that don’t sound any different than your average headphones. “I would never have dreamed of buying a pair of headphones that cost more than $5.00, yet students are using “Beats” which can cost over $300.00.” says Ms. Hiltz.
Fredericton High School also seems to be interested in the worldwide culture around them. When entering the high school, you’re hit with kind of a culture shock. There’s a lot of European popular culture, most likely due to the up rise of Europop. Dubstep has introduced itself into a lot of student’s lives due to the popularity of Skrillex. Europop has also been sampled in a lot of songs that you would see today by any popular musician. The culture of the European’s is extremely unique and it’s spreading fast. It’s making itself into a more North American pop culture and settling down as a norm to a lot of students.
Possibly due to the high Asian population in Fredericton High School, Asian culture is making an almost epidemic effect on the school. Anime has become a huge hit amongst dozens of students. Anime and various other graphic novels had become a huge hit in the 1990’s and have further crossed over into the 2000’s and now into a new decade. Not only has the anime graphic novels brought themselves over to the North American popular culture, the television shows have made a rather huge impact on society. Hit shows like Pokemon and Sailor Moon made a huge impact on both children and teenager’s lives back in the 1990’s to early 2000’s.
“Popular culture has shaped the world in its own little way. This is still happening today. Popular culture exists in every culture, changing them continuously,” says Ms. M. Hiltz “It also affects the interaction between cultures eventually affecting the culture of the world as a whole.
North American culture is probably has the strongest influence, but with our multicultural world influences from Europe and Asia can be found. North American culture is probably has the strongest influence, but with our multicultural world influences from Europe and Asia can be found.” Our fashion is also inspired by what the Asian culture has brought over to North America. Now, we see a lot of colourful clothing and more animated outfits. Something we haven’t seen since the 1980’s!
In all the effects that popular culture has had on the world, it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. “I think that throughout our lives we are influenced to some degree by Pop Culture,” says Ms. M. Hiltz “We may be influenced more by pop culture when we are younger, but the influence does not disappear completely, it may not be as strong a motivator, but it is still there.” In essence, popular culture is here for the long run. It’s made such a huge impact on the teens in not only Fredericton High, but all around the world. It’s made so much of an impact that there’s no way to cancel it out of our lives without completely altering our lifestyle and what we have in our life.
“Popular culture has existed since the beginning of time,” says Ms. Hiltz “During every time period it has affected the people who live in it, affecting their thoughts, growth, development and actions. Popular culture has shaped the world in its own little way. This is still happening today.” Around the world, popular culture has put its own effect on the world. Someone can’t pinpoint an exact moment as to when popular culture started on a worldwide phenomenon, but anyone can tell you that it’s changed the world, and it’s changed it for good. If someone wanted to be specific, they could say that popular culture was created when humanity was born. Whatever a vast majority of people enjoy, then that’s what you would call popular culture.
All interests are varied in students in Fredericton High. Popular culture has hit students in very different ways; anyone could tell by the unique choice of clothing, music, and interests that all of the students have. It’s very hard to match two people together to say they have exactly the same tastes because everyone may have their individuality, but they also have the impact that popular culture has put on them. No one person is the same, and people might put that on being unique and having individuality, but popular culture has to tie into that a lot because we all have our different ways of perceiving popular culture and how to take it in. There are people who ignore it, there’s people who embrace it and people who just take it however it goes. “Popular culture exists in every culture, changing them continuously,” says Ms. Hiltz “It also affects the interaction between cultures eventually affecting the culture of the world as a whole. “
There’s never going to be an end to popular culture. We can try and try again to get rid of it and it won’t happen. It’s been in our lives for far too long to just cancel out whenever we want to. Fredericton High School is impacted by it a lot, as is any high school in the world. Fredericton High takes a lot of popular culture and incorporates it with events around the school to keep people interested, because they know that popular culture is what keeps people attracted and intact. No matter how hard someone tries, there’s no one that someone can make an overall statement that they are going to avoid popular culture. There are ways to ignore it, but there is no way to say that you can completely avoid it, because even without realizing it, popular culture can make itself into your life no matter what you do. It’s become such a big aspect of everyone’s lives that it’s inevitable.
Kyle M. is a sixteen year old student at Fredericton High School who is extremely influenced by popular culture and what goes on in the media.
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Welcome to the Jungle 