This is how Pop Culture became the centre of everything.
In the Oxford dictionary, Culture is defined as “a way of life” — the customs and beliefs, art, and social organization of a particular country or group.
With that being said I don’t think there’s ever been a time in modern history where we put so much emphasis on culture more than we do now. We have fashion culture, music culture, sports culture, beauty culture, movie culture and so much more.
To be fair we could merge all these facets under one umbrella however an emphasis needs to be put on how far culture actually does stretch. It touches us all in one way or another because it’s how we live our lives within our own bubbles, with our own people.
Culture has become a starting point for many brands when it comes to their marketing strategies. For instance, rather than merely pushing a product or service to answer the needs of a consumer, many brands are immersing themselves in the lives of their consumers through culture.
Music culture
Music travelling to all continents
Within the music space there have been a few genre’s that have gained popularity and that speaks to the growing culture behind them. Trap, Drill, Afrobeats and Amapiano have all caused major waves globally in recent times.
The best way to know if something is popular is seen in how people from other countries adopt that culture. A good example of this would be Hip Hop culture because almost every country has their own local Hip Hop scene that speaks to their people.
In particular, the Afrobeats and Amapiano wave has caught on in the western world. Especially in the U.K where Amapiano has become a cultural staple with events like AMA Fest & Kings of Amapiano.
Fashion culture
Street fashion brands collaborating with luxury fashion brands
Many high fashion brands are collaborating either amongst each other or with celebrities or with street fashion/sports brands. The consistent theme here is collaboration.
It seems to be a trend that has been happening for the past couple of years now. In an effort to not get left behind, many of these brands are aiming to not only grow their audience but also align themselves with popular culture.
Movie culture
Nobody ever wants to feel left out
Just like most sources of entertainment, movies are also influenced by trends. For instance during the action movie era some of the biggest names on the planet were Jean-Claude Van Damme, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan.
Almost 20 years later superhero movies have been grossing the most money at the box office in recent years with all three Avenger’s movies earning just over $6 billion in gross income.
I guess low-key, we all want to be a superhero.
Sports culture
Creating sporting dynasties with a global appeal
Sports worldwide are gaining major popularity. When you look at UFC, Celebrity boxing and European Football teams in particular, are all growing their reach when it comes to invading consumer markets in other countries. Even Women’s Football has grown by big margins.
We’re also starting to see more and more major investment into European football clubs. With huge organisations such as PIF (Majority owners of Newcastle FC), The Ethihad Aviation group (Owners of Manchester City FC) and Qatar Sports Investment (Owners of Paris Saint-Germain F.C.).
Furthermore Tottenham’s Hotspur built a new stadium that cost £1bn and is also the biggest club ground in London, accommodating 62 850 fans. The pitch also switches so that American Football games can be played on thus increasing their yearly revenue. Plus it hosts music concerts and events.
Political culture
The people will rise
Nobody trusts the government anymore, people are starting to doubt the efficacy of a democracy, there’s a constant back and forth between liberals and conservatives.
In other words, there is a sense of unrest happening in the world. There’s a culture of civil unrest brewing in most countries right now especially after the devastating effects of COVID-19.
Furthermore with all this pain everyone is experiencing due to corruption, pandemics, police brutality, wars and inflation; many governments are doing very little to help their own citizens. As a result, the people are rebelling because they’ve had enough.
Beauty culture
Who has the real influence?
In 2020 alone, we saw more than 10 new celebrity-owned companies hit the market, followed by 15 more in 2021. Within the few months of 2022, we’ve also already seen eight new celeb-owned brands. We can see why it might be hard to keep track, so we rounded them up in a comprehensive list ahead. — Jessica Harrington, Pop Sugar (2020)
There’s a recent culture of consumer’s favouring celebrity make-up brands over big name brands. In 2022 Revlon filed for bankruptcy while Rihanna became the youngest self-made billionaire for her beauty brand Fenty - the majority of her wealth comes from Fenty Beauty.
In addition brands like Fenty Beauty have become more inclusive with their skin tones — moving away from the traditional view of white women being used as the standard for universal beauty. This is also contributes to its popularity.
Therefore it’s no surprise really that Kim Kardashian (in 2021) and Kylie Jenner (in 2019) also became billionaires after releasing their own beauty brands, SKKN by KIM & Kylie cosmetics respectively.
