The growth of the popularity of the pop culture has been aided by technological advancement because as new technologies emerged, entertainers and musicians have found new ways to create and share content and music. Facebook and other social media platforms, for instance, are growing into useful tools for the artists who want to advertise and share their music. With exposure of more individuals to the pop culture, people have been able to engage in self-evaluation based on the message they hear or the images they watch. Increased exposure to the pop culture has resulted to a situation in which kids and some adults see entertainers as role models.
The people culture has tremendously changed in the last four decades because the content that is considered acceptable today would not have been acceptable in the 1970s. The pop culture has primarily influenced how people view what is moral and what is not moral, and this is particularly seen with LGBT. The issue of the LGBT is one that has always been marred by controversies considering that those who came out publicly as being members of the gay community in the 1960s through to 1980s were attacked. Due to the influence of the popular culture, however, people’s views about homosexuality have changed, and more and more people are becoming tolerant and learning to live with members of the gay community.
Unfortunately, the pop culture has its darker side that should make us all concerned. As a leading producer and exporter of the popular culture, the United States (U.S.) took a back seat as artists made music laced with messages of violence. The rampant violence in Chicago can be attributed to the message portrayed by artists in music. The rap music, borne out of the need to highlight the plight of the American minorities, is doing the opposite of what it was initially intended to do because it ignited and inflamed Black-on-Black violence that still continues to date.
Is it a high time that the government should control the message sent by artists out there? The pop culture, despite its benefits, raises serious issues that require the right interventions. Government censorship is necessary to control the kind of information artists can put in their songs. However, this should be done in a manner that it doesn’t create an impression among the affected that the government is curtailing the freedom of speech.