Friday, December 8, 2023

Celebrating the 50th: Culture goes pop

Celebrating the 50th: Culture goes pop

Marjorie Smelstor and Carol Weiher review the varied elements of popular culture in America.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in the UTSA newsletter The Discourse in Oct. 1976.

(Aug. 9, 2019) -- Welcome to Popular Culture 1976. To test your basic knowledge of this “everyday” course, answer each of the following questions in 20 words or less. Do not turn on your television, open a newspaper, or run to the record cabinet. Good luck. You may begin.

  1. What is Elton John saying to us in “Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road”?
  2. What is director Robert Altman saying about America in his motion picture Nashville.
  3. What is Agatha Christie’s latest whodunit?
  4. Should a gentleman offer a Tiparillo to a lady?

The answers to these and thousands of other questions like them will not be found at the end of this article, nor will you necessarily find them by ransacking your home looking for the latest Time magazine. But if professors Marjorie Smelstor and Carol Weiher have their way, you will at least have the opportunity to explore Popular Culture in America, what it says to us and about us, in their three-part seminar.

>> Read the rest of this story and relive other memories from UTSA’s history as we celebrate UTSA’s 50th Anniversary.


Celebrate UTSA’s 50th Anniversary and share social media posts about the 50th using the hashtag #UTSA50.

Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.



UTSA Today is produced by University Communications and Marketing, the official news source of The University of Texas at San Antonio. Send your feedback to news@utsa.edu. Keep up-to-date on UTSA news by visiting UTSA Today. Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.


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The University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.

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We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.

UTSA’S Destinations

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The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to promoting access for all. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.