Authenticity of bread, yes bread.

What is authenticity? And what defines an object, or an action, or a person, or a place, as authentic? Grazian explains authenticity by, what is defined as real or true or pure by a group of people. But who determines which group of people? Or how they interpret that object of authenticity?

When I was younger, I had a Croatian neighbor. She lived right across the street. Everyday, she would come to my house to have some authentic “Arabic bread”, and then we would cross the street to her house to have some authentic “Western toast”. That way everyday we both have had something to eat from the other persons culture. As cheesy and factually incorrect as that is, we were very young, so I wouldn’t judge or laugh at me if I were you… but anyway, remembering that story now, makes me realize that even as children, we would classify objects with authenticity.

So I decided to go to a bakery and ask people their opinion on the authenticity of bread, and what they think is authentic “Arabic bread”, or authentic “Western bread”.



As I walked into the store I observed where each type of bread was displayed. The burger bun and hotdog bun were displayed right next to each other, and the thin, round Arabic bread was displayed on another side. Which already shows some kind of differentiation.



I found a Muslim, Arab women there, and decided to ask her opinion on the matter. I asked her what she defines as authentic Arabic bread, and why, and what she classifies the other types of bread as. She pointed to the thin round bread and said, this is our bread, this is what authentic Arabic bread is. Her reasoning behind that was the following exact quote: “This is what my mother used to bring home to us ever since I was a little girl, I grew up on this, so this is our traditions, the Arab tradition.”



Then she went on to talk about the other types of bread. She generally classified all the rest as “Western”. And said that just because a certain type of bread is classified under a certain culture, doesn’t mean that only that culture is expected to buy it. “I’m buying American bread right now” she said.

It was very interesting to hear this woman’s opinion on authenticity, and how she decided to classify these types of bread and why. Which takes me back to the theory of socialization. She was socialized, her beliefs and authenticity classification, were socialized into her as she grew up, and still have not changed until now. She is 24 years old.

The million dollar question

Last week I visited the Art Institute in Chicago, I came across some of the most beautiful paintings I have ever seen. They were a variety of paintings by Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali.



After reading Grazian’s theories about popular culture and what makes objects significantly more popular than others however, my perception of the paintings before taking those theories into consideration was completely different than what it was after I put that theory lens on.

Artists like these are legendary. Their works of art are sold for millions of dollars. A regular person may think that that’s due to the fact that they’re brilliant artists and they produce beautiful paintings. Thinking with a sociological mindset however, I know that that’s not true. A piece of art, any piece of art, is admitted into the pop-culture category based on its perceptions from the consumer. A work of art is considered an object of popular culture once it gets recognition, whether it was positive or negative.

A product is not the work of one person; these paintings are not just works of art from the artist. There's an entire production process that delivers these paintings from the artists canvas to our museums. There's a whole procedure that starts from the person buying that plain white piece, to the artists who paints, to his manager who sells it, to the producer that auctions it off to many different museums, and finally to the museum that displays it for us beautifully under the illuminating lights.

Why are these pieces of art considered magnificent million dollars works, while graffiti is considered vandalism? Graffiti can be beautifully genius sometimes. Who’s to say one is better than the other? Who defined one as professional and the other as amateur? One can put graffiti in a frame and call themselves artists. If only graffiti artists would go that production process.

Why is this considered vandalism?



While this is considered a million dollar piece of art?



What defines an objects status in society isn’t its quality, but its perception by the consumer. All art is a form of expression. They’re all equally culturally significant no matter how ridiculous or obscene one of them is thought to be. But when a certain producer wants to make a sale, they can change the objects image in the consumers’ minds. A splash of paint on a plain white canvas can be sold for ten million dollars, while a message about society or oppression expressed through graffiti is considered "garbage".

What on earth is a Harlem Shake?

This is a question that has appeared on my Twitter and Facebook timeline more than 10 times by different people throughout the past two weeks. “It’s the new Gangam Style!” said one of my friends.

These days, it’s hard to predict what will be a “hit” and what will be a “miss.” According to David Grazian in his book Mix It Up (2010), “The convergence of media content across platforms promises the development of exciting and dynamic new forms of cultural production.” Since achieving success in today’s mass media market is unpredictable, media industries base their decision making on strategies to minimize risk and financial loss. However, famous artists and prominent production labels are now faced with the problem that consumers themselves participate in the coproduction of their own media experience.

Although the strategies used by media firms to minimize risk were shown to be successful in many cases, today’s generation of consumers form a threat to those strategies considering that today’s consumers are also co-producers of pop-culture. According to Grazina (2010), “It is exceedingly uncommon for the media industries to promote cultural products that do not cleave to common types of genre conventions or stylistic boundaries.” However, if we observe the popularity of the Harlem Shake from a sociological perspective, it’s noticeable that it stimulates from the fact that it’s easily reproduced among ordinary consumers. Therefore, the success of a cultural product these days doesn’t necessary depend on the distribution or strategies held by prominent media corporations, instead, it’s now determined by the active participation of the audience in co-producing their own pop-culture and the widespread of popular fades among regular consumers.

The Internet meme culture has gained attention over the past couple of years and the Harlem Shake is considered a subset of this Internet meme culture. Although unexpected, the popularity achieved by the Harlem Shake has caused it to become one of the most popular trends of the year. However, Internet memes could also be considered a strategy for risk reduction since it has been used as a marketing technique and it has proven to be effective in achieving marketable success. Following this popular trend, on February 21^st Northwestern University in Qatar participated in the Harlem Shake trend.

Desi Subculture in EC

The general population of Qatar is mostly comprised of Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and others from the Indian subcontinent, which is about 50% of the total population. Even in Education City, a majority of the student population comes from the Indian subcontinent and commonly referred to as "Desis". A big event that is going to take place in Education City (EC) next week is Desi Night which is an event that showcases the talents of various desi students which includes singing; dancing and stand-up comedy. 

For the Youth Culture in the Middle East course, the class discussed about how interaction plays a huge role in the development of subculture. According to Grazian, culture is conditioned by interaction and the context about which it revolves. We also discussed about using the dramaturgy approach to analyze subcultures. Hence, I noticed that the dramaturgy approach could be used for the Desi Night to examine the desi subculture in Education City. So, I wiil be applying this approach for Desi Night 2011 that took place last year.The five important elements that need to be considered while using the dramaturgy approach are – Actors; setting; roles; audience; front stage and backstage behavior.

Actors – The actors for this particular event included all the desi students of EC. For this particular event, all the EC students who performed the various desi songs and dances were the actors. The facilitators of the event that included the VCUQ student government association can also be grouped as actors. (Not surprisingly, the VCUQ student government association is completely comprised of desi students)

Roles – The roles includes the roles taken up by the various actors for this event. This includes performers who put on the show and facilitators who were in charge of making sure that the event took place smoothly; the MCs who ensured the smooth transition from one performance to next.

                                                                        The main MC   

Setting – The setting for this event was in VCUQ lounge. Every year, it is held there as it can provide space for a large number of people up to 50 students.

Audience – The audience includes all those people who attended the event which includes various students from EC; guest students from universities outside EC and families of the performers.

Front stage and backstage behavior – The front stage behavior includes the performances put n by the actors such a singing, dancing and stand up comedy.

The backstage behavior includes the actions of those facilitators who helped around the event such as taking care of the caterer; helping out the performers in changing costumes; providing materials for the MC for the order of events.

After observing the event through these elements, it becomes obvious that interaction is the link that joins all the elements together that contributes to the Desi subculture in EC. For example, there are a lot of groups that are segregated on the basis of their nationality. However, for this event, people from various countries were involved in dance performances together. This would not have been possible without interaction which includes word of mouth communication Even in the audience, you could see groups of students that would not usually interact outside would interact and comment on performances together.

It is interesting how these events act as platforms of impact on the Desi subculture in EC.

You call that a handshake?

Through many years the most known gesture was a handshake. It expressed respect and friendliness to the other person. Today, people managed to develop their gesture which mainly presented their cultural identity and individualism.

The functionalist theory suggests that symbols and practices surrounding popular culture brings people together by generating a shared sense of social solidarity. So, today, the way you greet someone expresses the society and culture you come from. In-fact, it could represent the subculture you belong to. For example, hip hop fans have certain gestures they understand and interpret in their own way. While on the other hand, Kings and Queens have very different gestures that expresses their belonging to a royal family.

 

But today, a gesture doesn’t only represent your society or culture it symbolizes individualism. People now greet each other with different gestures than the culture or society they belong to and no longer need to commit to their society’s gesture. For example, in many of the gulf regions men greet each other by nose. However, this gesture is not preformed by every member of the society, some people prefer to greet each other with a high five or just a hand wave! 

 

 

A hand shake is no longer the ultimate gesture and the most recognizable one.  Many high school and college students have created their own unique gesture to greet each other and most of them agreed that a handshake expresses formality. So, greeting someone with a handshake is now conceded a professional gesture used for strangers and older people!

 

While observing my friends way of greeting each other, I’ve noticed that each person greets in his own way. In the Arab regions, there is the confusion of kisses. In the gulf region girls greet each other with three kisses on one cheek while in other countries girls greet each other with one kiss on each cheek. Also, in most of the Arab countries, men don’t greet women which sometimes could lead to an embarrassment to both sides.

On being a You-Tuber!



When the internet began invading our world, we started gaining and doing things differently. There is no doubt that the internet has shaped and changed our lives. So, instead of saying, "Look it up" We now say, "Google it" And  instead of saying watch it  we say, "You-Tube it!”

We think of you-tube as the ultimate multimedia website. The place where videos of everything exist, from education to meditation and entertainment. Many people now depend on You-Tube as their morning coffee! If you looked deeper into the meaning that You-Tube have, you would find many more other definitions than a multimedia web site. Simply, You-Tube is not a video site. You-Tube is the largest cultural community in the world wide web.

Some might say that You-Tube has the same effect of Facebook and Twitter on people, but there is nothing that influences people more than visual scenes and You-Tube provides it. This major web site allowed people to access many different cultures, through songs, movie trailers, vlogs, "How to" videos and sometimes even tutors that help you get your homework done.

You-Tube could be defined with the three definitions that Garzian used for popular culture. The reason is that, without a doubt, You-Tube is liked and successful and that successes is demonstrated by the amount of subscribers in the site. The second reason is that You-Tube has many popular, famous figures such as Dan Brown, Shane Dawson, Mitchell Davis and many others. Also, You-Tube is generated for the lowest common denominator which explains the verity of you-tubers.

The topics we search for in You-Tube, mostly don't exist in our country or society or otherwise we wouldn't have been searching for it. If you tried counting how many times you've searched for something in You-Tube that exists within your native country or society, you would definitely use your fingers to count them! Maybe that is the concept of You-Tube; to provide a dinner that through it we could get a taste of other cultures without the need to leave our rooms. 

You-Tube is a major community for cultural exchange known as "Cultural Diffusion." This great web site doesn't only hold millions of videos, it holds millions of subcultures. Personaly, I think that you-tube is more than a video site, to me, its a new world I enter just by clicking "Subscribe."