Essay: American culture transforming influence abroad

Sample Essay

Words 1,870

Ronald McDonald posing as an Indian, a Chinese guy acting like an American rapper, and an African man burying himself in a Coke bottle represent how influential America is on the rest of the world. Many critics argue that “American popular culture is frequently not so American at all. `Hollywood` is an export platform that happens to be located on the Pacific coast of the United States but uses capital, hires personnel, and depicts sites from many other countries”(Gitlin 833). Although this might be true in some instances, some things are truly American and have a huge impact on the entire world.

When we look at popular Hollywood movies it is easy to argue that Gitlin was correct in assuming that American culture consists of a mesh of other countries. The Last Samurai, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Memoirs of a Geisha, Gandhi and Seven Years in Tibet are all examples of movies that tell stories of different countries. Often America has relied on the stories of the world to entertain audiences but other countries do the same. The Indian film industry made a movie called ‘ABCD (American Born Confused Desi)’ that was released in America in 1999. The movie was based on experiences of people from South Asia who were born and raised in America and how it caused identity confusion. This movie focused on the Indian idea of America or Indian Americans. There are countless other examples of other film industries making movies related to America and how it has influenced them. Now that it is established that the idea of story telling through movies and the borrowing of ideas is an ongoing practice throughout the world we can discuss how Hollywood itself is a truly American concept in itself. Popularized by the famous Madonna song:

“Everybody comes to Hollywood
They wanna make it in the neighborhood
They like the smell of it in Hollywood
How could it hurt you when it looks so good”

Hollywood is a sensation truly American. Hollywood is such a huge phenomenon that India’s multi million dollar film industry is called ‘Bolly-wood’ and neighboring Pakistan’s film industry is coined ‘Lolly-wood’.

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