Horton, J. (2010) 'The best thing ever': how children's popular culture matters. Social and Cultural Geography. 11(4), pp. 377-398. 1464-9365.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Abstract: | This paper reflects upon a popular cultural event which was, briefly, for a particular grouping of children in the UK, ‘the best thing ever’: namely the release of the CD-single Reach, by the British pop group S Club 7. I suggest that this event was illustrative of manifold cultural forms and practices which — being ostensibly banal, fun, faddish, lowbrow and ‘childish’ — continue to go largely unheralded by many social/cultural geographers. Against this grain, this paper presents three apprehensions of S Club 7’s significance. First, I restate a particular case made via Anglo-American cultural studies that ‘children's popular culture’, ought to be taken more seriously in contexts salient to social/cultural geographers. Second, I detail how the S Club 7 phenomenon existed, practically and materially, and mattered, in some children's everyday lives. Third, refracting cultural geographers' recent apprehensions of affective, evental aspects of cultural practices, I suggest that the pop cultural phenomenon described herein mattered (to those children, there and then) in ways which elude and exceed canonical scholarly habits of writing/knowing popular cultural phenomena. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | children's geographies, popular culture, S Club 7 |
| Subjects: |
H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Women > HQ767 Children. Child development H Social Sciences > HM Sociology > HM621 Culture M Music and Books on Music > ML Literature on music > ML3469 Popular music |
| Creators: | Horton, John |
| Funders or Sponsors: | Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) |
| Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
| Faculties, Divisions and Institutes: |
University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Research Centre > The Centre for Children and Youth University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > School of Social Sciences (to 2016) University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Faculty of Education & Humanities > Education, Children and Young People Faculties > Faculty of Education & Humanities > Education, Children and Young People Research Centres > Centre for Psychology and Social Sciences |
| Date: | May 2010 |
| Date Type: | Publication |
| Page Range: | pp. 377-398 |
| Journal or Publication Title: | Social and Cultural Geography |
| Volume: | 11 |
| Number: | 4 |
| Language: | English |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1080/14649361003774563 |
| ISSN: | 1464-9365 |
| Status: | Published / Disseminated |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| URI: | http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/4061 |
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