Low culture is a term for some forms of popular culture. Its opposite is high culture. It has been said by culture theorists that both high culture and low culture are subcultures.
It is claimed that in simple terms, low culture is a derogatory term for popular culture. This means everything in society that has mass appeal. In today's society, this would involve things like 'take-away' meals, gossip magazines, books that are current best sellers, and sports such as football, basketball.
Reality television, popular music, escapist fiction, Kitsch, slapstick, camp, toilet humor, yellow journalism, pornography, and exploitation films are often cited examples of low culture. It has often been stated that in postmodern times, the boundary between high culture and low culture has blurred. See the 1990s artwork of Jeff Koons for examples of appropriation of low art tropes. Rhys Chatham's musical piece Guitar Trio 1977 is also an example of incorporating (low culture) 'primitive' punk rock esthetics with (high art) contemporary classical music.
Romanticism was one of the first movements to reappraise "low culture", when previously maligned medieval romances started to influence literature.