The Amalgam of "High" and "Low" Culture and the Body

Both readings this week focus on the body — particularly Elvis's lower body — and its power to both equalize and excite. Sweeney talks about the lower body as “the center of procreation and excretion, where humans are reduced to the equality of their bodily functions” (256). These two properties – exciting and equalizing – are not in conflict with each other, but actually work in tandem. It is the carnal excitement that leaves us breathless that bonds us together; the rush of endorphins and hormones that allow us to collectively dream together in a concert or movie that tie us to one another, even if just for the duration of the experience. If, for instance, two seat-mates – otherwise strangers – wet their pants together at an Elvis concert, that’s an incredible bond they share, which goes beyond barriers of class or other cultural tastes.

It’s the kind of bond that can’t be replicated.

This equalizing property began to erode the lines between high and low culture with Elvis. Doss discusses the body-centered art in the 1950s that paralleled Elvis’s same employment of the body in “intoxication, ecstasy and delight” (4). These strong physical acts – rolling around in the mud and other sexual participative performance art – don’t seem like the highbrow kind of culture that Sweeney talks about as the opposite of white trash. But performance art – odd though it may be – links the same carnal experiences of the body as Elvis does to a “higher” performance piece.

In recent postmodern trends, the line between high culture and low culture has faced further blurring, particularly in regards to certain celebrity personalities.

Admittedly, Taylor Swift began her career as relatively “low” culture; her main demographic for a long time was adolescent girls. However, in recent years she has transitioned. Her music videos changed from the likes of “Love Story” and “You Belong With Me.” Then they were linear story high school love stories:

Now look at the new “Blank Space” and “Style.” 

Far from the former videos, Swift’s new style is much closer to the typical idea of high culture than it was before.

However, this cultural shift isn’t about the upgrading of low culture celebrities into high culture VIPs. Instead, it is about the mixing of the two. Kanye West is an example of this. He’s talked about everywhere from Top 40 radio stations to NPR, and his antics are the issue of so-called highbrow scholarship.

I am still intrigued by the linkage of this body-centric culture of Elvis and the 1950s to today. How are the celebrities of today that unify different aspects of culture tied to the body? Do they create the same kind of experiences? How do they vary from those of Elvis and his contemporaries?