Blues is a kind of music that started a long time ago in the United States. It was made by African-American people. This music has special songs for work, church, and telling stories in song. Blues music has a special way of playing notes and patterns. People play blues in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll music too. Blues music sounds like people are talking to each other in the song. It uses certain music notes that sound a bit sad. The music has a strong beat that makes you feel it over and over. When blues first began, songs were often about hard times and not being treated fairly. The way of singing blues has a special pattern. Nowadays, we sing blues songs with this pattern a lot. Blues music comes from music in Africa and songs about God from African-American people. People think blues music started when there was no more slavery. They played blues music in places called "juke joints." People started to write about blues music in books a long time ago. They made music that you could read in 1908. Blues music has changed a lot since it started.

Two funny friends from Japan named Yoshimi Tokui and Mitsunori Fukuda make people laugh together. They are a comedy team called Tutorial. They won a big prize for being funny in 2006. Yoshimi writes the jokes and also acts on a TV show. Mitsunori went to university to study money things. Yoshimi and Mitsunori were both born in 1975. They have been friends since they were very little. They went to the same schools when they were kids and teenagers. After school, they both studied more to get into university. Later, Yoshimi went to stand-up comedy school and they started their comedy team. Yoshimi had some trouble because he didn't tell the tax people about some money he made. But Mitsunori didn't have this problem. They both still make jokes and are on TV in Tokyo.

People all around the world like certain things, do the same activities, and share the same ideas. This is called "popular culture" or "pop culture." It includes things like music, movies, sports, news, fashion, and new words that many people know and talk about. The things we see on TV, online, and in movies can change how we think and what we like. Pop culture can be very different from other kinds of culture that might include old stories, handmade things, or music from long ago. Pop culture started to grow a long time ago when machines were invented, and many people started to live and work in big cities. This was a big change from the old days when more people lived in the countryside and made their own fun. Now, pop culture is made by a big business called the "culture industry." People used to think that pop culture was only for people who did not go to school much or for people who did not have a lot of money. But now, almost everyone enjoys some part of pop culture, no matter who they are or where they come from.