High and Low Culture- brief for Contextual Studies

Culture is all intellectual achievements: the arts, music, painting, literature, philosophy and the performing arts. Culture means also our education, good taste, sophistication or lifestyle, customs, traditions and values.

There is high culture and low culture. By high culture we understand the best intellectual manifestations of human activity. High culture is very exclusive, elegant, smart and expensive. It is characterised by high value, elitism, it used to belong to bourgeois and was often difficult to understand. As high culture we would traditionally classify Theatre, Opera, Orchestras, Ballet, Literature, Fine Art, Architecture, Classical music, BBC Radio 3, The Times, Guardian, Fine Jewellery, Haute Couture and others. Sports like martial arts, yachting, polo or golf and also cosmetic surgery or eating out in elegant restaurant has some associations with high culture.

The opposite of high culture is low culture. It is also called popular culture or mass culture because it is made for masses. That is why it must be easy to understand by the majority of people. Low culture is cheap, easily and quickly produced. It is described as trivial and low valued. It is closely linked with words consumerism and kitsch. As an example of low culture we can list Cinema, Slapstick, Escapist Fiction, Television, Soap operas, Pop music, Tattoo, Applied arts (design, craft), game shows like Big Brother, Cartoons, The Sun, “Mirror” but also brand like Primark or Matalan.

As I said Haute Couture is an example of high culture. One of the most famous couture houses is Christian Dior. It is very exclusive, elegant and expansive brand. Dior is known for his style but also very good quality, high standard, luxury products. That is why Dior’s shops art very sophisticated too. We cannot find Dior’s shops in every city. In Britain there are only tree cities where Dior’s products are sold (London, Manchester and Birmingham). Those products are only for very special and rich people. Even Dior’s advertisement shows that. They are presented in women’s glossy magazines, not on billboards. These advertisements show beautiful women in elegant space, which could be some exclusive, luxury hotel or villas. These women are sometimes famous but most of all elegant, actresses, like Monica Bellucci. She posed to the photo. It was not an informal situation. Even her hair and the bag seem to be in a posed movement. The photograph is carefully composed. The colour of the image is well balanced and subtle. The only writing is the name of the couture house Dior with its typical elegant, old typeface with serifs and very small information how to contact Dior. The information is big enough to notice it but not too big, so it does not disturb in presentation the main image. The advertisement has got this Dior’s sophisticated look and gives us impression of luxury.

Matalan is one of those brands, which are made to be consumed by masses. That is why I am using it as an example for low culture. Matalan is a very cheap shop, affordable for all and its products have low value. There is many more Matalan shops then Dior. Matalan’s advertisements are seen on billboards or online, never in elegant women’s magazines. Matalan also sends its catalogues to our mailboxes. In the opposite of Dior they are trying to get to every potential customer. One of their billboards presented two children, young woman and young man and old woman. The advertisement was trying to show that everybody could find something in Matalan. Presented on the image people are happy, friendly but not elegant or sophisticated. They look like everybody, like people from our streets, they are like we are. They seem to be in some informal situations. The billboard presented also the big Matalan’s logo- its name in red, simple, bold, only capital letters. It must be seen. To convince us even more to go to Matalan shop, advertiser put writing similar to handwriting “uncover the value”, like those smiling people were writing it themselves. As the billboard was situated next to Matalan shop there was no need to put any information about its address.

In 21st century, however, the borderline between low culture and high culture is getting thinner and thinner, more and more blurred. For example Matalan is trying to appear as an exclusive brand, only for elite. That is why only Matalan’s card owners can buy its products. It gives as an impression of elitism even if everybody can get very easily Matalan’s card in the shop. Matalan’s design is very similar to this presented by couture houses like Dior. Cloths and accessorize from Matalan, look very often like they were inspired by big designers. That is why the buyer can make a choice between very expensive Rebel handbag from Dior or Rebel inspired handbag from Matalan that cost £6. There is the difference in the quality and the price but it seems like Matalan knows all the latest trends in the fashion. Dior, just like the others couture houses, has got always two lines, two collections- very individual, one-of and exclusive Haute Couture and Prêt-A-Porte which is high street line, less expensive, more affordable. It is also quite fashionable to have very expensive accessorize like bag from famous designer, for example Dior and complement it with products from a mass culture shop like Primark, Matalan or George at ASDA. Even very rich, famous people love matching their clothes from luxury shops with these from vintage shops. We all know now what the other people are doing. We like watching other people and copy them. People want to be like “their celebrities”. Because of the crossover of high and low culture they can afford to be the “cheap” version of “their idol”.