1-4-6

My chosen topic for this popular culture course was Buying Me Love: 1980’s Class-Clash Teen Romances. Throughout conducting research, reading the course book, and reading the chosen journal article I have found a variety of popular culture topics that relate to my chosen article. The three main cultural subjects I found best connected to my topic are:

·         Stereotypes

·         Icons

·         Formulas

First, stereotypes of young romance may very anywhere from maturity level, age, race, social circle of friends, to family social status. While there is also the stereotypes that normal teen romances don’t last because the attraction is purely physical, rather than emotional. Teenagers grow and change so much through this time and it is far too often that high school sweethearts last with no type of conflict somewhere through the process.

            Secondly, through the history of these movies being made there are many icons that come out of teen romance films. Especially teenage boys, young girls go crazy over them and the movies they are in making their parents take them to see every movie that comes out with a good looking young man. Therefore, the media knows what they are doing when they need to increase ratings or bring in the big bucks...lead the advertising with the handsome male lead or for teenage boys they sexy girl next door that grabs their attention.

Lastly,  the formula that I see during all of the teen romance movie’s is that the couple spend the majority of the movie either trying to convince the parents to let them date or they will continue sneaking around to see each other until the parents give in and accept the relationship. I think that this is a good formula for the type of audience the filmmakers are trying to attract. I feel that each genre of movies have their own formulas as to what works best for them. Teen romance movies will live on forever along with the formulas used to make them so successful.

1-4-5 Formula Analysis

     In my chosen article, Buying Me Love: 1980’s Class-Clash Teen Romances, there is most certainly formulas used throughout the films. The article discusses how teen relationships in movie films initiate, maintain, and challenge weather the couples stay together or not. While each movie is a little different in its own way the basic concept is a young girl and boy forming a romantic relationship but there is something wedging in between their relationship such as social class differences as my article points out. The movies give numerous examples of family implications and social group differences where the families see that it is best fit for the two teenagers to not date each other.

     During these types of movies, for example The Notebook, where Allie’s mother hid the letters Noah wrote her for an entire year while he was in war. Years later Allie found out about her long lost love writing all those years ago, while the entire time she thought he had moved on. As the movie was a constant decision of who Allie was going to spend her life with, the man she was currently engaged to that could provide her with the social class lifestyle her mother wanted for her or to go back to Noah who she has true love with.

     The formula that I see during all of the teen romance movie’s is that the couple spend the majority of the movie either trying to convince the parents to let them date or they will continue sneaking around to see each other until the parents give in and accept the relationship. I think that this is a good formula for the type of audience the filmmakers are trying to attract. I feel that each genre of movies have their own formulas as to what works best for them. Teen romance movies will live on forever along with the formulas used to make them so successful.

Journal Article Analysis

            The article I chose for this semester is called Buying Me Love: 1980s Class-Clash Teen Romances published by Timothy Shary. When two people from different classes feel in love people could never believe that what they had was true love, but that the poorer one was always after what the other one had either individually or through their family history. During this time period love would become the force that overcame class, dis-empowering it within the narrative conflict, and distracting young audiences from seeing that the poorer member of a teen couple always benefited from his or her association with the richer. (Shary, 2011) Class differences in these films are normally pretty easy to point out through the way they appear in these types of movies.

            Played throughout these movies it shows that in every relationship the wealthier teens use their status to reject the lower-class and it truly shows their character as being snobbish while the poorer teens are thankful for the things they do have and appreciate the small things. The history of how these relationships were formed during these time periods is where the heart of the article is at as the details of each movie relationship starts to run together with the others. Each movie discussed in this article does show a small variation of different occurrences why the teen relationships were tested either by the parents or peers at school.

The targeted audience of this film was originally for teen moviegoers, the majority of whom were statistically middle class, and likely believing fantasies of class ascension not through hard work but through romantic fulfillment. (Shary, 2011)  Most of the time young teen couples go to watch these movies on their date night but then get an eye opening experience of how the class differences really can affect relationships.

                The way I view this article is with sincere appreciation because I was one of those teenagers that grew up in the lower-class. Without my grandfather to help us out when needed my family would have struggled more so and experienced even less through our childhood. While this article wouldn’t be my top recommendation to read, there are a lot of really good points about the differences in the social classes and how everyone was treated differently due to the difference between one another. That particular part of the article I enjoyed most was in the beginning as it discusses the economic times and how these types of stereotypes and barriers were formed. In the meantime, as you read further on it starts singling out individual films and basically just summarizing the teen relationships formed which I thought was unnecessary to include so many with such detail.

The moral in many of these films was that wealthy people could be reformed through the diligent devotion and pride of the poor, although they would not need to surrender their financial security to do so. (Shary, 2011) In my opinion, true love cannot be hand-picked for people just because one may want a wealthier lifestyle than they currently have. True love just happens and that sometimes happens to people who are from completely opposite worlds and are brought together to better one another with the experiences each person has gone through to make them who they are presently. I feel sometimes that opposite classes can work well because the side doesn’t want somebody who is looking to become rich and overly-obsessive with materialistic objects while the other one just wants the simplicity of having the basic securities of life.

References

Shary, T. (2011). Buying me love: 1980s class-clash teen romances. (Vol. 44, pp. 563-582). Norman, OK: Blackwell Publishing, Inc. Retrieved from http://0-journals.ohiolink.edu.olinkserver.franklin.edu/ejc/article.cgi?issn=00223840&issue=v44i0003&article=563_bml1ctr

 Oprah Winfrey 


The reason that I have chosen these three icons is because they significant to the world of popular culture we live in today. First, Oprah grew up in an abused childhood and fought through many hard battles to get where she is today. She has accomplished so much in her lifetime and has been called many honoring titles.

·         Television Pioneer

·         Magazine Founder & Editorial Director

• Producer/Actress
• Online Leader
• Philanthropist
• Television Programming Creator
• Satellite Radio Programmer
• Broadway Producer

Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show along with being ranked the richest African American of the 20th century, the greatest black philanthropist in American history, and was for a time the world's only black billionaire. Numerous people around the world would agree that Oprah is one the most influential woman in the world. This is a wonderful story of a pop culture icon and helps those that think they have nothing appreciates the small things and makes the best life possible with hard work and determination.

 Superman

Superman is a fictional comic book superhero. Superman was created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio. With the triumph of his adventures, Superman helped to create the superhero genre and establish its dominance within the American comic book. Superman has a very distinctive presence and has made his uniform a pop icon for young children and adults all over the world by wearing a blue, red and yellow costume complete with cape, with a stylized "S" shield on his chest. This shield is famous all over the world for Halloween costumes, t-shirts, and tattoos. Superman is one of the all-time best superhero that has left an impression on children’s lives all across the world. 

  Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan is a retired professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. In my opinion he is the greatest basketball player that has ever played and I think that many others would agree as well. Not only did he play basketball but he also tried baseball. One thing that is still a huge hit each year is his shoe endorsement of the Nike Air Jordan’s. Not only was he a symbol for the NBA but is now a successful business man that has set the bar extremely high for other professional athletes. Michael Jordan was an amazing basketball player and I watched him growing up my entire childhood and glad that he is still considered a pop culture icon.

Prince William and Princess Catherine

Popular culture to me is all different means of principles that include music, films, television, advertising, sports, fashion, toys, magazines and books. The effect of popular culture on the business environment is a huge contribution in many different areas of the economy that brings in hundreds of thousands and in many cases even millions of dollars. American pop culture symbolizes the freedom of speech for which America is famous. It communicates the values of people who know they have a right. 

In this case a fa-nominal example is William and Catherine's wedding registry William and Catherine's wedding registry was not for any type of gifts but a registry for a variety of charitable contributions. I think no matter what line of business people are in some type of pop culture will have an affect on the business world through advertising, finance, shopping, and even just watching television.