American culture
“The US has become the most powerful, significant world force in terms of cultural imperialism and expansion. The areas that particularly spring to mind are Hollywood, popular music and even literature” Ian RALSTON
It’s right to consider that, since a few decades, America has the easy role in the Globalisation, with an attractive culture and yet a huge diversity. US culture is now penetrating every continent through the dramatic growth of mass communications such as music, television, films and the Internet, as well as through the penetration of American corporations into foreign countries. But one of the most controversial aspects of this globalization is the worldwide spread and dominance of American culture. Many countries have expressed fear that global culture may become too Americanized. But we can’t deny that American culture brought a lot to our own local cultures
The most obvious exemple of this expansion would be Mc Donald’s, becoming the biggest fast food chain in the world, with an incredible amount of restaurant out of the US, adapting its dishes list to every country. Mc Donald’s just changed the way to eat in the entire world.
We could as well talk about the cultural aspects as music or cinema. American music is the only one to be listened worldwide, due to its diversity (rock, rap, hip hop, reggae, country…,) and America is the second best movie maker behind India.
Some countries tried to establish some quotas to protect their own culture, like France with the “exeption française”. This measure was taken in order to protect the cultural sector, favouring French films, books, songs to other’s.
To conclude, we can say that, even if American culture and habits are attractive, they must not crush or substitute to local cultures.
Emeric Weibel