The objective of this article is to contribute with the debate about the subject of “popular culture”, studied in the Academia by different disciplines such as Anthropology, History, Literature, Sociology, among others. It is a concept that, besides its extreme ambiguity, when least expected makes us question ourselves again. Considering the resurgence of the interest in practices related to this concept by the end of the 20th century, this text aims to answer in which measure this concept was once again transformed. Starting at the principle that the concept of popular culture is formulated by intellectuals, the methodology used was the study of cultural agents involved with this question which include folklorists, NGOs, State cultural managers and informal groups of the city of São Paulo. After the examination of some practices and believes of the new intellectuals of the popular culture, it is concluded that relevant changes have occurred since the folklorist period, although some traces of the old concept resist the passing of time and get stronger with the association with “cultural diversity”.
Popular culture; Tradition; Brazilian culture; Cultural politics; Intellectuals