21. POP CULTURE INDEX

As an undergraduate English major, I was always looking for free books. Professors and graduate students at the University of California, Riverside filled bookshelves in the halls of the humanities building with outdated or unwanted books and journal issues. One of the titles that I noticed was Eric Donald Hirsch’s Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know (1987). I was interested in both culture and literacy, and indeed, I was and still am an American. Therefore, I started looking through it to find out what I “needed to know.” Inside, I found an appendix titled “The List,” which included more than sixty pages of dates, names, subjects, and places, organized in two alphabetical columns. In order to be a “literate American,” Hirsch thought I needed to know these things. These things included “the auricle” (a fancy word for “your ear”), “the cupola” (a rounded dome forming a ceiling), and a song titled “Home Sweet Home,” which I assume is Henry Bishop’s adaptation from John Howard Payne’s 1823 American opera and not Mötley Crüe’s 1985 glam metal song by the same title.

I felt offended. Who was this person to tell me what I “needed to know”? Who decides what information is important and what information is not? I know what Hirsch was trying to do—prepare people for the types of topics and questions that might come up in academic settings such as universities. However, I never heard anyone refer to any of these three things in all of my years of schooling, from my community college through my doctoral program. I did, however, hear people talk about Mötley Crüe, Hamilton, Clint Eastwood, Slumdog Millionaire, and many other popular culture references. Some of them I knew, but others I did not. It was these moments where I felt excluded that impacted me the most. Of course, some professors referred to obscure, archaic cultural artifacts, and they were shocked when their students were unfamiliar with that piece of high art. But I wasn’t alone; many nineteen-year-old students in Southern California didn’t know who André Breton was or what a theater proscenium is.

With this in mind, I have prepared lists of cultural references that I think will be much more useful for your actual college experience. Many of your professors will be between the ages of thirty and sixty. Some will be as young as twenty-two or twenty-three (master’s or doctoral students who teach as graduate instructors or teaching assistants), and some will be in their seventies and above. They will all make references to the characters, histories, and symbols that mean the most to them, and they will hope that you understand what they are talking about. Great professors are often very aware of current events and trends as well because they are continually learning and seeking out new information. Therefore, the lists below primarily cover United States cultural references from the last twenty years. Every day on your commute to school on the bus/train or in your free time between classes, go on the internet and search for one or two of these figures. There is a good chance your university library will have audio and/or video recordings by these figures if you would like to check out their work. While you read about, listen to, or watch their performances, take some notes on this open textbook using a PDF program or in a physical journal.

I have included artists and works that have won awards simply because of the fame and notoriety that comes with winning awards. I am not saying these artists and works are necessarily any better than others. They are simply more talked about and more recognizable because of their award-winning status. I am also aware that many artists and works from historically underrepresented groups and backgrounds are correspondingly underrepresented here. Therefore, I have tried to include lists of great films by African American, Asian American, and Hispanic and Latinx American directors.

Because people will often refer to these people and things by full name (such as “Philip Seymour Hoffman” instead of just “Hoffman”), these lists are organized alphabetically by first name.

Best African American Films

This list was published in the online version of Slate magazine on May 30, 2016, by Aisha Harris and Dan Kois. More than twenty prominent filmmakers, critics, and scholars chose these films directed by African Americans, ranging in release dates from 1920 through 2016. Notably, it does not contain more recent, widely appreciated films such as: Black Panther (2018), directed by Ryan Coogler; BlacKkKlansman (2018), directed by Spike Lee; Get Out (2017), directed by Jordan Peele; If Beale Street Could Talk (2018), directed by Barry Jenkins; Moonlight (2016), directed by Barry Jenkins; or Straight Outta Compton (2015), directed by F. Gary Gray.

Best Asian American Films

This list was published in the online version of the Los Angeles Times on October 4, 2019, by Brian Hu. More than twenty Asian American critics and curators chose these films directed by Asian Americans, ranging from release dates in 2000 through 2019.

Best International Feature Film Winners

Before 2020, this category of the Academy Awards was called “Best Foreign Language Film.” These films are produced outside the United States and use mostly non-English dialogue.

Best Hispanic and Latinx American Films

Some of the directors on this list do not hold United States citizenship nor do they call the United States home. However, since their films had a powerful impact on United States cinema history and popular culture, I included them on this list.

The EGOT List

EGOT is an acronym that stands for Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. People or productions on this list have won at least one of these awards in the last twenty years:

12 Years a Slave (film)

24 (television)

30 Rock (television)

A Beautiful Mind (film)

A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (musical)

Adele

Adrien Brody

Alec Baldwin

Alison Krauss

Allison Janney

Ally McBeal (television)

America Ferrera

American Beauty (film)

Anderson .Paak

Arcade Fire

Argo (film)

Ariana Grande

Arrested Development (television)

Avenue Q (musical)

Beck

Ben Affleck

Bill Hader

Billie Eilish

Billy Elliott: The Musical (musical)

Billy Porter

Billy Ray Cyrus

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (film)

Black Panther (film)

Breaking Bad (television)

Brie Larson

Bruno Mars

Bryan Cranston

Cardi B

Casey Affleck

Cate Blanchett

Charlize Theron

Chicago (film)

Chick Corea

Claire Danes

Claire Foy

Game of Thrones (television)

Gary Oldman

Gladiator (film)

Glenn Close

Gloria Gaynor

Green Book (film)

Hadestown (musical)

Hairspray (musical)

Halle Berry

Hamilton (musical)

Helen Hunt

Helen Mirren

Herbie Hancock

Hilary Swank

Homeland (television)

In the Heights (musical)

James Gandolfini

James Spader

Jamie Foxx

Jean Dujardin

Jeff Bridges

Jeff Daniels

Jeffrey Tambor

Jennifer Aniston

Jennifer Lawrence

Jersey Boys (musical)

Jim Parsons

Joaquin Phoenix

Jodie Comer

John Cryer

John Lithgow

Jon Hamm

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Julia Roberts

Julianna Margulies

Julianne Moore

Justice

Kacey Musgraves

Kate Winslet

Kelsey Grammer

Kevin Spacey

Kiefer Sutherland

Killing Eve (television)

Kinky Boots (musical)

Kirk Franklin

Kyle Chandler

Kyra Sedgwick

Lady Gaga

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (television)

Late Show with David Letterman (television)

Lauryn Hill

Leonardo DiCaprio

Lil Nas X

Lizzo

Lost (television)

Mad Men (television)

Marion Cotillard

Mariska Hargitay

Matthew McConaughey

Matthew Rhys

Melissa McCarthy

Memphis (musical)

Meryl Streep

Michael Chiklis

Michael J. Fox

Million Dollar Baby (film)

Modern Family (television)

Moonlight (film)

Mumford & Sons

Natalie Portman

Nicole Kidman

Nipsey Hussle

No Country for Old Men (film)

Norah Jones

Olivia Colman

Once (musical)

OutKast

Parasite (film)

Patricia Arquette

Patricia Heaton

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Pose (television)

Rachel Brosnahan

Rami Malek

Ray Charles

Ray Romano

Reese Witherspoon

Renée Zellweger

Ricky Gervais

Robert Plant

Russell Crowe

Sally Field

Sandra Bullock

Santana

Sarah Jessica Parker

Sean Penn

Sela Ward

Sex and the City (television)

Slumdog Millionaire (film)

Spamalot (musical)

Spotlight (film)

Spring Awakening (musical)

Steely Dan

Sterling K. Brown

Tanya Tucker

Tatiana Maslany

Taylor Swift

The Artist (film)

The Band’s Visit (musical)

The Book of Mormon (musical)

The Chemical Brothers

The Colbert Report (television)

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (television)

The Departed (film)

The Handmaid’s Tale (television)

The Hurt Locker (film)

The King’s Speech (film)

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (film)

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (television)

The Office (television)

The Practice (television)

The Producers (musical)

The Shape of Water (film)

The Sopranos (television)

The West Wing (television)

Thoroughly Modern Millie (musical)

Tina Fey

Toni Collette

Tony Shalhoub

Tyler, the Creator

U2

Vampire Weekend

Veep (television)

Viola Davis

Will & Grace (television)

Willie Nelson

The Literary List

People on this list are Americans (or people who spent a significant part of their writing careers in the United States) and have won the Nobel Prize for Literature (at any time), the Neustadt Prize, or the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in the last twenty years.

Adam Johnson

Andrew Sean Greer

Anthony Doerr

Bob Dylan

Colson Whitehead

Cormac McCarthy

Donna Tartt

Edward P. Jones

Edwidge Danticat

Elizabeth Bishop

Ernest Hemingway

Eugene O’Neill

Geraldine Brooks

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Jeffrey Eugenides

Jennifer Egan

Jhumpa Lahiri

John Steinbeck

Joseph Brodsky

Junot Díaz

Michael Chabon

Michael Cunningham

Paul Harding

Pearl S. Buck

Raja Rao

Richard Powers

Richard Russo

Saul Bellow

Sinclair Lewis

Toni Morrison

Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Kennedy Center Honor List

People on this list have received a Kennedy Center Honor in the last twenty years for their contributions to American culture, regardless of their citizenship.

Andrew Lloyd Webber

Angela Lansbury

Al Green

Al Pacino

Barbara Cook

Barbra Streisand

Bill T. Jones

Billy Joel

Brian Wilson

Bruce Springsteen

Buddy Guy

Carmen de Lavallade

Carol Burnett

Carole King

Carlos Santana

Cher

Chita Rivera

Chuck Berry

Cicely Tyson

Clint Eastwood

Dave Brubeck

David Letterman

Diana Ross

Dolly Parton

Dustin Hoffman

The Eagles (Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Timothy B. Schmit, Joe Walsh)

Earth, Wind & Fire

Elizabeth Taylor

Elton John

George Jones

George Lucas

Gloria Estefan

Grace Bumbry

Hamilton: An American Musical creators (Lin-Manuel Miranda, Thomas Kail, Alex Lacamoire, and Andy Blankenbuehler)

Herbie Hancock

Itzhak Perlman

Jack Nicholson

James Brown

James Earl Jones

James Levine

James Taylor

Jerry Herman

Joan Sutherland

John Williams

Julie Andrews

Julie Harris

Led Zeppelin (John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant)

Leon Fleisher

Lily Tomlin

Lionel Richie

Linda Ronstadt

LL Cool J

Loretta Lynn

Luciano Pavarotti

Martha Argerich

Martin Scorsese

Martina Arroyo

Mavis Staples

Mel Brooks

Merle Haggard

Meryl Streep

Michael Tilson Thomas

Mike Nichols

Mikhail Baryshnikov

Morgan Freeman

Natalia Makarova

Neil Diamond

Oprah Winfrey

Ossie Davis

Patricia McBride

Paul McCartney

Paul Simon

Philip Glass

Plácido Domingo

Quincy Jones

Reba McEntire

Rita Moreno

Robert De Niro

Robert Redford

Ruby Dee

Sally Field

Seiji Ozawa

Sesame Street (television)

Shirley MacLaine

Smokey Robinson

Sonny Rollins

Steve Martin

Steven Spielberg

Sting

Suzanne Farrell

The Who (Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey)

Tina Turner

Tom Hanks

Tony Bennett

Twyla Tharp

Van Cliburn

Warren Beatty

Wayne Shorter

Yo-Yo Ma

Zubin Mehta

The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

Named after the nineteenth century American humorist author, this prize is given to people who “had an impact on American society in ways similar to the distinguished 19th-century novelist and essayist Samuel Clemens, best known as Mark Twain.” This often means that awardees have commented on society and social injustice in ways that make us laugh. The first award was given out in 1998.

Bill Cosby (taken away in 2018 due to his sexual assault conviction)

Bill Murray

Billy Crystal

Bob Newhart

Carl Reiner

Carol Burnett

Dave Chappelle

Eddie Murphy

Ellen DeGeneres

George Carlin

Jay Leno

Jonathan Winters

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Lily Tomlin

Neil Simon

Richard Pryor

Steve Martin

Tina Fey

Whoopi Goldberg

Will Ferrell