Pop Culture Vs. Mass Culture

I've been thinking about the difference between pop culture and mass culture.  Recently a professor commented on an assignment of mine asking if we should differentiate between the two.  At the time I thought it was a really interesting question and I still do.  In the assignment I believe I was using the terms more or less interchangeably, but I am not sure I was being completely accurate with that assumption.

In an article from the academic journal History and Theory, entitled "Toward a Definition of Popular Culture", Holt N. Parker discusses the myriad of definitions for pop culture.  Mass culture, it seems, is easier to define.  As mentioned by Parker, mass culture has been defined as the "commercialized, commoditized cultural industry."  If mass culture is culture that is mass produced and mass consumed, then what is pop culture?  According to one definition penned by Parker, popular culture, as is popular art according to Parker, is culture that is not authorized, that is other.

Turning away from Parker and thinking about it on simpler terms, perhaps mass culture is what media makes and we buy while popular culture is what youth culture by large responds to?  I've always wondered if pop culture is defined as what culture defines a generation.  Perhaps mass culture can become pop culture, but pop culture cannot become mass culture if by definition pop culture is an idea and not a product, while mass culture is.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, which interestingly defines pop art but not mass culture or pop culture, pop art depicts objects from everyday life.  In 1957 Richard Hamilton defined pop art as "Popular (designed for a mass audience); Transient (short term solution); Expendable (easily forgotten); Low Cost; Mass Produced; Young (aimed at Youth); Witty; Sexy; Gimmicky; Glamorous; and Big Business," according to the MOMA.

Any way you slice it, pop culture is what is popular, and often resonates with youth, and mass culture is culture that is mass produced.  Perhaps they are not interchangeable but they are surely closely related.  The rest is debatable.