What American Pop Culture Tells The World Summary

Nowadays it is impossible to imagine the USA without American popular culture. The American popular culture is inside and around us, people feel it every day and they even do not think of it, when they eat fast food in McDonald’s restaurant or watch a popular TV show with Oprah Winfrey, or purchase their favorite Levis trousers. American popular culture is a topic of interest for every generation because it seems to influence almost each aspect of the social life, making people united.

Popular culture is consumed through interaction in the social media that includes television programs, movie theaters and virtual social networks. From the media, interests lie in the political developments and discussion concerning governance. These media satisfy appetite for political information while guiding an understanding on the national issues and choices made.

What lies in the hearts of the American people is what sets them aside as an unusual people, a new and indefinitely unique type of culture. The culture of this people is not only what makes them who they are, but is used in order to create, innovate, thrive, as well as drive them to success. According to Margaret J. King PhD, the first in history to hold a graduate degree in Popular Culture, who studies the effect of culture as a driving force for thinking, behavior and decision-making “In American culture, the individual is the basic unit, the prime mover in our thinking, the heart, mind, and soul of American values. Our belief that individuals control, or should control, so much of what happens to them explains a great deal about American life, and its differences from other culture ways.”(King). The people of a culture are directly inspired by it and America is no stranger to this concept. People act, think, and choose in similar relation to those they surround themselves and in doing so define the word trends. Trends in style, trends in thought, and trends in values all are what

The study of culture is very important to our society, as we have been studying our past and identities for as long as we can recall. Studying our cultures allows us to understand each other as a people, so we can comprehend what we have done, and possibly, what we may do. As we study American popular culture, we see something that began as almost nothing, to a group of patterns that has captured the minds of not only the American people themselves, but the whole world, as well.

The United States is the third largest country in the world with a growing population of more than 325 million people. Because of this, the United States is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. Cultures of Native Americans, Latin Americans, Africans, and Asians shape the U.S. culture. The United States is often referred to as a “melting pot” in which different cultures have contributed their own distinct touch to American culture. One of many things that the United States is known for is mass media production. The United States comprises one-third of the worldwide media and entertainment industry (Zimmermann, 2017). In this analysis, I will discuss American Cultures and Foreign Cultures, American Entertainment Products, and conclude how these together can create a great impact.

The United States is renowned for its title as a melting pot for a variety of different cultures, and is very unique in the fact of having many different people in one place. The diversity of the beautiful nation that will call home is one of the very aspects that makes America the great nation that it is. The United States, albeit influenced by many different cultures and a vast array of continents, is most influenced by the country of England. The most widely spoken language in the United States is English, and the second most widely spoken language is Spanish. The most prevalent religious denomination is Protestantism with over 51%, then Roman Catholicism at 24%, then Mormonism at 2%, and Jewish at 1.7%. The United States is a very pop culture

One of the most prominent components of American culture is to be the best that we can be due to our individualistic based mindset. Although this can be viewed as a weakness, I see it as a strength when it comes to expressing my own emotions and opinions in writing. However, I comprehend that I am limited to only what I have learned thus far in high school level writing classes, and need to expand my horizons by taking more advanced level education courses. The American culture I have been surrounded by and writing education system has pushed me to pursue betterment in my literary langue skills and critical thought process, and that is what I intend to continue on doing while I am taking this course. Without a continued stream of information and teaching, I would be unable to advance from my current views and ideas and be placed at a standstill with no room for growth, but plenty for ignorance.

Not only does American popular culture overshadow the goodness of America, it also blurs other countries’ cultures. Every part of America is big: the entertainment industry, the food business, the economy, so it makes sense how irresistible it is to morph to American culture. However, it is unfair. The world is becoming homogenized. In large cities in nearly any country, a Starbucks or McDonald’s can be found, and advertisements for Hollywood films will be aired. This homogenization is a

The United States of America has greatly influenced the cultures of many other countries. Perhaps the most noticeable area of this influence is from the United States media. Disney cartoon characters are known worldwide, and popular movies produced in the United States are popular all around the world. These movies often directly show a clear example of American social life, religion, entertainment, food, and politics. Many American businesses flourish in these other countries since the countries are already familiar with the businesses from movies or other media. For example, McDonald’s is a popular restaurant in numerous countries, and Marvel’s Captain America movies are amongst the most popular movies in China. American pop culture is also prevalent in several other countries.

W. Scott Poole’s chapter, “Undead Americans”, focuses on American pop culture and its relation to shaping realities. Poole discusses the popularity of zombies and vampires within American pop culture while also examining how it stems from war, specifically the Vietnam War. Through Poole’s discussion of zombies and vampire, it also creates a problem within the individual, “a concern over the possibility of a personal apocalypse” (Poole, 204). While focusing on examining American pop culture and its relation to reality, it includes the relation of unease within American society (Poole, 217). Based on Hoefferle’s eighth chapter, the definition of new cultural history is formed through understanding “how past cultures shaped identity and created

American pop culture portrays America in an unrealistic way. In movies, tv shows, and books, America is often defined by rich, white people who do not care about many people. The writer of Newsweek depicts the skewed foreign views of America as follows: “Individuals who have traveled to the U.S. have more favorable views of the country than those who have not.” Based on these inaccurate portrayals, pop culture causes a negative effect on other countries. The people in the foreign countries are more likely to view America in a bad light, which can lead to increased tensions between

Turn on the radio, check the TV, look what’s playing at the movies, while doing any of these things you are bound to end up with an Americanized cultural influence expressed within the media. The

Unfortunately, the lifestyle of those who lived in early 20th century is, in many respects, unrecognizable in contemporary America. Before the age of radio, television and other modern digital media, viewpoints were limited by existing technology. For example, communities gained most of their knowledge of the world current events through newspapers. Neighbors served as their primary social resource and commerce was regularly restricted to their proximate locale.

In her piece, after a cringe-worthy anecdote about her teenage daughter’s interest in hip-hop music that just screams middle-aged white mom, Wittes Schlack goes on to comment on the many popular shows she has never watched, including Lost, Breaking Bad, Stranger Things, and of course, Game of Thrones.

Those supporting the awareness of homogenization view the United States as a leading influence on local nations, penetrating a wide variety of media and exercising “mastery of global communications and culture” (Park and Curran 2000, p. 5). Television, music and advertising are all transmitted through international media, creating new values and changing how people of other nations see their own personal and social lives (Artz and Kamalipour 2003, p. 45). Further, Artz and Kamalipour review consumerism and how it plays a larger part than national boundaries when it comes to defining certain cultures, and as the global expansion of media corporations’ markets