Pop culture is a modernized form of culture that is usually transmitted through the media to target the younger generation mostly. It is a combination of both music, arts, and lifestyle. To promote and develop pop culture, the film Wizard of Oz used improvised costumes and improved commercial film technology. The film industry invented through this process. The most practiced American cultural genre was the use of advertising technology to create awareness. Apart from advertising, the industry also adopted the print technology whose aim was to increase the number of copies to the target at relatively affordable prices (Storey, 2016). The print industry equally ensured that more people could be able to read and write and as a result led to increased literacy skills. In America, it was however discovered that high culture was not as popular as the pop culture. The Wizard of Oz was frequently termed as the "pop season opener." The original storyline had this long-term effect on its audience because of the pop song "Under the rainbow" featured in the film that ignited the desire to watch it over and over again. Several films such as the 'Wild heart,' 'Road to Oz' and ‘the Wiz' paid homage to the movie Wizard of Oz.
Dorothy's journey in the film is an excellent example of the transition from countryside to the city area. She is a young lady, who lives in the rural areas, is ambitious and full of fantasies about the outside world (Rusell, 2014). The pastoral life is something she believes does not suit her or even give her enough opportunities to make her dreams come true. People always assumed that inhabitants of rural areas are still backward and primitive in matters concerning pop culture. Any form of pop culture is aimed at commercialization and creating profits. It equally aims at instilling values and molding the people’s way of thinking. Popular culture is a reflection of the sentiments and ideology of the residents. People in rural areas have always presented themselves as technologically backward that’s why most films and songs touch on them. Country life and city lifestyle offer different ways of living. While country life is simple, easy to adjust with and appreciates morality, the growth in the city, on the other hand, is complicated, applies the principle of survival for the fittest and full of vices. The novel is a mirror of what happens in real life especially the changes individuals have to go through as a result of migrating from one place to another. Individuals who move from rural to city areas may find it hard to adapt to the lifestyle and cultures of the city (Storey, 2016). Forms of music, art, and literature are different in rural and towns. Means of transmitting culture in the countryside may be entirely different from those in the city. Cities become developed technologically, and literacy levels of residents in the town are adequate to implement new technologies. Rural residents, on the other hand, maybe slow at adaptation. Advertising techniques are more successful in the developed areas due to the high population that ensures the target group gets reached.
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The Wizard of Oz is legendary in its efforts in promoting commercialization of pop culture in the 20th century. What is a culture worth? The witch's silver slippers given to Dorothy represent the culture. Campaigns have been conducted to preserve these sandals as a cultural representation of the Land of Oz. Most museums have protected them as a form of artifact. The silver shoes were discovered 40 years later and adapted as an old-school footwear. Dorothy's costume (blue and white gingham dress) became a designer cloth in the later years Museums however just have small parts of the real story. The film's influence on fashion and design is evident in the way the actresses dressed (Kiera knightly as Dorothy). The Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs are among the numerous films that acquired great inspiration from the movie as fairy tales and involving witches (Grainge et al., 2016). The audience of the film still fills the effect of the film years after its release due to the emotional songs and dances. Collections in museums today equally comprise of the ancient technologies used in theatre, film recordings, radio, and performances. In the past commercial theatre performances involved the use of puppets primarily.
The classic movie The Wizard of Oz has made contributions to the development of pop culture theme because of the famous lines in its storyline. The urban consideration of pop culture is much better than that of the rural (Gale, 2016). Differences in cultural practices between the urban and rural areas are always as a result of differences in cultural attitudes. Over the years the film Wizard of Oz is a legend for developing a commercial part of pop culture, fashion, and arts. New versions of the film continue to be released and aired on Television (Gale, 2016). It is, however, one magical fairy tale that helps the audience appreciate ‘home.' It is a thrilling part of literature that has managed to gain popularity over the years. It was equally among the first primary sources of media in the past (Gale, 2016). One of the chief aspects of the film it was the first ever movie to be fully-featured in color on television. The movie's overall success of the film was because of its unique musical structures, set and design. We cannot deny that Wizard of Oz had enormous influence on the society. It has this oddness in its characters and weirdness, not found in other films, that gives it and stable penetrability in its audience.
References
Gale, C. L. (2016). A Study Guide for L. Frank Baum's" The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." Boston, Massachusetts, Cengage Learning.
Grainge, P., Thompson, G., Fagg, J., & Pethers, M. (2017). Nineteenth and early twentieth-century American entertainment culture. Nottingham. Retrieved from https://rdmc.nottingham.ac.uk/handle/internal/233 .
Russell, S., & Russell, W. H. (2014). Tag Archives: Wizard of Oz. Image, 6.
Storey, J. (2016). Popular Culture. Materiality and Popular Culture: The Popular Life of Things . Abingdon : Routledge.
