Pop Culture Assignment

The artifact that I have chosen is the show The Sopranos. This show would be considered an artifact of popular culture; also it was extremely popular for its time. The Sopranos was a show that would be categorized as a television artifact. This artifact was very well known by almost everyone I know, and I am sure throughout the country. It was on television for several years, and the last season had a notorious ending in 2006.

Everyone loves a mob movie! There really are few reasons why this show became popular in our culture. That reason is simply that everyone roots for the mob, and there have not been any legitimate mob movies or things that people could watch and root for. Most of the best mob movies were in the seventies and nineties. They were a huge hit in our society because of how entertaining they are.

This show was most popular with the younger and older male population. It appealed to the young guys who wanted to see a modern perspective of what the organized crime of today looked like. The older audience had a natural appeal to the show because of how much history and how great of a reputation organized crime had in their time. In general, the entire concept and plot of the show appealed to men through the action, guns, and women. The show did not exactly target a specific race or class. It can be thought that it targeted those who were somewhat wealthy while it was still going on television. The reason this conclusion can be drawn is because the show was aired on HBO, and I did not even have this channel.

Throughout the history of drama and entertainment, the Oscar has always been taken home by the movies that depict the gangsters. The film that shows the lifestyle of hardcore murderers and heartless businessmen that have it all always brings in an audience. This specific television show brought all of the drama of the lifestyle of a modern gangster. It was a movie that viewers could follow over years and years as the life and story developed. The audience was able to see the cast members grow and deal with the tragedies that ensued during airing of the show. Everyone knows in a mob movie or show the main character is the “bad guy”, but the audience still ends up rooting for him. He is the bad guy that the audience wants to win, but still does questionable things that make the audience want to turn on him. This show makes Tony Soprano seem like a guy no one would want to mess with, but at the same time the audience can’t help but feel bad for him and the hardships he faces in his life. Also, it was humorous to watch, being invited into this world where these Italians say funny expressions they only understand. It made the viewer feel like they were a part of this exclusive culture or language, the viewer felt accepted into a crew virtually. The Sopranos was a hit to the audience almost immediately. Everyone liked the show and thought that it had a great story. For me, the show pretty much spread through word of mouth. After people started talking about the show all the time, the memorabilia began to show up everywhere and on commercials.

This artifact has been a trend since the greatest depiction of the mob life from the Godfather Trilogy. That gave the world incite to what the world was all about, and how these people operated. When people saw that this topic was a trending and entertaining theme others followed and the audience loved it. However, this show offered something that most of all the other movies could not. It gave the viewer the opportunity to see the modern perspective on what happened to the mob after the Godfather.

The issues that this artifact raises are the idea of organized crime being okay and murder being fine as long as there is a code. People usually look down on the mobsters, and they think that they are complete thugs. There are those who understand the drama and entertainment behind the show, however, others cannot stand the fact that kids and young adults implore the life of easy money and the hard life.

This artifact falls under the low class of popular culture. The depiction of murder and theft gives the idea of lower culture. The men’s actions of the show convey to others that they are scum, but for some reason entertaining. Higher class culture would not accept extortion and murder as a legitimate form of making money. One factor however that could qualify it as a high class artifact is the fact that it was only shown on HBO. This is one fact that cannot be overlooked because usually the wealthier have exclusive channels like that.

The only possible gain society may have gotten from The Sopranos would be perspective from the life of a thug, but even deeper, they also learned that no matter what walk of life a person comes from, they still have to survive like everyone else. The show just conveyed how Tony Soprano took care of the obstacles and troubles in his life his way, and in some cases they could have been applied to the viewer’s life. For example, in Tony’s life his mother really gave him no credit for anything that he did. He went through his entire life on the show dealing with this, and he tried to learn how to get over it.