America. The United States is currently the most influential country on the face of the earth.
Not only concerning the issues of money and business, but also our choices of music, clothes, and recreational activities. Often times, people think of countries such as Japan and China as being completely different. They are thought to have strange dress and odd customs, and they are thought to have a completely different culture than ours. However, you will find that that is incorrect; their cultures are actually very similar to ours.
Because of the amount of clothing, food, and other products that we ship out of this country every day, our culture has no choice but to spread beyond our borders onto foreign soil. For example, you could walk into a modern Japanese society expecting to find a bunch of old people kneeling on dirt floors wearing kimonos and drinking green tea, but instead, you would find a society of youths wearing Levi jeans, trendy clothes, listening to American pop-rock music, and eating Big Macs that they just bought from down the street at their local McDonald’s. You could also find a group of people watching a football game and gossiping about the new movie with that really hot American chick in it.” Of course, all countries have different holidays and traditions, they eat different foods, and have customs that may seem strange to us, but more and more, their ways seem to be becoming like those of us here in the United States of America.
The question asks if I think that the influence of our pop culture” will continue. I think that all depends on whether or not we remain the world’s “superpower” in the future. I believe that the reason we are imitated by other countries is because of our wealth and power. It is like the United States is the most popular girl in school. She has a bunch of followers who dress like her, do their hair like her, and claim to like the same music and movies as her. But no matter how hard they try, they can never quite keep up with her ever-changing style.
Much like the patterns of the countries that try to imitate the U.S., if you look closely at these cultures, you will notice that the clothes they wear were the clothes we wore ten years ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are grooving to the sounds of the eighties as we speak. I often wonder why we haven’t picked up much of any other country’s culture. Sure, there have been fads like the Macarena and the ongoing love for foods such as tacos and chop suey, but everything is always somehow Americanized.
I suppose it’s because we are so preoccupied with our own appearances and our country’s image that we don’t have time to stop and look around. Or maybe it’s the fact that we are trying to convince ourselves that everybody wants to be like us and that is how it will always be. No matter what happens though, there is always a new popular girl that everybody wants to be like. Her power dies down and the followers find someone else to imitate.
I think that sooner or later, maybe not in my lifetime, the awe of the United States will diminish along with its influence and power over other countries. They may find someone else to follow or gain the power and self-respect to be their own nation, not paying attention to what everyone else is doing. Perhaps then people will start to follow them.
