Stories related to: pop culture

Heavy metal and Halloween, make room for haute couture. “What used to be a symbol for borderline-sociopathic tough guys with weird design fetishes—Hells Angels, pirates, Nazis—has become a trope de luxe,” writes Stephen Marche in Esquire . The skull, a symbol of death with deep religious significance, “has suddenly become hypermodern, totally in and of the moment.” More »

German college students aren't impressed with American culture—they're not even sure it exists, author Chuck Klosterman finds at the outset of a teaching stint in Leipzig. "The proliferation of media has made it virtually impossible to tell the difference between a) what information is unilaterally interesting," Klosterman writes in Esquire , "and b) what information is merely available." More »

David Cook almost didn't audition for American Idol —he was there to offer moral support to his younger brother. But goading from his family kicked off a whirlwind journey that took him from fledgling Midwest rocker to Billboard star. Cook tells Rolling Stone about his modest beginnings—and his early skepticism about the Idol pop machine. More »

The dizzying growth of the video game industry continues to alarm cultural Luddites, writes Tom Chatfield for the Prospect , but the critics are trapped in video gaming’s past. They haven't adjusted to the development of social, team-based gaming worlds, treating games “as an odd mix of the slightly menacing and the alien: more like exotic organisms dredged from the deep sea than complex human creations.” More »

Hello Kitty has been tapped as Japan’s cultural envoy to China, the AP reports. Japan’s ministry of tourism chose the über-popular icon to represent the country in its drive to attract 10 million annual visitors to the islands. Last year, tourists from China and Hong Kong made up 16.5% of Japan's 8.35 million overseas visitors. More »

The brouhaha over Miley Cyrus' Vanity Fair photo shoot is a “simple misunderstanding” stemming from a clash of brand names, writes Mark Feeney in the Boston Globe . Cyrus’ Hannah Montana is an established Disney brand--and when Hannah met Vanity Fair , a sudden change in that image was the result. “If Hannah Montana were a Fox franchise, would we have heard a peep?” Feeney asks. More »

Mariah Carey unseated Elvis for the No. 2 spot in chart-topping songs this week. Her single "Touch My Body" became her 18th No. 1 and pushed Elvis into third place, the Los Angeles Times reports. The Beatles' all-time record of 20 remains, but Carey could eclipse the Fab Four by the end of summer. More »

Indiana Jones' whip. The gun that killed JFK's assassin. Madonna's Like a Virgin wedding dress. All are up for grabs at a massive memorabilia auction scheduled for March 15-16 in Las Vegas, Reuters reports. Billed as the best pop-culture collection ever assembled, the 850-lot treasure trove could fetch more than $5 million, says the president of the auction house. More »

At age 50, and after a decade in exile, the Smurfs are planning a comeback, NPR reports, with the original series coming out on DVD and a 3-D movie expected next year. Though today’s kids have more sophisticated options than watching the repair of mushroom houses, “the Smurf village can be a good place to rest," said one marketing type. More »

Dick Wilson, the actor who played Charmin's Mr. Whipple for 21 years, died today at the age of 91, the AP reports. Although he did stints at Disney and had parts in popular television shows of the 1960s, Wilson will be widely remembered as the uptight grocer who urged customers, "Please, don't squeeze the Charmin." More »

Starbucks has closed its outlet in Beijing's Forbidden City after seven years of controversy. The coffee shop had become a symbol for the intrusion of foreign culture in China's heritage, culminating in protests and government intervention. "It was a very congenial decision," a Starbucks official said. "We respect what they are doing." More »

It may be spring time for Paris but one of the nation's top pop culture rags won't be participating in the media frenzy. Just as the scofflaw celebutante ends her well-publicized stint in jail this week, Us Weekly is bowing out of the competition—not only eschewing the predictable cover story, but and expunging all mention of the heiress from its coming issue, the AP reports. More »

A fan of classic TV sitcoms apparently set a trap for an online identity thief—who fell for it hook, line, and remote control. A credit card number up for sale in an underground chat room that caters to crooks recently caught the attention of a security company monitor who suspected shenanigans because of the purported cardholder's name: "Herman Munster." More »

MTV is fighting an unprecedented drop-off in ratings by tapping straight into the YouTube generation. The revamped bastion of youth culture will be less cable channel and more media hub, letting its teen viewers decide—and create—what they want to see, while keeping them connected to their digital world. More »

American Idol contestant Sanjaya Malakar, the waifish breakout star who lacks only a singing voice, is America’s latest wedge issue, according to The New Republic . One teenager went on hunger strike for 16 days to protest Sanjaya's continued presence, sparking a counter protest of "Binge Eating for Sanjaya" and "Slim Fast for Sanjaya." More »