7+7 Pop Indicators
Pop Culture is a huge and slippery category. In developing BRIC Pop I found there were seven categories of artistic content and another seven of cultural background behind it, which I think are a good way to cover a lot of material very quickly. I call these my 7+7 Pop Indicators:
Creative Output is just that: content. I would look for any information, words, images, ideas that shapes the cultural conversation. Within that, I made some clarification within each category:
- Architecture: urban and residential, grand projects and styles, the people, concepts and approaches to shelter and structures in our lives
- Art & Design: an emphasis on contemporary art and artistic movements, modern graphic, industrial, and interior design, and a mix of street-level, commercial and fine arts
- Celebrity: more than just who is in the press, but also why, with entertainment, political, society figures that the nation sees as heroes, villains, and icons
- Entertainment: radio/TV/film, literature, press, gaming, everything but music, which was important and broad enough for its own category
- Fashion: couture, ready-to-wear, mass, street style and trends, including regional styles, accessories, influential designers and brands
- Music: local spins on four main global genres — pop, rock, hip-hop, and dance — plus unique national genres, artists, production, and the industry
- Sport: participatory and recreational activity, leading spectator sports, athletes, fans, the business, success in national and international arenas
Social Context categories are the ‘whys’ of the Creative Output ‘whats’ — the characteristics about each BRIC culture that leads to priorities and preferences for pop culture content:
- Cities: what the major urban centers say about the nation, ideas about urban planning, housing, crime, social class, and poverty
- Commerce: the business of buying and selling, retail, stores, malls, markets, online, consumer habits and attitudes
- Lifestyle: what people do, including leisure, nightlife, dining, tourism, health, dating, relationships and sex, rituals
- Media: the infrastructure of print and electronic communications, broadcast and interactive, individual, targeted, and mass
- Values: family, religion, social causes, belief systems, subcultures, education, (in)tolerance
- Wealth: affluence, aspiration and luxury, including facilities, services, products, trends, and their ability to carry culture overseas
- Youth: the owners of tomorrow’s BRIC Pop, changing trends and values, individual versus collective behavior, role of rebellion in their lives
Globalability ID Model
It's just a silly term for how to sift through everything to determine what goes into BRIC Pop. I couldn’t just get away with saying, “That’s cool. That’s not,” as I’m not necessarily that cool myself. I set a few criteria for what had the potential of breaking through globally just like American Hollywood and rock ‘n roll or Japanese fashion and gaming:
First, the counter-intuitive, the opposites of those things that easily lead into the hackneyed ‘land of contrasts’ stories we’re subjected to. If Brazil is “chaotic” — look at urban planning. If Russia is in “population decline” — then youth culture. If India is “scientific” — then let’s talk style. If China is "conformist” — then individuality.
Second, I tried to find the universal. Geisha culture, humiliating game shows, and manga are all quintessentially Japanese, but the first two export as cultural idiosyncracies, while the third exports as something that comes from Japan, but is now shared and appropriated by the world.
Finally, a more subjective, but necessary measure: is it good? Not “cool” or the absolute best in the world, but what could qualify as ‘world-class’ in being unique, fresh, well-crafted, and of a near-equivalent standard, yet unmistakably local. Bonus points for non-derivative ingenuity, charm and enthusiasm.
For example, while Brazilian couture supermodels are obvious, Brazilian prostitute fashion isn't. Russian theatre and the enthusiasm for it probably won't go global anytime soon, but Russian filmmakers already are. Indian luxury retail and travel makes it in, but Indian luxury products and brands don't (yet). And the Chinese passion for online gaming makes its culture BRIC Pop, but not yet its content.