Pop culture is dead! | Phil Miller | TEDxWoking

How is pop culture formed? Phil walks us through how pop culture looks today, how it is influenced and ponders whether it even exists anymore?

A fun and funny foray into changes into tv, music and fashion

(From The WWF-UK Living Planet Centre, Woking for TEDxWoking, guest-curated by Sam Marshall and Kate Mair.)

With a background in project management and performance reporting, including managing the creation of the reporting system for the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme, Phil long eyed the opportunity to create his own video company as film production had been a hobby held had since university. He founded DreamingFish in 2001 along with partner Sam Dowswell, but it took him 10 years to realize what an amazing business they had.

In 2011 they fully focused on the business, developing a new animation arm and doubling the size of the business year-on-year. Now DreamingFish delivers projects around the world and works with clients such as IBM, Serco, GSK and Defra.

Phil continues to have one eye on the future and is looking at moves into commercial and feature production. In his spare time Phil is a keen surfer and is currently learning to play the piano.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Thank you very much,
that was a very grand intro,

and no, I don't play the piano
and surf at the same time,

I don't think that would work.

But it's a great morning, this morning,
you're having a good time?

Audience: Yeah.
PM: Right. That's good.

Because I'm going to need your help.

I'm going to start with an experiment.
What I want you to do,

is to take out your mobile phones, please.

I'll give you a second to do that.

If you have them on you, of course.

Hopefully it'll be camera phones.

What I'm going to ask you to do

is to take a funny picture.

Can be of anything.

Can be of me, but

it would be so conceited to say that,

but a funny picture. A selfie, whatever.

The person next to you...

We're going to ask you to do that
right now, please.

Okay, here's one I took

of my prospective audience earlier.

Brilliant.

Ok.

We're all there? Brilliant.

What I'd like you to do now

is to show that picture to
the person on your left.

Some of you already are.

Ok? If you're in an aisle,
just show it across.

Now I want you to also show that picture

to the person on your right.

In fact, why not show it to

everyone around you?

(Laughter)

Great.

This is like real-life
social media in action.

Ok. Now bring it back now.

Ok. I need the front two rows now.

Can I ask the front two rows to stand up,

Including the people
in the wings, thank you?

Now it's a bold experiment
we're going to do

but I want the front two rows to decide

decide whose picture is the funniest.

Ok, whose picture is the funniest?

And I'm going to give you just 20 seconds.

So you might need to move around.

Work it out.
I'm gonna give you 20 seconds.

So, off you go, now.

20,

19,

18,

17,

16,

15,

14,

13... Have we got a short list yet?

12,

11,

10,

9,

8,

7,

6,

5,

4,

3,

2,

1...

And they're still going.

Ok. Can you sit down
if you've been discounted?

Sorry very much.

Do we have a winner?

Do we have a winner?

Over here?

Is it... Sally!

Ok, fantastic. Can we have
a round of applause for Sally, please?

(Applause)

Brilliant.

OK. So, Sally will probably sit down now

and probably what she will do,

she will go on to twitter and say,

"ha ha, just won TEDxWoking
photo competition, aren't I cool? #irock"

But that was an experiment
in the formation of popular culture.

A group of people bound by
the same common rows

that they were sitting in,
decided on something,

and that's how popular culture is formed.

Now if Sally does tweet it,

which she might do,
-- go ahead! --

and you might now go along and retweet it,

and the image will spread,
you might put it on facebook,

and it will spread even further.
She's not doing it, by the way.

(Laughter)
You should do it, it's a good picture.

Sally: It's a picture of him.
(Chuckles)

But you'll probably say, "Phil, that's
really interesting, it's just a picture."

What about if the picture said this?

[TEDxWoking]

Suddenly it's no longer a picture.

It's an idea.

And that idea spreads.

And what about if the picture said this?

[TEDxSUX!]

(Laughter)

It's an idea.

And when a group of people come together

with a common idea,

that's how popular culture is formed.

Now historically,

art and culture define popular culture.

And a mechanism was always needed.

Be it art, painting, or sculpture.

Modern technologies changed all that now.

Now a dad, in his Christmas jammies,
on Youtube,

or even the way that you chose to
support your local charities

is all available to us.

And instead of just voting with
your sword or with your feet,

all you have to do now to agree

is Like.

[Like]

When certain ideas, interests or choices

reach a critical mass within a society,

they become widespread

and proliferate throughout that society.

A definition of popular culture.

[Google/to google]

But what happens when the mechanism

for the spread of popular culture

becomes part of popular culture itself?

Take Google.

It's a proper noun.

But it's also a verb.

And an intrinsic part
of our popular culture.

Historically,

access to high culture,
popular culture, was limited.

Access to painting was limited,

access to sculpture,

theatre audiences, by their very nature,

were limited.

But fast forward to

the invention of cinema,

the wireless,

TV.

Suddenly popular culture

is being beamed into our homes

every single day.

There's still the pop music.

[Elvis vs Cliff]

In 1956,

when Elvis Presley
first entered the charts

and began his long-running battle
with Cliff Richard,

you were either for Elvis,
or you were for Cliff.

Some people may remember, not sure.

It affected the way that you spoke.

It affected the way you wore your hair.

It affected the way the clothes you wore.

I'm looking at it right here.

Audience: Yeah.

Elvis or Cliff?

(Answer inaudible)

But what happened was

fast forward through the charts.

Through the Beatles versus the Stones,

New Romantics.

Punk Rock.

Mods versus Rockers.

Pop culture became sub-culture.

And increasingly,

big businesses took over
and became involved.

We listen to what they let us listen to.

We just have to look
at the Christmas Charts

of the last nine or ten years
to see that control.

But then along came services
like Spotify and iTunes.

You could listen to what
you wanted to listen to,

when you wanted to listen to it

and wherever you wanted to listen to it.

It's great. And music was free.

But it became less of a group experience.

It was no longer about

sitting around the radio
on a Sunday evening

listening to the Chart Show.

And watching TV on a Thursday night.

Watching Top of the Pops.

Showing my age!

Ok, talking of TV,

who here watches EastEnders?

Come on, don't be shy.

Really? No one?
(Laughter)

Is that Sam?

Audience: Yes.
PM: OK.

In the 2014 Christmas episode
of Eastenders,

spoiler alert, close your ears now,

when Lucy Beale died,

8.39 million viewers.

Backtrack to 1986.

Christmas day.

When Dirty Den served
divorce papers to Angie,

30.15 million viewers.

Now is it that the program
EastEnders has gotten worse?

Possibly.

(Laughter)

Is it that just less people watching it,

it just doesn't relate to us anymore?
Possibly.

Or is it just that the way that
we view television has changed?

In fact, I can't remember the last time
that I watched serial broadcast television.

I want to watch what I want to watch
when I want to watch it.

And video on demand has provided me that.

[Netflix 4.5 million UK subscribers
61% binge watch]

Let's look at Netflix.

There are 4.5 million
UK subscribers in the UK.

4.5 million people who choose to watch
their television in a different way.

That doesn't include BBC iPlayer

4od,

iTV Player,

all the other video on demand services.

But the interesting thing

is the stat at the bottom.

People don't just want to tune in
to watch one program

when the broadcaster wants them to.

Actually, I mean, you know,

be it Breaking Bad, or

the Good Wife, at the moment

I want to watch more than
one episode every evening.

In fact, when House of Cards,
the last season, was released,

people literally watched it all day
with minutes breaks in between.

I don't know when they went to the toilet.

(Laughter)

The world of today is very different
to 40 years ago.

All these services.

In fact, if I had been stood up here
40 years ago,

I'd probably would have been wearing

a suit and tie, much like Ray!

In fact, probably everyone in this room
would have been dressed

exactly the same.

The services like ASOS and Amazon

provide us a choice.

I can buy what I want to buy

when I want to buy it.

In fact, I challenge anyone in this room

-- look around, now --

to find a discernible fashion,

beyond the odd beard.

(Laughter)

Because there isn't one.

Because we're not beholding

to the highstreet anymore.

We don't behold in to go and walk down

to the local Debenhams

and buy whatever it is
they're gonna sell you.

You can buy whatever you want now.

[10 Very Best Things]

Okay. Let's look at a survey.

So this is the top 10 Very Best Things

for under 10's.

It's from 2006
of the National Kids Day survey,

but it still rings true today.

Makes for interesting reading.

Number ten, Heaven God.

(Laughter)

Number nine, watching films.
I think we'll all agree with that.

Number eight, nice food.

Number seven, friends.

Number six, family.

Number five, pop music.

Number four, being healthy.

It's good to see it
in the top five, at least.

Oh, I can never get
my kids to eat their peas.

Let's see what happens in the top three.

Number three, being rich.

Number two, good looks.

Number one, being a celebrity.

Kids under ten.

Popular culture has become

"popular culture".

Our children and
by association, ourselves,

are obsessed with celebrities.

It's fed into our homes.

Endlessly, all day.

And this causes a problem.

This need for recognition.

This, 'See me!'

that social media plays directly into.

75% of parents think negative influences

from mass media are a serious problem.

75% think that the influences

from mass media are a serious problem

in raising their children.

Mass media like films, TV, music.

And the problem is

that now we've become voyeurs

into the lives of celebrities.

Of our friends, of our neighbors.

In fact of everyone.

Because cameras are everywhere.

This was our Christmas team photo.

Cameras are everywhere.
You can take a picture whenever you want,

like we did at the start of this talk.

But this allows us to do different things.

Social media movements
like Je suis CHARLIE,

like the Harlem Shake,

like the Icebucket Challenge,

are only possible because of
what we carry around in our pockets.

But these social media
movements are brief.

It's a wave that washes over society

and then withdraws quickly.

But it leaves a massive social media
legacy behind it.

[So...is pop culture dead?]

So, back to the original question.

Is pop culture dead?

Has it been hijacked by mass media?

Are we being told
what we should think now,

rather than developing it ourselves?

Or, are we actually
creating popular culture,

now, ourselves, through social media,

every single second of every single day?

Popular culture as we know it

is probably dead.

But long live popular culture.

Thank you.

(Applause)