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02 November 2012 @ 06:56 pm
All The Things Friday: Popular Culture  
Welcome to another All The Things Friday! Popular culture is usually something that people discuss in terms of Steve or Thor, specifically their lack of recent pop culture knowledge, but I find it interesting that when it comes to Clint and Natasha every fic I’ve read seems to have a different take.

For example, there are fics where the Avengers have film nights and Natasha doesn’t recognise the films, or she likes black and white movies, or she likes to correct the moves in martial arts films, or she likes musicals, or… When it comes to Clint and music we’ve had great discussions over what music he likes and if he can play the guitar, but then sometimes Natasha recognises the music, sometimes she doesn’t, sometimes she likes it, and sometimes she prefers classical. And so on.

What books, films, television shows, music, etc. do you think our Master Assassins like? Does Natasha like American pop culture, Russian pop culture, or hate pop culture, or hate aspects of pop culture? Was she familiar with American pop culture from her early training, or did she miss out as a kid and she doesn’t care, or she missed out and Clint teaches her? Is she more international in her pop culture tastes? Does she even see the point of pop culture?

What about Clint? If there’s any pattern that I’ve seen it’s that Clint is the more knowledgeable of the two about American pop culture at least, but at the same time SHIELD is often depicted as sending him all over the globe. Has he picked up on international pop culture himself? Has he missed out on pop culture whilst he’s been busy at SHIELD or whilst he may have been out of the country in the Armed Forces or what have you in the past? Does he care about pop culture, or not care, or care about some aspects in particular?

I have a lot of questions, folks, and no answers, just lots of ideas, because I love that all of these and more can be true considering the little that we know about Clint and Natasha from the films. So bring your thinky thoughts, your recs of creative things in which pop culture is a thing, your graphics, new fics or fic ideas, all of the things! Or just grab a drink, settle in, and have a happy Friday :D
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[identity profile] oresteia.livejournal.com on November 2nd, 2012 09:02 pm (UTC)
I think like all things people base these off what they themselves like while imaging what characters like.

Because of the write what you know unspoken rule, I almost always pick the same references. Like I've read a lot of fics that have country music as a thing for him--- I would have him as a rock fan which is more to my liking.

Personally I've always felt that everyone likes some kind of classical music, I mean it's everywhere how can you not? People that maybe don't like the slow things like music similar to Die Walkürie (and if they can get past the racist thing that too) but usually no one can go wrong assuming some character likes classical music regardless of the person or their history.

I prefer some international variety but at the root out of it if I ever reference tv in a fic it's almost always American on the basis, they do it better than everyone else (though I'm partial to the British personally).

As for pop culture, once upon a time high culture basically was the forefront of the world but pop culture has become culture in a way that can't be ignored because tradition has been molded and shaped so much that it's almost undefinable. Therefore, it's like impossible to escape any reading these days without some kind of reference to something deemed pop culture. So every character I'm sure to some extent even Thor has it just differently.
inkvoices: avengers:jeremy renner b&w[personal profile] inkvoices on November 2nd, 2012 11:20 pm (UTC)
I remember reading something about writers and worrying about putting too many pop culture references in that might be forgotten in the future, meaning that then their writing wouldn't be understood or seem dated, but that without those references they worried that their work wouldn't be situated. Then it went on to say that in Buffy The Vampire Slayer instead of using pop culture and slang Joss Whedon kind of made up his own, which then caught on. (Something like that anyway.) Like you say, it's difficult to escape pop culture though. (Especially with Tony Stark around!)

Hmm, I think that Natasha would have some knowledge of pop culture to be able to play her marks, understand intell, etc in her work and that culture like classical music, long lived and established culture (if that's what I mean, but yeah) would be great things for that.
Ashen Key: London town[personal profile] ashen_key on November 2nd, 2012 11:50 pm (UTC)
*raises hand* I really don't tend to like classical music. Folk music, yes, but I never want to move to classical music, and so I tend to find it eh. So, I actually find the 'of course this person likes it' to be...it can be a bit odd? I guess because I don't have a lot of personal connection to it. A couple pieces, yes, but not as a genre.

Natasha, though, would know classical music. Classical! Although I tend to see her as loving the ballets more than classical piano music. And a lot of her musical tastes, and Clint's, aren't mine at all. Which can be rather vexing to write, I admit *g*
[identity profile] oresteia.livejournal.com on November 3rd, 2012 12:10 am (UTC)
it's a generalization, really it's more instrumental music and how it gets replayed and reshaped and it really all comes from classical/opera.

but not everyone likes say Beethoven.

Though I personally am what I call a musical snob so I prefer opera and classical to 90% of other music out there.

Edited 2012-11-03 12:17 am (UTC)