From Barbie to the internet, the Simpsons to the Malls, this engaging book on pop culture helps readers develop critical and analytical skills and write clear prose while reading, thinking, and writing about subjects they find inherently interesting. Spanning a full range of topics, it provides key reading and writing strategies, and contains essays that address a topic generally and then explore related material in depth. Chapter and article introductions for each article encourage readers to consider the underlying meanings, purposes, and ideas in various pop-cultural artifacts and practices. Readings cover the full range of topics in the field of popular culture--from advertising, television, and popular music, to cyberculture, sports, movies and leisure. ''Casebooks'' on certain pop-cultural phenomena (e.g., the Barbie Doll, rap and hip-hop music, horror movies, and virtual communities) provide in-depth studies of certain artifacts and practices and encourage readers to consider the social impact of the phenomena and how it may have impacted their own lives.

For anyone interested in pop culture or strategies for writing about pop culture.