Middle American Culture

Henry Duong
Political Science 139
Professor Bordenkircher
Analytic Paper
Pop American Culture Vs Middle East Culture
In Richard Poplak’s the Sheikh’s Bat mobile he shares with us a variation of stories about his two-year tour throughout the middle east. Poplak embarks on this trip in order to see what happens when our pop culture meets the Muslim world. Each country Poplak visits he shares his occurrences and exchanges with over hundreds of people. Richard Poplak wants to know how his American obsessions have made their way into the Muslim world. Through his interactions with influential Arabs and Muslims we were able to see a cultural homogenization. The diversity of these cultures and their adoption of American culture leaves us to consider
that our American culture has become a part of the Muslim everyday lives.
While many people may argue that these western cultures are leaving negative impacts in the Muslim world because some American beliefs aren’t practiced in Muslim society. Western culture has helped create the globalization phenomenon in the middle east. Throughout Richard Poplak’s travels we can find several themes of integration, community, and Americanization. These themes support the process of westernization because even countries that are far away are still able to acquire and experience the American dream and culture. Globalization has helped different cultures intertwine and discover new viewpoints. This allows cultures to diversify, learn and share with each other. Our American culture has influence the Muslim world in every way such as car culture, television, social media, and music.

In Chapter 1, his first stop in Libya, while there he finds out that the people know about iconic pop star Lionel Richie. He hears songs of Lionel Richie at café’s as he explores the city. At first he thought it was a parody or some sort of joke but then he realized that people in Libya knew about Richie and his music. He further investigated and interviewed a few people around the area and found out about a concert he performed in Libya. Poplak was surprised that people even knew who Richie was and that they enjoyed his pop music. According to Poplak he found it astonishing that Lionel Richie’s music has made it into Libya. He then discovered how much of an influence Lionel Richie pop music was to the people in the surrounding areas. Poplak felt that he understood what Lionel Richie was trying to do. Richie used his music as a bridge way in order to bring these two different cultures together.
Poplak felt that the relationship between the US culture and music in Libya became connected because of Lionel Richie’s influence. His music allowed people to get a feel for the US American culture and pop music lifestyle. Lionel Richie hit song “Hello” was a powerful story because of the fact that Richie was big in Baghdad and throughout the Muslim world. Richie performed a few concerts here in Libya and it brought pop music to the people there. Kids and teens enjoyed his music and it help establish a positive connection with each other. Richie wanted to believe that his music would work as a unifier, between Shiite and Sunni, between Muslim and Christian, between American and Libyan. He felt that if we are intertwined into one another’s cultures it would at least one way to some common ground. With music people were able to come together and enjoy a certain genre together without any issues. Poplak felt that pop music would stand as a demonstration of what popular culture does best which is unite people during different moments of their lives. Lionel Richie’s music allowed people to become a community where they would come together and appreciate pop music. It didn’t matter what religion you were or where you were from. Music helped bring these people together and it helped them create an identity that is now evolving in the middle east.
On his next journey to Dubai, in Chapter 2, he visits a man named Wayne Stewart who owns a chop shop and specializes in customizing cars to whatever the customer wants. Wayne Stewart is from Virginia so he understands and brings his western influence to the Muslim world. He argues that people here in Dubai are in love with American lifestyle but specifically the American cars. Wayne explains that many of the people who come to his shop are there to fulfill their American dream. People bring their cars to him in order to “Americanize” the car. This meant having a vibrant paint job and powerful engine. Wayne then argues that these influences come from the stuff that people watched all over the world. They see these beautiful exotic cars in American movies, TV shows, and social media. It gives them a sense of desire to have one of these cars in order to feel American. A huge factor that created an integration of American car culture was that during the oil boom. This oil uprising sent thousands of Arabs from the middle and upper classes out into the world in order to bring a little bit of Western style back to their countries.
Particularly in the gulf, cars were seen as status symbols and a way of obtaining the American dream. Poplak argued that in societies where everyone is expected to dress and act the same, the car was used as a tool to show individuality and status. He was surprised to the fact that people in the gulf had obsession with cars. The cars that were built and sold here were mainly American cars such as GMC, Ford, and Chevrolet. Wayne Stewart showed Richard that these cars meant a lot to the people in the gulf. Mainly the middle class and upper class were the ones to afford these cars. These people would use cars as gifts, business incentives, and wedding presents. Through the car culture in Dubai we can see that these cars meant more to them than just transportation. The car culture allowed these people to pursue American/Western culture by obtaining these fast cars. This idea allowed people in Dubai to appreciate and enjoy these cars in their own culture. Not only did these cars help them travel through the deserts and long journeys, it allowed them to feel American and enjoy cars just like people in America.
At his next stop in Dubai, he finds himself in Saudi Arabia where they have two huge media companies, MBC (Middle East Broadcasting) and DMC (Dubai Media City). He came to Saudi Arabia to find out what people in the Muslim world watch and how they portray these shows. Richard was surprised to find that they stream a lot of western television shows such as the Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, American Idol, and many more. The MBC and DMC controlled the television networks and were in charge of what was broadcasted.
Richard Poplak goes out to interview and chat with the people in charge of these companies. He wanted to go deep to the roots and find out of motive behind these shows and why they adopted certain ones over the other. These television shows are perfect example of the western culture creating an identity for the Muslim people to follow or learn about Americans. Many of these shows were adjusted and changed in order to fit the values of the Muslims and Arabs. Certain things that Homer in the Simpsons did weren’t allowed in their culture.
After numerous phone calls and connections, he was able to meet with Mr. Baddih the one who created Al Shamshoon (the Simpsons). Although it was a popular television show in the United States, Mr. Baddih argued that it was not a big success. He believed that it was a big international brand but it wasn’t able to run year after year. He Arabized the concept of the show in order to get more views. Mr. Baddih toned it down in cultural sense because the Arab culture is very restrictive. He felt that the comedy wasn’t understood because it was a North American thing and people weren’t able to understand its culturally sensitive matters. However, even though this TV show failed many others have come about and become successful. Here in Saudi Arabia many television channels are for Western entertainment but there are channels for people who don’t want to watch these western shows. This situation in Saudi Arabia shows that television networks are a form of hybridization. They often display western shows but with their own mixture of Arabian culture in these programs. It helps the people assimilate to these cultures without losing there own. The shows were fixed to fit the Muslim cultures without making people upset. If any topics were sensitive or may cause controversy these directors would change it.
Next he travels to Cairo, in Egypt, he meets with a man named Ahmed Zahzah who is in charge of Arabizing Disney’s Middle Eastern. Disney Middle East was like MBC a Saudi entertainment business. His job was to tailor Disney’s satellite channel content to local cultural values, and make the brand popular in the middle east. Disney felt that there needed to put a filter on certain things and what should go on the air. They didn’t want to disrespect the cultural sensitivities in any way. Ahmed Zahzah would spend months reviewing episodes and stripping it of anything that wasn’t appropriate for the viewing. His next project was Arabizing the Lion King it was released in 2002 and was an entirely Arabic film. Disney knew that they had to keep audiences entertained without bringing up their religion, race, and country of origin.
Often many times these films faced a lot of criticism because they weren’t adjusted to an international audience but only for specific viewers.
This created a lot of problems for Disney so they worked to make films international for all audiences. These films were all were originally western films but translated and scripted to different languages for all audiences. This did bring both positive and negative repercussions because some audiences were offended and some weren’t. Poplak then meets with a man named Amro Hosny who also specialized in Arabizing many Disney movies and other projects. He works with pop-culture American and converts them to be sensible for Egyptians. Hosny argues that Egyptians are very similar to Americans because they are a mixture of different cultures. Unlike classical Arabic which is very pure and doesn’t accept images from different cultures. Poplak began to to understand where Hosny was coming from. Compared to Disney shows and movies, he felt that The American Dream was very important to the people. Through these shows they were able to understand what it was like to be an American. It helped them feel unified with the western culture because on these shows they often portrayed the way Americans would
live.