ABSTRACT
The conceptual confusion often surrounding the use of the term culture is clearly echoed in the use of the concepts of mass and popular culture. Lewis (1978), in a summary of the sociology of popular culture, observes that there has been little attempt at synthesis and a decided lack of agreement on basic terms and definitions. Indeed, according to Barbu (1976), the sociology of popular culture has not yet fulfilled the basic requirements of any systematic enquiry, a clear definition and a comprehensive classification. Thus in industrial societies the ‘popular’ metaphor is often used interchangeably with the ‘mass’ metaphor. What follows is an attempt at examining whatever consensus does exist for some key terms that are of use to us.
