Pop Culture Analysis

Media has changed the perspective of it’s audience of different cultures and political problems. Early movies and even books that portrayed cowboys and Indians, disguised the cowboy as a hero and the Indian as a savage, both were portrayed incorrectly by the media by what actually happened historically. Bringing this idea back to the present it is still seen but replace cowboys with the average American citizen or soldier and the Native American with an Arab or Muslim. “As paranoid, oversensitive or wildly professorial as such remarks might seem, consider how American stereotypes conveniently mirror our government’s foreign policy at any given time.” (Source D) With political problems happening in the Middle-East, the public was sensitive
For instance in fashion, celebrities are often seen wearing clothing that often times is see through or revealing, before that wasn’t accepted but now it is seen as high fashion. Trends fade in and out but can be recognized by anyone with a tv or internet, such as the “selfie” an American word and part of pop culture, but say the word to a person speaking another language and it’s understood. Movies have changed dramatically too, before gore, sex, and violence, were more often time than not, rated R but now can be seen in PG-13 movies, younger generations are being exposed to more and more because of pop culture like the tv or internet have made it more acceptable and common for something like that to be. Because of this countries are trying to block out American pop culture, in order to preserve their culture and their people. Although other countries have their own celebrities and artists, American pop culture still comes through. Artists like Madonna or Rihanna tour all over the world, to countries that don’t even speak English but yet they are still just as popular there as they are in the U.S. Rock and Roll, hip hop, and pop music originated from the U.S. but it can be heard in other countries in different languages, it’s part of everyday life that its origin is forgotten. What has made American pop culture so dominate is that people want to part of the movement whether it be taking a
Different countries have their own form of pop culture, for instance a boy band or an actress. Countries with a more conservative culture are trying to push out American pop culture, because those countries fear that they don’t want their culture to be diluted by American culture, “The problem is we don’t want our culture to be smashed. We don’t want to be washed away by American or any other culture.”, this fear roots from the prominence of American culture and how it is found where it is least expected (Source G). For instance in clothing like Nike and Levi, both are brands but they’re American brands that are widely popular and seen everywhere. “The fear is that the values and images of Western mass culture, like some invasive weed, are threatening to choke out the world’s native flora.” (Source F) In other words, fear of accepting new ideas and abandoning old ideas, both having positive but also negative aspects. It is all about perspective, from the American point of view spreading its culture is seen as saving others, but from the perspective of people close to their own culture they are grasping onto their