...Popular Culture of Europe Throughout the Ages Popular culture always has, and will remain, a telling aspect of the mindset of the masses throughout history. It is best defined by PhilosophyNow as the vernacular or people’s culture that predominates in a society at a point in time. The popular culture of Early Modern Europe can largely be classified as a shift from rowdy and vulgar celebrations to a more educated form of enjoying oneself. In the 1800’s, the formation of a mass society accompanied the growing literary movement, while post-WWI Europe experienced the gradual growth of mass media after numerous technological advancements, and later, a global movement towards rapid Americanization. In the mid-1300’s, the disease known as the Black Death was progressing rapidly throughout Europe. As more and more bodies were infected, the European masses began to live each day as if it were their last. This took place in the form of “sex crazed and alcoholic orgies” (Spielvogel 307). In Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron, a description of the popular reaction to the plague is featured: “Others maintained free living to be a better preservative, and would baulk no passion or appetite they wished to gratify, drinking and reveling incessantly from tavern to tavern” (Boccaccio 3). Although the most prominent scares of the Black Death began to fade away in the later years of the 14th century, the need for a rowdy form of enjoyment was still prevalent. Europe experienced a so-called...
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