Popular culture (commonly known as pop culture) is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes,images and other phenomena that are preferred[citation needed] by an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the late 20th and early 21st century. Heavily influenced by mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday lives of the society.
Popular culture is often viewed as being trivial and dumbed-down in order to find consensual acceptance throughout the mainstream. As a result, it comes under heavy criticism from various non-mainstream sources (most notably religious groups and countercultural groups) which deem it superficial, consumerist, sensationalist, and corrupted.
The term "popular culture" was coined in the 19th century or earlier to refer to the education and general "culturedness" of the lower classes, as was delivered in an address at the Birmingham Town Hall, England. The term began to assume the meaning of a culture of the lower classes separate from (and sometimes opposed to) "true education" towards the end of the century, a usage that became established by the interbellum period. The current meaning of the term, culture for mass consumption, especially originating in the United States, is established by the end of World War II. The abbreviated form "pop culture" dates to the 1960s.
Hamza Yusuf Hanson is an American Islamic scholar, and (with Zaid Shakir and Hatem Bazian) is co-founder of Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, United States. He is a convert to Islam, and is one of the signatories of A Common Word Between Us and You, an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders, calling for peace and understanding. He has described the 9/11 attacks as "an act of 'mass murder, pure and simple'". Condemning the attacks, he has also stated "Islam was hijacked ... on that plane as an innocent victim".The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom reported that he "is arguably the west's most influential Islamic scholar" and added that "many Muslims find his views hard to stomach."
Hamza Yusuf was born to two academics in Washington State and raised in Northern California. In 1977, he became Muslim and subsequently traveled to the Muslim world and studied for ten years in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, as well as North and West Africa. Hamza Yusuf spent four years studying in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere in the Middle East. Later he traveled to West Africa and studied in Mauritania, Medina, Algeria, and Morocco under such scholars as Murabit al Haaj; Baya bin Salik, head of the Islamic court in Al-'Ain, United Arab Emirates; Muhammad Shaybani, Mufti of Abu Dhabi; Hamad al-Wali; and Muhammad al-Fatrati of Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt.[citation needed] After more than a decade abroad, he returned to the United States and earned degrees in nursing from Imperial Valley College and religious studies at San José State University.[citation needed]
Let me tell you a thing
On popular culture
American swing
The British add sulphur
I'll buy you a beer
If you can compete from here
They throw you a line
Let me see it you catch it
And they'll give you some time, sure
If you got something to match it
Just as long as you know
Who is running that show, oooohhhh
And I was thinking, well hey
I'm gonna throw it away
Throwing out my popular culture
Cause now you know it's not great
If you don't come from the states
You will always be late to be in popular culture
From western slang
To showbiz spells
You'd almost think
There's nothing else
Can you give me the news
On the romantic actor
No, I don't really care but his blues
Is for me a distractor
Through his eyes I can see
What is wrong with me… oooooh…
And I was thinking, well hey
I'm gonna throw it away
Throwing out my popular culture
Cause now you know it's not great
If you don't come from the states
You will always be late to be in popular culture
From western slang
To showbiz spells
You'd almost think
There's nothing else
And I was thinking, well hey
Well what the hell is my place
If someone else will dictate
My singular culture
Cause everybody's a star
And if you don't think too far
You can define who you are
Through popular culture
It's like you're not really seen
Without a fashionable spleen
That is so much alike the one
Your heroes suffered
And so you gotta be strong
You've got to just speak in tongues
About how you belong