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I think it's probably the money thing. I don't know if that means we always get the best talent, but it generally does mean we get the best production values. I think they're only a few nations that could/would make a film as expensive as Avatar, Titanic, Spider-Man 2, The Dark Night,and such. The Pixar films also may have the advantage that California is still kind of a prime area for computer tech.
On top of that money is an advantage because Americans will spend lots of money for advertising and promoting our shows or films. It looks like some of the most expensive British movies will use American firms for distribution and promotion. We're good at that.
However another factor might be that we have more English-speakers than any nation on Earth and I'm pretty sure English is spoken in more nations than any language. Even if we were less than half as creative as the British we would still have far more creative English-speaking people than them. Even if you take the English language out of the equation we're the third largest nation in population and it looks like we're projected to remain third in 2050. The two larger nations, China and India, generally have less money for film/TV or do films/TV that are either too culturally specific or hampered by censorship.
If you're talking about global culture, the hard to distinguish between British and American influences. They each influence each other.
This culture is influential partly because of the power of the English language. It's the most commonly spoken second language in the world so there's a built-in market. Many foreign pop songs are sung at least partly in English.
Having such a vast pool of talent helps too. Our music and film benefits from people from Australia, New Zealand and Canada as well as the UK. Countries like Germany or France aren't able to drawn on that many artists.
It's also that Anglo-Americans have an unusual genius for finding a delicate balance between the ridiculous and the sincere. It's a very fine line, but it's what makes pop culture work. Many other countries are good at doing one or the other, but it's very difficult to do both at the same time.
It's mostly our awesomeness that makes us so popular. USA = quarterback of the football team or homecoming king/queen (globally speaking).
Keep in mind that there are always nerds (other countries) that hate the quarterback and deride him for his lack of intelligence, culture, and public transportation.
But the bottom line is that those nerds want to be us, even if they are smarter and more cultured than we are. Because we are just that cool.
Our "culture" is very popular because it represents the best of everything. The USA, is of course a melting pot of every imaginable ethnic and/or immigrant group's ideas and influences.
I boil it down to the example of a sandwich. When I was in Spain several years ago, prior to their joining the European Union, a sandwich consisted of a piece of french bread w/ a slab of meat in it. In the USA, a sandwich can consist of a gazillion types of breads, toppings, fixins, etc. Our sandwiches are symbolic of the melting pot phenomenon that occurs in an open society. A sandwich can have ham from Germany, jalopeno peppers from Mexico, tomatoes from Italy, mayonaisse from France, lettuce from Persia, flat bread from India, etc., etc. Ooooh, I'm getting hungry!
American media is everywhere, news, TV shows, movies, music, and even YouTube videos get very popular all over the globe. Why doesn't stuff from other countries get as popular globally? I mean there are a few things, but not to the extent as America. Why is this? Are we just better film makers and record producers or is there an economic tie to it? Just curious, thanks.
Becuase you have the most money and people, its that simple. The huge adrevtising and production budgets of american media and record companies etc can simply not be matched by any other country around the world individualy. You are also drawing from a potential talent pool of 300 million plus people, which can only be matched by china and india, neither of which have any where near the money the USA does.
Last edited by danielsa1775; 10-22-2010 at 11:37 AM..
The best show on TV by miles, I wonder what americans think of Clarkson, May and Hammond? If they get the show at all?
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