What does the jamaican culture reflect on?

Does popular culture reflect society or does popular culture affect society? Both? To what extent?

• Answer:

  I'm going to give you a response that might seem silly at first, but really, it isn't. It depends on which society you are talking about. The more easily accessed pop-culture is, the more chance it affects and is reflected by society.  The more time members of a group spend accessing specific outlets for popular culture, the more they will be affected.  The more that pop-culture is creatable by those accessing it (like on Reddit) the more popular culture is affected by society. Within any given post-industrial society, it used to be that young people were most affected, and people from perhaps 25 to 45 were do most of the creating of culture (through movies, art, and advertising).  Online culture has brought the ability to create popular culture to the masses (think about YouTube stars that were entirely self-made, not vetted by a publisher or producer). I'm an American, almost 50.  As a kid, re-runs (replaying for a second time, shows that had already been aired) were a new thing!  The best pop-culture movies, TV, books and magazines were very expensive to produce, and they were consumed by great majorities of Americans.  When someone "shot JR" everyone knew that someone shot JR, and that we didn't know who.  Even if we never saw "Dallas," because it had very little competition for attention the night it was aired. Now, any society with 24-7 unmoderated interactive access, is overwhelmed with choices. Some aspects of popular culture stand out due to excellent marketing, some get great marketing and fall flat.  Still, some things rise to the top with unanticipated speed and popularity, and no one knows exactly why (think of "Gangnam Style"). Society is stratified by age and computer access in ways never experienced before.  Your question has been interesting from the first time anyone staged a play with costumes, or published something with any form of automated printing.  (After Goethe published "The Sorrows of Young Werther" there was a string of copy-cat suicide attempts, made wearing the clothes Werther wore when he committed suicide.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_suicide was born with that book.  As creating and sharing "popular culture" becomes democratized through the Internet, its role in society continues to shift dramatically.