When I grew up Halloween (as in, the modern type) was an American thing. Bringing it here was absolutely intentional, it's an event that retailers get rich off. There's an American sports store in my street and it looks like a damned casino with its flashing lights. But kids are walking in and buying a $200 cap that says "Chicago bulls". Americanism involves a lot of spending, I'm not surprised it's pushed.
Kids get to dress up, run around, and get free candy. It’s not a hard sell. Does Woolies, Cole’s, or whomever push it? Ya probably but it’s not a stretch of the imagination to see a huge pull factor from Aussie kids watching US tv shows.
It's both and it has been that way since roughly the era of mass production of consumer goods and certainly after WWII, not just in Australia but pretty much worldwide.
Many countries try to export their culture as a means of projecting soft power, some more successfully (or perhaps: aggressively even in some case) than others.
The US simply have been the by far most dominant power in the last hundred years, politically as well as culturally.
As for more recent developments, I'm not so sure about that. If anything, from my perspective due the influence of Spotify and Netflix and the wide range of these services provide, popular culture has become more diverse and less US-centric than it used to be.
That said, in the Anglosphere, American influence is more pronounced than elsewhere because of the same linguistic and cultural roots.
Australia has roughly a tenth America’s population and GDP. America has the premiere televisual media production center in the anglosphere. High bandwidth communications are essentially instant and free. Travel is short, and affordable for most.
Where is the mystery? It would take special effort not to receive such exports from a behemoth which speaks your language and lives next door. Inevitable diffusion. Consider how many Australian artists become also American, for instance.
Both. During most of the second half of the 20th Century, the United States Information Agency pushed American culture. As for Chicago Bulls caps, the National Basketball Association doesn't need government assistance for marketing. (It won't object to sweetheart deals on arenas, but that's a different level of government.)
Sensing the politics thing UK side too. Slowly but surely US style politics are creeping in. It's terrifying cause US looks like an absolute shitshow on that front.
Everything else - no, or more accurately no more than normally. US has always been good at exporting culture & soft power from Taylor Swift to corporate culture to memes.
Few years back I saw a documentary on BBC UK on how after world war two the UK government used it's propaganda might to project "UK values" to outsiders.
But seeing now what is happening in the UK, I think the "Americanisation of UK" has started. Big examples of this you see is the TV dramas made by local producers, and the news channel GB News(which actually sounds like Fox News of the US). UK was very good at making spy, political and comedy TV shows. No one came close to making the quality-level and substance of these type of shows across the world. Same is the case of News channels. The UK journalism, if done without constraints, is very good. But unfortunately I have seen both TV and News going the American-way, may be due to profit and or politics.
I don't know about militarised e.g. in terms of weaponry, but laws have recently been passed which illegalise peaceful protest if it causes a "public nuisance".
American TV and movies had so much better quality - not only in production, but also in writing, acting than local one. It was hard to watch 95% of local stuff, and the ones that were enjoyable were mostly enjoyable due to some kind of relatability. It was like that at least until Netflix started producing local content.
This comment further proves that American movie industry does some work to promote itself abroad.
“Local stuff” are terrific in Brazil (where I live) and I really enjoy European movies. I watch American movies, but most of them are hard passes — super hero movies, for instance, are formulaic and often very bad movies.
If you grew up watching mostly American movies, it takes a while and some effort to get used to different movie making styles. This can be quite hard (hence the heavy promotion of American movies), but it’s liberating.
I think US shows definitely are better when it comes to production value because Hollywood big bucks. From a cultural and artistic standpoint, these are often just giant, vapid ads with characters that often feel completely fake to a foreign audience.
Often, but then pretty-much any cultural exercise is mostly crap; the point is rather who makes the good stuff, and the US does make some great films (and has done since shortly after the French invented the medium). There are usually 2-3 US films in the Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10, for example.
Mhm. The Scandinavian countries has produced made many movies and tv-shows about the vikings. Almost all of it has been utter garbage. Then one American comes along and creates a show for Netflix. And it's amazingly good. Go figure.
I’d argue that acting and production quality in UK, Swedish and French movies are often superior. But it depends on what is qualified as quality. A medieval piece from the US has pretty people with straight teeth that never get their clothes dirty.
A UK or French medieval show looks completely different. Different type of quality.There is no surprise that there are so many UK actors playing even American characters in US made movies. They have great acting schools and a good theater culture. There is nothing like a live performance every night to work on your acting.
I don't know about production quality but the innovation and substance of the stories are very good. I once saw an old UK TV series aired again few years back. The story was about a robbery. And each episode repeated the same story but from the perspective of various main characters of the drama. I forgot the name of the TV series but it was very innovative and engaging. This type of innovation happens a lot in the UK, Scandanavia, France, Germany and Italy. But they do not get enough exposure on the world stage and neither do they make the type of money Hollywood makes.
The US culture is the most massively exported culture in the history of mankind.
I think it happens both organically and intentionally, with different degrees in different countries. For example Denmark has been force fed US culture for many years, due to the strategic importance of Thule Air Base in Greenland, which is Danish on paper. The US culture presents a stark contrast to the Nordic culture, the former being about expansion while the latter about containment (from public behaviour to company operations) and you can see the negative effects of those two conflicting ideologies.
And I have no evidence of US triple letter agencies conducting psyOPs in Denmark, I wish I did
It brings me to another question to ponder about: how can I imagine my life without getting influenced from Americanization? I really feel too much of it everywhere, and would like new perspectives. The issue seems that other countries are not as good as them in sales, marketing, and advertising. Hence, we live in American airs almost always.
One reason of this push is internet and communication technology. Most of what you use in computer, and phone is made in China (hardware), designed in US (software).
The only way is to travel to places that the western "developed" media projects as "underdeveloped". You will be surprised how developed and full of variety other places are that the west has projected as underdeveloped. Example is Iran. I am not Iranian, but I have met people from Iran and you will be surprised by the modernity of their culture. I also saw an YouTube food documentary on Iran made by an American, and it was very good. China is another example. So if you travel to places that the western media usually projects as bad, you will experience different ideas and culture and realise that what is usually projected is not entirely true.
Depemda on your definition of those words. for example, Hollywood aggressively pushes their movies overseas. is that an intentional concerted effort, or the market moving organically?
Same thing with the Internet. People from all over the world are on the English Internet, absorbing American/British/etc memes and values. Is that 'intentional' in the sense there's some shadowy cabal behind it? No. It's just a consequence of communications technology.
This is an interesting conversation to peruse while watching an NFL (American football) game being played in Munich. [0]
I’m not sure why the NFL does a few of these games (overseas, more often in London) each year. The stadium seems full, but I don’t know if it’s more Americans who traveled for the game, Europeans who are clamoring for more American Football, or just folks curious to see what the game is like.
I think there is great value for the US in the soft power that comes from other countries adopting American culture, but I’m not sure whether it’s deliberate or just a natural consequence of being such a large economy. There’s also a deeply embedded sense of ‘manifest destiny’ in American culture. We’re out of land to acquire, because we reached the pacific coast and modern politics doesn’t allow for empire building the way it once did. So maybe the next frontier in expanding (our) civilization is to spread our culture.
I've lived in Australia for 10 years. The country is one big vacuum pulling in aspects of culture from all over the world via internet, media, and immigration. That's to be expected for such a new country (Australia in the post colonial sense) but it does make for a weird melting pot of a place that ultimately is pretty void of its own identity.
There was a time when the State Department had a budget for promoting American "high culture" abroad. Low culture likely never needed any help. I've read articles complaining that the US government no longer has a program to actively spread American culture, so maybe the government is actually no longer involved and it just happens through economic forces.
Somebody mentioned American style Halloween, which I think is a rather interesting case due to its recent, extremely rapid spread. Halloween is like catnip for youth, because it combines three enticing things -- goodies, costumes, and sanctioned convention-breaking. The spread of Halloween has been very controversial, even in some Western countries, but I think it's unstoppable unless the receiving culture has something at least as appealing to compete. I attribute the rapid spread in this generation to the internet.
I’d point out every culture has promoting their local culture abroad. I’d point to the Goethe-Institut as a specific and well known example.
Halloween is just a lot of fun. No one can avoid fun from spreading. American style Christmas is also a heck of a lot more fun than traditional European style. In Thailand, one of the most non-Christian countries out there, during Christmas there are American Christmas themes everywhere with music and green and red and people who are born Buddhists exchanging gifts on Christmas morning.
American culture is broadly appealing because it’s generally appealing to human beings that are individuals, and mixes in materialism and consumerism and a little bit of greed and violence. It’s not an insidious plot - it’s an outgrowth of liberal humanism and specifically 1960’s philosophy packaged for resale in the 1980’s and marketed aggressively internationally in the 1990+‘s. Mix in the fact American culture was created by mixing cultures from around the world, the fact that most middle class in the global society at least know someone who moved to America and comes back bringing the culture on visits, it’s totally unsurprising it has broad influence and appeal. And since the influence and appeal translates into expanded consumer markets American companies relentlessly market and make available to consume everything American.
But I’d also note in my travels I’ve not observed the export being specifically one way or crushing. I’ve seen elements of every culture I’ve experienced mixed into American culture as I’m used to it as an American. I see Japan, China, Korea, Germany, France, Mexico, Africa, even Polynesia influence. Likewise in those places their adoption of American culture is distinctly an interpretation based in their local culture.
This is in contrast to say French colonialism in modern Polynesia where the schools only teach French language and history and have traditionally proscribed Polynesian tattooing in school and work institutions.
The flexibility and adaptability of American culture to local cultural interpretation and lack of “force” make it an easy to consume culture without pervasive resentment.
Exporting some aspects of American culture is not bad in itself. What bothers me, as a European, is that some people confuse some aspects of American culture as ready patterns to be implemented in corporate environments in other countries.
For example, the USA has a particular history of racial inequality, and in many companies employees need to undergo compulsory training about the so-called "white privilege" and so on. I was surprised to see this being imported in the UK. Most of my friends ignored it just like other parts of the corpoculture ("you just need to watch the video and mark the right answers") but there is something unsettling about this. And obviously there is no room for any discussion, should you be so inconsiderate to start it.
Britain + Australia is, what, less than a third the US population? So naturally Americans dominate the English language internet. On any feed driven social media your fellow Aussies and my fellow Britons are likely to be exposed to lots of American things
Every now and then i see americans surprised at how many non americans take interest in us politics. Ranging from mid terms to presidential elections. Thats because america has an influence over everything we do, both in free countries and non democracies. Be it military, politics, culture, social norms, everything is impacted by what happens there. And thats good, i personally like that country. Except i dont like its work culture and that it doesnt look after its own as much as it should and could.
Related; how militaristic all the American output has come, due to the military consulting on films, it seems like those films become a lot more pro-military.
There is a large pull factor at work here also. This was a definitely a part of the reason that I recently definitely left New Zealand. US culture seems very attractive to almost sociopathic grifters, and of course such people have always been attracted to politics and managerial roles. Their worst behaviour used to be at least frowned upon, but is now seen as virtuous. So privatised health care, junk food, expensive education, homelessness, libertarian dogma and so on and so on are now viewed as a small price to pay or even a stage to be celebrated in somehow leading to better future. Push from visiting US envoys and US based think tank material have certainly always been visible, but the results have also been both visible and predictable. Enough of the local population seem to believe that they can have all the imaginary good stuff and that they - standard model human beings - are nice enough to avoid the bad stuff.
American culture emphasizes broadly human qualities and individualism, coupled with a healthy dose of materialism, greed, and a small dose of hedonism. Mixed in is a dark thread of violence. Couple this with a massive advertising and export focused business world, and adjoined with a melting pot of global culture, it’s well adapted to cultural adoption.
I see a lot of discussion of force and it feels blind to colonialism and other even more forceful cultural indoctrination. American culture isn’t generally forced on anyone (exceptions exist!). It evolved as individual humanism by a multicultural society, so it’s essentially the cultural equivalent to a donut - super appealing to our human senses, relatable across cultures, and probably bad for you in large quantities. That doesn’t require force, just availability and marketing.
Selfishness and egocentrism play well with consumptionism.
I think it starts with natural isolation and weak societal bonds in the US (haha, as far as it can be observed in Hollywood movies). People lack something then and they are offered a lot of entertainment. That entertainment is more often than not something you buy.
And then at some point the US corporates realized the US market is not so big. Or it is big, but the total world is bigger. And they can or even need to export their goods and services. And when exporting they often need to sell and market their products using feelings. These feelings are often pictured in American context, even if the content is presented abroad.
I went to an American funded school in India. We had a pastor who took sermons and was pro-US in terms of Israel. Some library books were kids Christian literature. Mum stayed at a YWCA. Mentioned institutes had members of all religions.
Fun fact: Freddy Mercury studied in an American school in India.
I believe America and Russia were competing for soft power. Americans and Russians allegedly funded pro-democracy and pro-communism parties in India.
There was Raduga publishers which translated Russian literature into high quality English books. I remember fairy tales, city kid in a village, Lenin's mother who had children receive death penalty for revolution. Yes, it was way later than 1991.
It is pushed by the US, both for political and economic reasons. But it is up to the target country to decide on how to preserve it's own culture. It is a cultural thing. I will give you two examples. Both related to the most visible of the American "cultural" exports: soft-drinks "Pepsi" and "Coca-Cola".
India, after independence, experimented with "limited capitalism", that is, it had private banks, foreign brand operated in India e.g. Coca-Cola, universities were formed with help from American universities, etc. But after few years, India started becoming more socialist (India is by constitution a socialist country). Banks were made public, foreign brands like Coca-Cola were asked to leave India etc. The goal was to make India self-reliant. Local brands were promoted internally. The fallout from this was India was heavily sanctioned by the west. No educational books from foreign authors, no computers, no foreign technology, no defence deals(except from Russia). In all this few Indian commercial brands started to shine within India. One of them was "ThumsUp", a soft-drink similar to Coca-Cola. After India was brought to its knees due to sanction and its own internal old bureaucratic structures, India finally agreed to "open up" and foreign brands were allowed to enter the country again. Coca-Cola came to India again. The founders of the local Indian soft-drink "ThumsUp" became jittery looking at the might of the US brands Coca-Cola and Pepsi and sold out to Coca-Cola. Since then Coca-Cola, the company, has tried many times in various was to kill the "ThumsUp" brand by changing the taste of the drink, raising prices, changing the logo, changing the bottle shape and size. Nothing worked! Even though Coca-Cola now owns the brand, it has been unsuccessful in killing the Indian brand.
Now, consider the story on the other side of the world, in Scotland. Scotland has its own soft-drink "Irn-Bru". When the American soft-drinks companies tried to beat that brand they failed. But unlike the Indian company that sold itself, the Scottish company decided to stand against the might of the American companies.
So, it is about how the locals handle the American entry. America does push it's "ideas" on to other cultures, as was the case in India, but the locals can decide whether to accept it or not.
