It is, I think, important to note pop culture doesn’t exist as an entity.We are pop culture.We control it. We market it. We even sell it without realizing it.Everyone’s got an example. Guitar Hero is mine. A couple years back, a friend and I bought the game on impulse. We went to Best Buy to get her iPod fixed and came home with this game we had kind of heard of. That night, we played it for hours — we’re probably the coolest people you’ve heard of, we know — then we started inviting others over to see our new toy.In a few weeks, most of our friends seemed to own the game.Sure, many probably would have found it some other way. It wasn’t exactly some obscure indie rock band, but this doesn’t change the fact that we brought it to a group of people who didn’t have it before and boom suddenly everyone did.This is how pop culture works. This is what makes it pop culture. It spreads like the swine flu, and even though everyone’s unaware as it spreads, suddenly it’s everywhere. But instead of devastating effects, it brings us happiness and empathy.Hopefully.The most notable thing that happened last year is, obviously, the recession. Affecting millions of people and thousands of businesses, the recession has been written about numerous times in this very paper.Pop culture, as it were, tends to be somewhat recession-proof. This was again proven as movie ticket sales actually began to rise. Jay Leno moved out, Conan O’Brien moved up and Jimmy Fallon moved in. Britney Spears put on a         “Circus,” and Eminem put out his first single in years. Chris Brown beat Rihanna, then the couple reunited, but they managed to take up hundreds of column inches throughout the ordeal. Hulk Hogan said he empathized with O. J. Simpson. Peopled danced to the Bollywood stylings of Oscar winner “Slumdog Millonaire.”Other things happened, but I’m sure you have your own list of important pop culture moments.Time are tough, no doubt, and they’ll probably get tougher. And, strange as it seems in some ways, finding out what’s happening on that island in “Lost” or listening to Kanye West “sing” about long-lost loves or being a gay fish (in the brilliant “South Park” parody) is what pulls many through the day.Yeah, it’s an idea you’ve heard before.It’s an idea I’ve written about before.But, nonetheless, it’s the idea that is at the center of everything we consume. We laugh, cry, empathize, feel empathized with, blah blah blah, and during that time, the recession and the rest of our troubles seem just little bit removed.Listening to Kanye’s heartbreak makes us forget our own. Hearing how rough T.I. had it growing up makes us realize we got it pretty good. Seeing a bunch of people on an island that is flashing about makes us realize … well, I’m not sure what that one does except give us a reason to get angry and throw our television remotes against walls.In the end, I wrote about pop culture because it’s what brings us enjoyment. It pulls us through some days and makes good ones better. Imagine a bar without music. Imagine a book without words.It has the power to transport us anywhere, as cliché and silly as that sounds.So spread your favorite pop culture around the way we accidently spread “Guitar Hero.” Have fun with it, because if nothing else, there is one good reason to care — even slightly — about pop culture.It’s fun.Travis Andrews is 21-old-year  English senior from Metairie.—-Contact Travis Andrews at [email protected]