For Freshman Composition courses and Popular Culture courses. From Barbie to the Internet, the Simpsons to the malls, this engaging text on pop culture helps students develop critical and analytical skills and write clear prose while reading, thinking, and writing about subjects they find interesting. Spanning a full range of topics, this text provides key reading and writing strategies; it contains essays addressing a topic generally followed by an in-depth exploration of related material. In addition to the readings, each section begins with a catchy cultural artifact that leads students into a detailed introduction, discussion questions, essay topics, and suggestions for further reading and research.

Table of Contents:
Preface   1  Reading and Writing about American Popular Culture     What Is Popular Culture?       Why Study Popular Culture?       Active Reading             Strategies for Actively Reading a Text             An Active Reading Casebook: Three Selections about Barbie                  Preparing to Read                  Reading and Annotating                       Barbie’s Shoes, Hilary Tham                  Re-reading                  Reviewing                 Reading Pop Cultural Criticism                       The Indignation of Barbie, John Leo                  Reading Academic Analysis                       “Seen Through Rose-Tinted Glasses”: The Barbie Doll in American Society, Marilyn Ferris Motz        Reading Images             Preparing to Read             Reading and Annotating             Re-reading             Reviewing       The Writing Process             Prewriting                  Freewriting                  Clustering                  Outlining             Drafting                 Thesis and Thesis Statement                  Opening Paragraphs                  Supporting Paragraphs                  Evidence                  Conclusions                  Distancing                  Revising                  Revision Checklist                  Writing Research on Popular Culture                  Modern Language Association Documentation Format                  American Psychological Association Documentation Format                  Sample Student Essay                       Role-Model Barbie: Now and Forever? Carolyn Muhlstein     2  Advertising      Approaches to Advertising                       The Cult You’re In, Kalle Lasn                       Salespeak, Roy Fox                       Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals, Jib Fowles                       How Advertising Informs to Our Benefit, John E. Calfee         Images of Women in Advertising                       You’re Soaking In It, Jennifer L. Pozner                       Getting Dirty, Mark Crispin Miller                       Sex, Lies, and Advertising, Gloria Steinem         Additional Suggestions for Writing About Advertising     3  Television      The Cultural Influences of Television                       Spudding Out, Barbara Ehrenreich                       Television Addiction Is No Mere Metaphor, Robert Kubey and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi                       Life According to TV, Harry Waters                       Watching TV Makes You Smarter,Steven Johnson      Interpreting Television       1. Reality TV                       The Tribe Has Spoken, Rebecca Gardyn                       Keeping It Real: Why We Like to Watch Reality Dating Television Shows, Robert Samuels       2. The Simpsons                       The Simpsons: Atomistic Politics and the Nuclear Family, Paul A. Cantor                       The Evolution of the Seven Deadly Sins: From God to the Simpsons, Lisa Frank        Additional Suggestions for Writing About Television     4  Popular Music           The Hip-Hop Generation                     Rap and Race:  It’s Got a Nice Beat, But What About the Message?,  Rachel E. Sullivan                     The Miseducation of Hip-Hop, Evelyn Jamilah                     Pop Goes the Rapper:  A Close Reading of Eminem’s Genderphobia, Vincent Stephens     Music and Contemporary Culture                     Marilyn Manson and the Apt Pupils of Littleton, Gary Burns                     The Money Note:  Can the Record Business Be Saved?,  John Seabrook                     I Hate Classical Music, Alex Ross      Additional Suggestions for Writing About Popular Music     5  Technology      Technology, Individuals, and Communities                     Breaking Down Borders: How Technology Transforms the Private and Public Realms, Robert Samuels                     Cyberhood vs. Neighborhood, John Perry Barlow                       Our Cell Phones, Ourselves, Christine Rosen      Applications      1. Video Games                     Let the Games Begin: Gaming Technology and Entertainment Among College Students, Steve Jones                     Playing War: The Emerging Trend of Real Virtual Combat in Current Video Games, Brian Cowlishaw      2. Blogging                     Weblogs: A History and Perspective, Rebecca Blood                      Borg Journalism, John Hiler Additional Suggestions for Writing About Technology   6  Sports      Sport in America, American Sports Across the Globe                     Fixing Kids’ Sports, Peter Cary, Randy Dotinga, and Avery Comarow                                 Baby, You’re the Greatest, Tom Farrey                     Discipline and Push-Up: Female Bodies, Femininity and Sexuality in Popular Representations                           of Sports Bras, Jaime Schultz                     Jack of Smarts: Why the Internet Generation Loves to Play Poker, Justin Peters                     World Games:  The U.S. Tries to Colonize Sport, Mike Marqusee      Sports, Stars, and Society                     Risk, Paul Roberts                     Life on the Edge, William Dowell and the Editors of Time Magazine      Analyzing Sports                     Champion of the World, Maya Angelou                     Tiger Time: The Wonder of an American Hero, Jay Nordlinger                     Fields of Broken Dreams: Latinos and Baseball, Marcos Bretón      Additional Suggestions for Writing About Sports     7  Movies     Film and American Culture                The Way We Are, Sydney Pollack                       The Politics of Moviemaking, Saul Austerlitz                     The Asian Invasion (of Multiculturalism) in Hollywood, Minh-Ha Pham                     Fight Club: A Ritual Cure for the Spiritual Ailment of American Masculinity, Jethro Rothe-Kushel      Tarantino and The Passion:  A Controversy Casebook                     Pulp Fiction, Alan Stone                     She’ll Kill Bill While You Chill, Thomas de Zengotita                     Nailed, David Denby                     Gibson’s Sublime Passion: In Defense of the Violence, William Irwin       Additional Suggestions for Writing About Movies    For Further Reading: A Common Culture Bibliography   Acknowledgments   Index by Author and Title   Index by Academic Discipline   Index by Rhetorical Mode