Low culture

Low culture is a derogatory term for some forms of popular culture that have mass appeal. Its contrast is high culture. It has been said by culture theorists that both high culture and low culture are subcultures. Today, this would mean things like 'take-away' meals, gossip magazines, and books that are current best-sellers.

Manifestations

Reality television, escapist fiction, kitsch, slapstick, camp, toilet humor, yellow journalism, pornography, viral videos and exploitation films are often cited examples of low culture.

The boundaries of low culture and high culture blur, through convergence. Many people are "omnivores", making cultural choices from different menus. The 1990s artwork of Jeff Koons appropriate low art tropes of kitsch and pornography. Rhys Chatham's musical piece Guitar Trio (1977) is an example of incorporating (low culture) primitive punk rock aesthetics into (high culture) contemporary classical music.

Romanticism was one of the first movements to reappraise "low culture," when previously maligned medieval romances were taken seriously and influenced literature.