Assignment 1-3

For the past couple of weeks I have been absorbing the context of the article written by Gary Hoppenstand. Even though the article is rather brief, the author effectively delivers his message. It did not take me very long to discover that message. Basically, Hoppenstand is speaking to a general audience about the “ever changing nature of contemporary popular culture” (Hoppenstand, 369). His ideas can be understood by anyone in society that has lived through technological advances. He uses a variety of words to describe these advances that influence mass media. For instance, he uses common language such as “DVD”, “internet”, “recorded music”, and “television shows.” He tries to engage the audience with his simplistic language and provide examples to which they can easily relate. Anyone from today’s society can grasp the concept of how technology is a part of our ever changing popular culture by reading this article.
Hoppenstand presents a couple theories in his article. One is that although the story may be “eternal”, “the products disseminating that story” are not and are subject to technological advances. He started talking about this television series he watched as a child called The Man from U.N.C.L.E. As he became an adult, he ended up purchasing the complete set from Time Life on DVD. After doing this, he remembered buying prior films on various video formats such as beta videotape, laser disc, and then VHS video tape. These formats are all obsolete and the DVD format is not far behind. He informs us that Blu-ray is replacing the DVD formatting. Moreover, he even thinks that Blu-rays “current preeminence should also be short-lived” (Hoppenstand, 370).
The next theory he presents is that one constant in popular culture will outlive the “digital onslaught”. The book is one of the artifacts of mass produced entertainment that will always be a part of contemporary popular culture. He actually refers to it as “the alpha and omega of popular culture” (Hoppenstand, 370). He describes the book as being the oldest, “most durable”, “low-tech” format that is used today. “When all other popular culture entertainment will be little zeros”, the book “will continue to be published and enjoyed for many years to come” (Hoppenstand, 370). He believes that people enjoy holding a book more than reading them digitally, which is why it will “survive the digital onslaught”. (Hoppenstand, 370)
This article is rather powerful. Hoppenstand portrays a lot of thought-provoking ideas. He started the article with “there is no constant” which really stood out to me. He goes on to say that “popular culture is entirely mutable”, “ever-changing, always in motion, never static (Hoppenstand, 369). I liked how he compared the progression of video formatting to the formatting of musical recordings. For example, musical recording has advanced through a number of stages. It has progressed from vinyl records to the present-day digital downloading. Video formatting went from Beta videotape to the newly introduced Blu-ray. He even compared these various formats to other media such as books. Although video and musical formatting is rapidly changing, books are basically staying the same. Amazon does offer a “wireless reading device, the Kindle”, but being able to hold the book will resist the use of the technology (Hoppenstand, 370).
I like how he goes from the complexity in life to the simple and illustrates how attractive and resilient the simple, in this case “the book,” can be. Even though times are changing and according to Hoppenstand “there is no constant”, we can always depend on one thing not changing, the way we read our books.