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Obi, you keep saying "British and American" when you should just be saying 'American'. You seem to have delusions of British grandeur. It is 2014 not 1814. British cultural influence is miniscule compared to American cultural influence..
Speaking from Italy, I strongly agree that Acajack made an impressively accurate post.
To sum it up, in Italy the music scene is shared between Italian and English songs, the visual stuff (movies, TV series) is slightly dominated by American productions, but in this case I am not bothered because U.S. movies and TV series are simply of better quality than local ones.
But the one area where American culture will never ever prevail is food, and thankfully so. We have quite a few McDonalds in Italy, but they are attended by foreign immigrants and some youngsters only: no adult Italian in his right mind would ever consider a BigMac menu to be a desirable or even reasonable meal option
As you allude to, Italian cinema holds its own, and once every ten years or so an Italian film makes it big in the US.
I remember that McDonalds failed in the Italian city of Padova, but that was more than 25 years ago, so I'm not sure what the situation is now in medium-sized Italian cities. On the other hand, about 12 years ago, I remember that Italian-food fast food joints started sprouting up in such diverse regions as Lombardia and Calabria, but in Palermo, Sicily family-owned bakeries and rotisseries were still the norm. Again, not sure what the situation is nowadays.
The world does not know or care about European popular culture, because european popular culture is almost non existent compared to British and American modern culture.
The BBC alone is the biggest media conglomerate in the world. Britain and America are considered the two biggest soft power (cultural influence) nations in the world, Europe is insignificant in these fields
Just because you're ignorant about it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. That's quite normal for the UK and America, though, you don't even bother to get aquainted with anything outside your natural cultural sphere, and so you think nobody else produces anything.
You know, I've seen some terrific French, Spanish and Finnish movies. Yes, they really do exist. One of the best war movies I've seen was actually Chinese.
I wouldn't even have bothered replying; he looks like one of those not-so-rare Brits that enjoy basking in their ignorance.
You even mentioned Chinese movies, my dear friend!
Trust me, it's not worth the effort: it's like casting pearls before the swine...
I've never understood why POM's always suck up to Americans like Britain and America are the same country it's really pathetic, what happened to you POM's you used to be cool.
Come on Acajack, you can't deny that the most popular pop cultural exports are from the Anglosphere. Australia has pumped out far more world famous musicians, writers, artists,film-makers, actors.etc than any European country in recent decades. It's the English-speaking advantage.
Anyway, as for the OP I'd say Italy. Italian movies, TV, music.etc is still very popular, and almost every foreign TV show or movie on TV is dubbed. Despite it's international fame Italy remains quite insular.
As you allude to, Italian cinema holds its own, and once every ten years or so an Italian film makes it big in the US.
I remember that McDonalds failed in the Italian city of Padova, but that was more than 25 years ago, so I'm not sure what the situation is now in medium-sized Italian cities. On the other hand, about 12 years ago, I remember that Italian-food fast food joints started sprouting up in such diverse regions as Lombardia and Calabria, but in Palermo, Sicily family-owned bakeries and rotisseries were still the norm. Again, not sure what the situation is nowadays.
Nowadays McDonalds have some sort of success only in these locations:
1) food courts of big malls ;
2) near or inside big entertainment facilities like multiplex theatres, amusement parks, etc ;
3) alongside very busy roads or motorways ;
OTAH, those McDonalds shops that open in 2-nd tier Italian cities far from the above locations have a very hard time to break even. As you might know, Italians don't love McD, and many immigrants live on the cheap and don't eat out very often.
So yes, outside of those 3 locations many McDonalds have failed miserably in Italy.
Anyway, as for the OP I'd say Italy. Italian movies, TV, music.etc is still very popular, and almost every foreign TV show or movie on TV is dubbed. Despite it's international fame Italy remains quite insular.
And that's a real good thing IMO.
After all, Italy is a romance country, and there's no point in it becoming more Americanized. If one likes Americanized countries, there are so many choices out there.
And that's a real good thing IMO.
After all, Italy is a romance country, and there's no point in it becoming more Americanized. If one likes Americanized countries, there are so many choices out there.
I hope Italy will never become one of those
I agree. Italy feels very 'Italian', they have their own way of doing things and they won't change for anybody.
Come on Acajack, you can't deny that the most popular pop cultural exports are from the Anglosphere. Australia has pumped out far more world famous musicians, writers, artists,film-makers, actors.etc than any European country in recent decades. It's the English-speaking advantage.
I never said the contrary. All I am saying is that things aren't as overwhelmingly dominant as Obi Wan is saying. And of course it's really a US thing more than anything else.
Mostly in the field of music. I read lots of books and contemporary Australian writers don't really stand out.
Artists? You'd have to define this more precisely.
Renowned film-makers? They're from all over the world, including non-anglo countries.
Actors? Same thing.
Musicians? You've got a point but this has been acknowledged many times on here (the anglo advantage that is).
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