The United Stated is currently the most influential country on the face of the earth. Not only concerning the issues of money and business but also our choices of music clothes and recreational activities. Often times people think of countries such as Japan and China as being completely different. We think they have strange dress and odd customs, they are thought to have a completely different culture than ours. You will find that that is incorrect, the ir cultures are actually very similar to ours. Because of the amount of clothing, food and other products that we ship out of this country every day our culture has no choice but to ooze out of our borders onto foreign soil. For example you could walk i nto a modern Japanese society expecting a bunch of old people kneeling on dirt floors wearing kimonos and drinking green tea but actually find a society of youths wearing Levi jeans, trendy clothes, listening to American pop-rock music, and eating Big Mac s that they just bought from down the street at their local McDonalds. You could also find a group of people watching a football game and gossiping about the new movie with "that really hot American chick in it". Of course all countries have different h olidays and traditions, they eat different foods and have customs that seem strange to us but more and more their ways seem to be becoming like those of us here in the United States of America.
The question asks if I think that the influence of our "pop culture" will continue. I think that that all depends on weather or not we remain the worlds "super power" in the future. I think that the reason that we are imitated by other countries is bec ause of our wealth and power. It is sort of like the United States is the most popular girl in school. She has a bunch of followers who dress like her, do their hair like her and claim to like the same music and movies as her. But no matter how hard th ey try they can never quite keep up to her ever changing style. Much like the patterns of the countries that try to imitate the U.S. If you look closely at these cultures you will notice that the clothes that they wear were the clothes that we wore ten years ago and I wouldn't be surprised if they are groovin' to the sounds of the eighties as we speak.
I often wonder why we haven't picked up much of any other countries culture. Sure, there have been fads like the Macarena and the on going like for foods such as tacos and chop suey, but every thing is always somehow Americanized. I suppose it's beca use we are so preoccupied with our own appearances and our countries image that we don't have time to stop and look around. Or maybe its the fact that we are trying to convince ourselves that everybody wants to be like us and that is how it will always be.
No matter what happens though, there is always a new popular girl that everybody wants to be like. Her power dies down and the followers find some one else to imitate. I think that sooner or later, maybe not in my lifetime, that the awe of the United S tates will die down along with the influence and the power on other countries and they will find someone else to follow or maybe they will gain the power and self respect to be their own nation, to not pay attention to what everybody else is doing and may be people will start to follow them.
Our Networks