What is postmodernism? 211Culture and society 211An emphasis on style at the expense of substance 212Art and popular culture 213Confusions over time and space 214The decline of metanarratives 215Contemporary popular culture and postmodernism 216Architecture 216Cinema 217Television 219Advertising 220Pop music 221The emergence of postmodernism 223Consumerism and media-saturation 223New middle-class occupations 225The erosion of identity 226The limits of postmodernism 227Some recent theoretical developments 233Discourse and popular culture 233The ‘dialogical’ approach to popular culture 237Cultural populism 240THIS CHAPTER WILL consider the postmodernist analysis of contemporary popular culture. Like the preceding chapters, it will assess critically the claims it makes. However, unlike them it will be even more concerned with the empirical arguments of postmodernism. One reason for this is that postmodern theory and post-structuralism, its theoretical and philosophical foundation, are relatively recent developments, and still less familiar than the other theories discussed: for example, there are few sources which present clear and readable accounts of postmodern theory. Compounding this problem, much of the debate about postmodernism has been too vague, abstract and difficult to understand. Compared with this theoretical output, relatively little has been said about postmodernism as an empirical or historical phenomenon.