American pop culture influence on other countries

[zakisrage]

We all know that American pop culture, more than any other country's has taken the

I actually welcome it very much, but here in Australia, a lot of older adults complain about it. For example, many older Australians object to Halloween celebrations here (Halloween's only really been a thing here the past 20 years or so) because they see it as American influence. There's a lot of people who complain about the amount of American TV shows on our TVs. You even get people complaining about the Easter Bunny. A lot of Australians claims that American influence teaches Australian kids to be ashamed of their country. (I admit, I used to be one of those kids up until a few years ago.)

I have mixed feelings about this. I did grow up on a lot of the American pop culture that's imported here, but at the same time I do enjoy some of our local traditions. I frequently use Australian slang when I'm offline, I have an Australian flag hanging in my room, and I like lots of stereotypically Australian things. Over the past two years, I've become very proud of the country I live in. I like pop culture from other countries, but I also try hard to appreciate my own country's culture too.

Even though I've mainly talked about Australia, people from other countries (including America) can give their input too!

 

[Somewhere_]

You could have been born anywhere, so why care about being prideful in your home country? I am not saying you should or shouldn't be, but that isn't exactly a priority. You shouldn't feel forced to only like Australian culture. What is wrong in celebrating various cultures or liking stuff from other people?

 

[Fairy Tale~]

I have to agree with Badsheep on this. You really shouldn't feel forced to only like your country's culture feel free to have your own tastes.

 

[Ice1]

American pop culture has really hit home here in the Netherlands, but there is no such a thing as a cultural clash. Dutch people have never been very proud of their nationality, and it's seen as weird to walk around with your flag on anything really. Our radio stations and tv channels are filled with American songs, shows and movies, with Dutch productions sporadically showing up (With exception of the national broadcast stations of course). I think we're just really good at disattaching ourselves from that media. It might help that our society doesn't really mirror the American one. The basics are the same, but we really on other stereotypes, other societal problems, a completely different school system, and our political structure also isn't that alike. I think the American culture is very much a TV screen landscape for us. We see that form of society as something that only shows up on our tv's, we never directly interact with it.

 

[Psychic]

Well, as we discovered in the late 1990's, American TV, and thus American beauty standards, have affects on body image and correlate to more eating disorders. So that's hella depressing.

Canadian culture is a funny thing. We consider ourselves to be very similar to Americans (and we are), and the vast majority of our entertainment and media comes from the US. The governments has to fund Canadian media-making to encourage its production and ensure that it gets seen (though Stephen Harper was known for doing a huge amount of funding cuts to the Canadian arts). At the same time, there is also a sense of pride in how we Canadians are different from Americans (which we are), but we don't have much of a cultural clash overall. I suppose we're just too easygoing, eh?

~Psychic

 

[zakisrage]

I admit, I do kinda see Australia's entertainment industry as somewhat of a weak point. Much of it is just not as good as stuff we get from other countries. I do like several Australian singers, but there's probably more American singers that I like. I mean, much of our local media really is kinda low-quality, which is why most of it isn't exported. Getting me to watch Neighbours or Home and Away without making fun of them would be like trying to teach a penguin how to fly. (I'd actually rather watch Family Guy, and I don't even like Family Guy.)

I think it's a mixed bag. There's some stereotypically Australian things that I like, and there's some stereotypically Australian things that I hate.

 

[Spacy]

On behalf of all who don't want our media and pop culture, but get it anyway, I'm sorry.