The Global Default: Do Americans Have a Culture?

Hallyu, is a term that refers to the growing global popularity of South Korean entertainment and pop-culture. Once viewed as second rate in comparison to American and Japanese entertainment, South Korean music, television, movies, brand names and fashion has won millions of new fans across the world. The hallyu phenomenon has generated significant media attention across the globe and has drawn comparisons to analogous trends like the British Invasion of the 1960s. But I always found it interesting is that there is no corresponding phenomenon for US entertainment and pop-culture, despite being significantly more popular. US musicians regularly make the Top 100 charts across the world, and in many cases completely dominate it. Hollywood blockbusters, like Titanic, achieve a level of global popularity so intense and widespread that the <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2022/12/16/how-james-camerons-titanic-became-an-under-the-surface-sensation-in-taliban-ruled-afghanistan.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">film became a sensation even in the most remote and isolated regions of the world like Afghanistan, under the Taliban, in the 1990s</a>. The 2017 Pixar animated film Coco was so well-received in Mexico, that local cultural commentators <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-ca-mn-coco-latino-culture-20180222-story.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">wondered how it could be that the US media could do a better job at representing Mexican culture, than Mexicans themselves</a>. <a href="https://medium.com/@akhivae/global-default-do-americans-have-a-culture-6b5f228d0b1b">Learn More</a>