Cultural Imperialism

So we all know that after WWII, Continental Europe had successfully relinquished its title as the cultural breadbasket of the western world. They were too busy being belligerent and blowing each other up. Part of this has to do with the fact that the great leaders in Film, Music, and Literature became expats once things started looking grim. Perhaps some stuck it out and survived reconstruction and the cold war, but those who continued to hold their international stature, in my opinion, for credible rather than circumstantial reasons took a cruise across the pond to the US.

Even though Vienna may be the place in which Mozart and Beethoven cranked out their greatest works and Paris gave film its kick-start, these places are essentially void of new creation. Granted, film is grabbing some grips over here on the continent, but it's still a small amount of output.

So what? It has been said by snobby mademoiselles and abrasive middle-aged professors that American music and film is a degradation of the fine output in Europe. To them, Hollywood is the epitome of low culture - films designed for mass worldwide consumption with little regard for artistic creativity. Even though I may be personally incredibly disappointed by Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" and absolutely enthralled by "Das Leben der Anderen," "Good-Bye Lenin," and "Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain," I would be remiss to ignore the great works of Americans, which, in actuality, have had far more influence and held much more prestige and international recognition, such as Disney, Steven Spielberg, Quintin Terition, the Cohen Brothers, and so many others.

Music has much the same story. In "serious" music, composers such as Hindemith, Schoenberg and Stravinsky moved classical music across the ocean to influence the generation of Bernstein, Barber, and Copland, which in turn gave us John Williams, Danny Elfman, and Corgliano.

Enough background. Over here, American films and American music are what exists. If one goes to the movie theater, one sees American films. If one goes to a party, American music is what one hears. It's one thing for American stuff to be sprinkled in amongst locally created works (you know, the best of American stuff being introduced with the mainstream of Germany's stuff), but that's just not the way it is. Sure, German films are made, but where are they being shown? Sure, German bands record, but when is it played? It seems to be the reciprocal of the previous scenario - only the best of Germany's stuff is sprinkled into the mainstream of American output. Is this bad? I don't think so. People don't seem utterly opposed to this, if anything they are enjoying it. At a party, people sing along, in English, to the music that they like.

So, no. The US is not an isolated country with its market controlled by some cultural corn laws. The US is the output. Sure, not the entire output, but a very large and overwhelming percentage.

So what's the deal with international laws keeping me from watching Ugly Betty when I can hear Lady Gaga and the Black Eyed Peas on the radio?