Burroughs’s jubilant call to bring art “out of the closets and into the museums” spoke to postmodernism’s willingness to meld high and low culture (Leonard, 1997). And although the Postmodern Age specifically embraced popular culture, mass media and pop culture have been entwined from their origins. Mass media often determines what does and does not constitute the pop culture scene.

Tastemakers

Historically, mass pop culture has been fostered by an active mass media that introduces and encourages the adoption of certain trends. Although they are similar in some ways to the widespread media gatekeepers discussed previously, tastemakers differ in that they enjoy the most influence when mass media operations remain relatively small and concentrated. When only a few publications or programs reach millions of people, the writers and editors of the media become highly influential. The New York Times’s restaurant reviews used to have the power to make a restaurant successful or unsuccessful through granting (or withdrawing) its rating.

Or take the example of Ed Sullivan’s variety show, which ran from 1948 to 1971 and featured the infamous first U.S. appearance of the Beatles, a television event that would become the most-watched TV program ever (though future programming would eventually eclipse this audience). Sullivan hosted musical acts, comedians, actors, and dancers and had the reputation of transforming performers on the cusp of fame into full-fledged stars. Comedian Jackie Mason compared appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show to “an opera singer being at the Met. Or if a guy is an architect that makes the Empire State Building.…This was the biggest (Leonard, 1997).” Sullivan serves as a classic example of an influential tastemaker of his time. Another example is Oprah Winfrey, whose book club endorsements often send literature, including old classics like Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, skyrocketing to the top of The New York Times Best Sellers list.

Along with encouraging a mass audience to see (or skip) certain movies, television shows, video games, books, or fashion trends, people use tastemaking to create demand for new products. Companies often turn to advertising firms to help generate public demand for an object that may have not even existed six months prior. In the 1880s, when George Eastman developed the Kodak camera for personal use, only professionals took photographs for the most part. “Though the Kodak was relatively cheap and easy to use, most Americans didn’t see the need for a camera; they had no sense that there was any value in visually documenting their lives,” noted New Yorker writer James Surowiecki (Surowiecki, 2003). Kodak did not become a wildly successful company because Eastman had a talent for selling cameras, but because he understood that he had to sell people on the idea of photography itself. Apple Inc. is a modern master of creating demand for its products. By leaking just enough information about a new product line to cause curiosity, the technology company ensures that people will excitedly wait for an official release.

Tastemakers help keep culture vital by introducing the public to new ideas, music, programs, or products, but tastemakers are not immune to outside influence. In the traditional media model, large media companies set aside large advertising budgets to promote their most promising projects; tastemakers buzz about “the next big thing,” and obscure or niche works can get lost in the clutter.

A Changing System for the Internet Age

In retrospect, the 20th century marked the golden age of the tastemaker. Advertisers, critics, and other cultural influencers had access to huge audiences through a small number of mass communication platforms. However, by the end of the century, the rise of cable television and the Internet had begun to make tastemaking a more complicated enterprise. While The Ed Sullivan Show regularly reached 50 million people in the 1960s, the most popular television series of 2023—NFL Sunday Night Football—averaged around 19.8 million viewers per night (Schneider, 2024), even though the 21st-century United States could claim more people and more television sets than ever before. However, the proliferation of TV channels and other competing forms of entertainment meant that no one program or channel could dominate the attention of the American public as in Sullivan’s day.

Meanwhile, a low-tech home recording of a little boy acting loopy after a visit to the dentist (“David After Dentist”) garnered more than 37 million YouTube viewings in 2009 alone (and viewed a total of 142 million times by 2024). The Internet has eroded some of the tastemaking power of legacy media outlets since they can no longer claim to be the only dominant force in creating and promoting trends. Instead, information spreads across the globe without the active involvement of legacy mass media. Websites made by nonprofessionals can reach more people daily than a major newspaper. Music review sites like Pitchfork and Stereogum alert their audiences about the next big thing. Film review aggregators like Rotten Tomatoes allow readers to read hundreds of movie reviews by amateurs and professionals alike. Blogs and social media make it possible for anyone with Internet access to potentially reach an audience of millions. Some popular bloggers have transitioned from legacy media outlets to the digital world, but others have become famous without formal institutional support. The celebrity gossip chronicler Perez Hilton had no formal training in journalism when he started his blog, PerezHilton.com, in 2005; within a few years, he reached millions of readers a month.

E-mail and text messages allow people to transmit messages almost instantly across vast geographic expanses. Although personal communications continue to dominate, e-mail and text messages have become increasingly used to send information about important news events directly to the public. Social networking sites, such as Facebook, and microblogging services, such as Twitter (now X), are another source of late-breaking information. When Michael Jackson died of cardiac arrest in 2009, “RIP Michael Jackson” was a top trending topic on Twitter before the first mainstream media first reported the news.

Thanks to these and other digital-age media, the Internet has become a pop culture force, both a source of amateur talent and amateur promotion. This has manifested in the modern era’s newest form of tastemakers: social media influencers. However, legacy media outlets still maintain some control and influence over U.S. pop culture. Many performers or writers who first make their mark on the Internet quickly transition to more traditional media—YouTube star Justin Bieber eventually released albums by a company owned by Universal Music Group, social media influencer Chrissy Teigen parlayed her social media fame into television appearances, and actor Cameron Dallas rose to fame on the now-defunct video platform Vine. New media stars get quickly absorbed into the legacy media landscape.

Social Media Influencers and the Platforms They Dominate (scroll over picture for more information)

Getting Around the Gatekeepers

The Internet gives untrained individuals access to a huge audience for their art or opinions and allows these content creators to reach fans directly. Projects that may not have succeeded through traditional mass media may get a second chance through newer media. The profit-driven media establishment has been surprised by the success of some self-published books. For example, Andy Weir originally published The Martian on Amazon before getting picked up by a major publishing group and adapted into a major motion picture starring Matt Damon.