Pop Culture: “the culture of the people”
Popular culture has its roots set since the mid 19th century, with the creation of a middle class as a result of the Industrial Revolution and by the end of WWII had a huge impact on cultural and social changes in the west.
The 21st century, however, has redefined pop-culture by the advancements of mass communication. The way we can indulge in mass reproductions and newer iterations of the most popular film, music, art, literature, radio, news and current events is frighteningly instant. The way mass media was represented before the social media craze hit and sent off the generations abuzz with TikTok, Facebook and Twitter were very much set in stone.
Mass media in the 2000’s were only represented by print (newspapers and books), broadcast (televisions and radio), and cinema (movies and documentaries). But as we can see, the explosion of other forms of mass media in online social media and in way we can instantly represent our own ideas online to a huge audience is truly a unmistakable advent.
Popular culture is what we the people want, and how we feel at the time is important to what the media distributes en masse to please the public.
The rise of feminism in Renaissance
If we can come to the conclusion that popular culture reflects a certain dynamic of how a certain group or group’s feelings are about race, gender, social issues, economics and other such societal questions, we can understand how that culture can change how we look at religion, sociology and even medicine and science.
Through the visceral and palpable connection of music and the popular visual video medium, we have seen a rise of feminism and female characters inserted in famous references of popular renaissance paintings with heavy religious implications.
What does this imply and what can it infer to past and newer attitudes toward women? Can these newer iterations of the same thing revive the old Renaissance spirit and religious expression? Would this religious expression change because of the modern and feminist content?
“God Is a Woman” by Ariana Grande(2018) and The Creation of Adam(c. 1512) by Leonardo Da Vinci
Bold reinterpretations of famous artwork such as The Creation of Adam(c. 1512) completely reimagined in the music video “God Is a Woman” by Ariana Grande is a intense statement on gender and social issues, both modern and in the past. The lyrics themselves are a very assertive blend of sexuality , femininity, spirituality and gender dynamics that create a sense of liberation and breaking social barriers.
For the 2018 music video, cloud filled backgrounds slowly making way into a cosmic scene that transform the once forgotten womanly form that is usually in the background into the heroic and religious expression of female creation. Ariana Grande puts a woman in the forefront for The Creation of Adam. For the 2018 VMA’s performance, Grande also did a live representation of The Last Supper for her performance of God is a Woman, replacing all the apostles and Jesus with women figures.
Madonna and Child, (1467) by Botticelli and Black Is King (2020) by Beyoncé
Beyoncé has always been one of my favorite artists. Her vibrant choices in lyrics, emotional resonance and exciting, catchy beats always give me a whole lot of positive energy in hard times.
I see her choices in her more modern visual albums such as Black Is King (2020) as a very refreshing addition to the relationship to Renaissance religious repertoire.
In MOOD 4 EVER, one of the tracks in the prolific visual album, she features a Renaissance inspired painting in a mansion. This one, however, features Beyoncé herself as Madonna holding her two twins and her daughter Blue Ivy nearby. The inherent colorations, deeply entrenched shadows and symbolism of the religious Renaissance period are shown in a direct manner, with the halos and blue cloak and flying cherubs in the background.
Beyoncé also recreated Madonna and Child, (1467) by Botticelli in her maternity portraits, as well as invoking The Birth of Venus, all created by the artist Awol Erizku. The nods to the floral archway, the pink and blue drapery which cloaks her and her babies in the after-birth portraits and the celebration of the female form all point to the humanistic quality that made the Renaissance period such a high point in understanding the human form so poignantly and accurately.
Fresh new perspectives on the Renaissance human form in gender and race
I believe that both of these modern artists, Ariana Grande and Beyoncé, and their statements on gender, spirituality and race is important and can generate very deeply far-reaching connections and conversations about social issues and how it effects our daily lives.
Art, after all, is a fluid and ever-changing cultural resource for sharing new information and ideas. It can be an outcry and a call for better social reforms, changes in the way we treat others and even how we watch media, our diets and our feelings on current events, wars and politics.
I believe the merging of feelings of more feminist ideals, racial equality and gender identity overlapping in the beauty and unparalleled expression of humanism in the Renaissance period, we can see a revival of this masterful technique showcasing spirituality and culture that will help us have more philosophical and deep discussions on religion, history and art.
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