Week 5 Popular Media Review


This week’s discussion about social groups in high school made me immediately think of a song from High School Musical – Stick to the Status Quo. I’ve pulled some lyrics that exemplify high school stereotypes

Look at me
And what do you see
Intelligence beyond compare
But inside I am stiffing
Something strange is occurring
It’s a secret I need to share

Hip-hop is my passion

Throughout the number, various students stand up and first identify themselves by their group (basketball player, nerd, etc.) and then share something that sets them apart from their group.

The whole-cafeteria reaction is as follows:

No, no, no
Stick to the stuff you know
If you wanna be cool
Follow one simple rule
Don’t mess with the flow, no no
Stick to the status quo

Of course, being a teen musical movie, these high school cliques are overly-dramatized, but the general message holds true for most high schools. By venturing outside of your social group (and its norms), you risk getting shunned by your friends and by other students alike.

Another line later in the song goes:

Something is really
Something’s not right
Really wrong
And we gotta get things
Back where they belong

This line comes from the popular drama students. It reflects a dynamic that, if the lines between student cliques start blurring, the popular students could lose control over the student body. This isn’t true for all high schools. For example, my graduating class was over 600 people, so no one ‘group’ had so much control (not to mention that the cliques were less defined than in this movie). But it does reflect how much students are unwilling to accept movement across social groups and change in social status.

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