Most cultures stand out but American culture doesn’t because basically everywhere has some sorta American influence.
I think there’s a little more to it than that.
Yes, there’s the fact that American culture is very dominant in pop culture and we’ve exported our culture around the world. As the Rammstein song goes, “We’re all living in America”
But there’s also the fact that we’re a melting pot and we’ve happily appropriated bits and pieces of culture from everywhere else and integrated them into our own, and the lines get murky about where those other cultures end our our own begins.
And there’s not really one American culture, we’re rugged cowboys, and we’re Hollywood movie stars, we’re fat assholes and we’re health conscious hippies, we live in modern cities, suburban sprawl, rural farmland, mountains, forests, frozen hellscapes, wide open plains, deserts, we’re gun nuts, and we’re pacifist vegans, jocks and nerds, some of the richest people on earth, and homeless on the streets and everything in between, and every part of the country does things just a little differently, so it can be hard to pick out things that are truly emblematic of Americans as a whole.
Its part of being a good sized country. Russia, China and anywhere else that’s bigger doesn’t have one culture either.
while correct, my rebuttal to that is most of Russia’s people and culture is in eastern eroupe and smaller in size land size to two Texas (roughly I’m estimating in my head please prove me wrong i love to learn) The rest is mostly exploited territory with exploited people. They are not really apart of the Russian culture but also not really allowed to have their own sadly.
As with China I agree they are similar to the US distribution of people but the CCP tries their hardest to stamp that out. Hong Kong is a good example of that as much as it is political one.
Ehhhhh, I don’t know if I agree with this.
American “culture” has had a whole bunch of definitions, usually changing with the decades. For most of the 20th century, you could point to something and say “That’s American”; things like milkshake bars and greasers, anything surrounding the hippie movement (that we actually probably stole from somewhere else), and… Whatever that strange design of random shapes the 90s had.
After 2000, there hasn’t been really anything that stands out, in part due to the rise of the internet, and in another, the dangerous build environment. In order to have culture, people need to congregate in a place and create something meaningful. Because Americans go to work and then go home, often with little-to-no time in between from long commutes, they have no time to create the next “culture moment”.
I use the argument that consumerism is American culture. Anything from giant takeaways, to excess consumption at holidays, Costco, Walmart, even the American Healthcare system is designed to be sold.
Americans created jazz and blues, and hollywood movies. All people the world over know American movies to the point that things like “I’ll be back” or “and my axe” are universal. That’s American culture. You know the “great American songbook”? So does everyone in the world. This is American culture.
My friend I respectfully disagree. You can get a cheeseburger anywhere in the world. I’ve had one in Hong Kong, Kolkata, Copenhagen, and Croatia. I’ve heard American pop music everywhere. Visit any other country and listen to the radio. In Italy you will hear one station with Italian music, and several with American music.
Anywhere in Europe or South America or Central America or Asia you will find English speakers. Have you traveled ? Everyone speaks English. Not every person, but English is the universal language in this world. Do you know why? It’s not because of England. It’s because of the prevalence of American movies, TV, and music. In other words: America has so much culture people don’t even see the forest for the trees. Like OP said, and even you can’t see it. Bro go eat a Big Mac and think about life. EDIT: sorry for taking that tone at the end, that was unnecessary. I’m on vacation in Rome and I’ve had a bit of wine. I saw the Pantheon today! Its incredible! You just turn the corner and bam! “M Agrippa…”
The US has tons of culture, both exported and not, and definitely distinct from other cultures.
If anything, US culture differs from others in that the story/identity of the culture is relatively rootless. The American Dream is based on the idea that your heritage can’t define who you are, and the rise of post-war consumerism also significantly changed the story of the USAmerican.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t culture being done (guns, milkshakes, jazz, jeans, Florida man, Burning man, tech bros), it just means that where other cultures find identity in their deep heritage, the US has made a point of not doing that. Which comes off as shallow from their point of view, and narrow from the US point of view.
I bet it’s more to do with how little Americans own their own culture. Copyrights in the USA used to expire after 30 years, after which it became public domain. Or in other words, culture was returned to the people as a whole.
Nowdays the copyrights last beyond a lifetime, and Americans grow up in a world where they almost never experience relevant pop culture outside of being owned or controlled by someone. When you find American content, you don’t think of “American culture” you think of “This is owned by Disney” or “This is owned by Paramount” and so on and so forth. You have original authors and content creators, being the gods of the world they created, and everyone else are “fan artists” or “fanfic writers,” being implied to be lesser. Those fan artists will be fan artists their entire lives, and their works will never be ‘canon’ in the eyes of the Owners. If you like Harry Potter but not Rowling, too bad. The public cant reclaim it.
That’s not how culture works though. Culture remixes, reinspires, deconstructs, rebuilds, and memes on. That’s how everyone did stuff before the advent of recorded media. The good stuff is repeated and boosted. In a way, the Internet culture that emerged in the 90s sought out to rebuild what was lost after the 1890s.
I think there is something else as well, something touched on by Andy Warhol.
There is a certain care and attention given to low culture that isn’t given as much in other cultures. A lot of the valued and treasured culture that is American isn’t for the elites, but for the commoners.
American culture can create high art, but it is often in the forms of low art that other countries will create distance from. Quentin Tarantino is a playwright making 70’s B movies. Lady Gaga is a talented composer writing catchy pop hits.
American high culture is relatively shallow because its low culture is so deep.
