Horton, J. (2010) 'The best thing ever': how children's popular culture matters. Social and Cultural Geography. 11(4), pp. 377-398. 1464-9365.
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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:
Creators:
Horton, J.
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
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
ISSN:
1464-9365
Status:
Published / Disseminated
Refereed:
Yes
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