Some of My Moments of Popular Culture

We’re all aware of them (and I say that at the end of the week when Charlie Sheen has for all intents and purposes gone off the deep end; who knows by the time you’re reading this, he may be an uber-celebrity or you may be asking “Isn’t that like saying Britney’s gone crazy or Lindsey’s got arrest?”—it’s a bit ubiquitous).  For many of us—sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly—we experience these moments of popular culture “history-in-the-making” that we in some part internalize or feel to be a part of us.  We mourn the passing of a celebrity, attend a major film on opening night, attend ritual event that grants us access into a particular event, or are witness/participant to some other event.  Some of these events become over amplified through media outlets while others stay upon the fringe but still captivate fans.  Ultimately, these moments are part of our individual narratives, yet also shared with many others.   These moments are as numerous and diverse as there are staked interests and entertainments.

John Candy's Death

Certainly in my 31+ years, there have been ample deaths:  Kurt Cobain, River Phoenix, Princess Di, Michael Jackson, Gianni Versace, and Walter Kronkite to name a few (And yes, Wikipedia has this one covered).  However, in my own popular cultured life, these weren’t as prominent.  The first real celebrity death to hit me was John Candy.  His death hit home for me since I grew up deeply enjoying his movies (memorized significant portions of both Spaceballs and The Great Outdoors).  His death meant that this giant gentle of a man would no longer bring smiles to my face as he had for much of the 1980s and 1990s.  Chris Farrelly hit me in a similar way too.  The most recent celebrity to leave an impact was Gary Coleman whom I enjoyed a good deal during the 1980s in Diff’rent  Strokes.  Besides Coleman’s illness and the fact that he had become a punching bag for lame-jokes about child-actors, it just struck me that Coleman was a part of my childhood range of familiar faces that separate me from those who grew up in the 1990s or even those who grew up in the 1970s; they each had their own range of contemporary characters to access.

The New Star Wars Trilogy

Another major event for me was getting to see an advance showing of Star Wars Episode I:  The Phantom Menace.  Now, regardless of how people feel about it now, in 1999; the anticipation was palpable.  After all, in the previous years, Lucas had stoked our fires with re-release of the videos shortly after he re-released them in the theaters with added scenes.  As an avid Star Wars fan who had watched his videos to the point of wearing out the video cassettes and up to that point had read all the books that had been written (15 or so) taking place in the Star Wars universe, this was epic.  Though I passed on dressing up to attend, it certainly crossed my mind.

The Fall of Napster

Napster was also a major popular culture event for me.  We’re still feeling the effects of it today.  In the late 1990s and early 2000s, downloading music en masse as Napster allowed us to was pretty fantastic.  But it was also a collective group from certain ages and places.  College students were a major part of it (in part thanks to colleges with their T-1000 connections).  We gained access to mountains of music and could combine and manipulate the music in whatever way we wanted.  I used to spend hours creating my mixed tapes; now it took minutes to download and a very short time to compose.  I also was one of the earlier people to have an “mp3 player”, well before there was an iPod.  It had 16 megabytes (and my second one had 32MB) and could contain 5-8 songs depending on what I put on there.  But there was an excitement of discussion about Napster and other programs (my favorite was Audiogalaxy Satellite) and what would happen to them with Napster in court.  There was a frenzy to download with abandon before it ended.  In fact, nerd that I was, I was downloading more audiobooks than music by that point since others got it in their head to make mp3 audiobooks available.

The Death of Superman

And there was of course the “Death of Superman” in the 1990s.  Of course, he wasn’t really dead; it was a complete marketing tool, but that didn’t stop me and a good deal of fellow comic fans from buying the issue in its poly-urethane baggy (2 copies:  1 to open; 1 to keep because it was gonna be worth something—like 10% more than what you paid for it, ha!).  That talk about his death, who was going to replace him (there were at least 4 contenders), and being the one “in the know” at the school when others were interested because it had been announced on the news.  It was indeed momentous for someone like me where my knowledge and experience made me a resource for others (granted, I didn’t actually read Superman or any DC Comics at the time, but that only meant I directed discussions to the comics I thought were cool).  Thus, my interest in it became the means of how others perceived me which became my badge or sense of empower and pushed me deeper into comics.

These moments of popular culture can form or at least influence us, propel us in interesting directions or even create an outward appearance that we are part of a particular group or knowledgeable about a certain arena of popular culture (hence why I get to teach courses on monsters and comics).

QUESTIONS

What about you and your moments of pop culture?  What events have you witnessed that left an impact on you and how?  In answering look for moments that others haven’t talked about as well as choose moments that you actually had a stake in—don’t’ just name them to name them.  What moments have moved you?  A series ending?  A particular sporting event?  Your generational equivalent to Woodstock (if such could actually be realized)?

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