Do we underestimate America's influence

ColeTrain

America might not be too popular around the world. But there is no denying the influence it has had on our culture.

The best films are American. Most of and if not all, the best TV shows are American, along with the best bands.

I think America has led the way in a lot of areas. Maybe their sports has had the lest effect on us. Maybe we under appreciate it's influence?

Posted using Windows 7 and Google Chrome.

Arawn

America....they're that really small quiet country right??

SEPT 23 1989

ColeTrain wrote: »

America might not be too popular around the world. But there is no denying the influence it has had on our culture.

The best films are American. Most of and if not all, the best TV shows are American, along with the best bands.

I think America has led the way in a lot of areas. Maybe their sports has had the lest effect on us. Maybe we under appreciate it's influence?

Posted using Windows 7 and Google Chrome.

Dont think so

Logical Fallacy

The idea of the "best" anything is purely subjective, so if we look at the idea of how much money things gross it can be pretty much boiled down to America being a large home market, with a traditionally high level of disposable income among a large portion of it's populace and a fierce level of pride in domestic products.

RGDATA!

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Dont think so

think so

Mr. Incognito

I think America greatly overestimates it's own influence

HalloweenJack

Best bands, yeah, I'll give you that one, most of my favourite acts are American.

Some of the best films are American but the ratio of crap to good American films must be the highest in the world. An easy rule to follow for American films: avoid anything that used big, bold red letters for the title, it's going to be some third-rate comedy.

Telly shows, again, because of the sheer number of stuff they produce there's going to be some good ones but, again, the crap to good ratio isn't good. Also, American's have a problem of over-doing telly shows. Most have about a minimum of 20 shows a season for about eight seasons, it's madness and, inevitably, the quality dips. Give me stuff from the BBC anyday, they understand the term "quality over quantity".

Also, a big part of America's influence comes from us living in an English-speaking country. I've lived in Spain and the Czech Republic as well and there's nowhere near as much American stuff here.

Sitec

No way dude

Dotrel

Their waterboarding is second to none.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCeleRDPmrw

parrai

ColeTrain wrote: »

America might not be too popular around the world. But there is no denying the influence it has had on our culture.

The best films are American. Most of and if not all, the best TV shows are American, along with the best bands.

I think America has led the way in a lot of areas. Maybe their sports has had the lest effect on us. Maybe we under appreciate it's influence?

Posted using Windows 7 and Google Chrome.

Yes they have had an influence on the worlds' culture, in the past. Music and media is subjective, and whilst I agree with what you say about their excellent contribution, there are a lot of other countries, that have contributed equally on this front.

They do bring a lot of good to the world, in terms of creativity, but their power hungry government is bringing down all the fantastic things they do.

There are a lot of Americans, themselves, who are unhappy with the government.

When Obama was running for office, he really captured, not only Americas' hearts and minds, but the worlds. He spoke of change on a level not seen since JFK. He spoke with an intelligence, that had not been seen in an American President in a long time. He gave a message of hope.

Now, all the promises that he made, the majority have been forgotten.

I personally don't hold this against him. He is only in power in name.
America has the power to be a trend setter but unfortunately this is not the case.

Because of the guilty, the innocent must suffer.

Da Shins Kelly

I don't think people do. Maybe there are some people who don't realise how Americanised they are, but I think for the most part people realise how aggressively America exports its culture.

Best TV shows - I'll give you that.
Best films - Some, not all.
Best bands - Not in my opinion.

RGDATA!

Sitec wrote: »

No way dude

yes way

foxyboxer

We aint got no Gawd and we aint got no guns.

What influence?

lcrcboy

Ireland has been hugely influenced by the USA for example:

There are now fast food chains like McDonalds, Burger King, Dominos pizza everywhere,
We watch a huge amount of American tv,
listen to a huge amount of american music,
wear numerous american brands Nike being one of the most obvious,
American food brands are now targeting the European markets after seeing the success of Coca-Cola, for example now mountain dew is on are shelves rebranded as a energy drink, craft purchasing cadburys, and dunken doughnets and taco bell have been looking at the idea of entering the UK market and possibly exapnding into other parts of the EU if their succesful

Brendog

The American Media has such a strong influence all over the world. Many people act American.

I've even notcied I say "Bacon" instead of "Rashers" and refer to my friends as "Bro".
I'm a tit I know but I can't help it!

Killer Pigeon

I don't think we underestimate American's influence, but I think America, itself, is overestimated.

Chuck Stone

America will be a force to be reckoned with for the foreseeable future.

whatislife

ColeTrain wrote: »

America might not be too popular around the world. But there is no denying the influence it has had on our culture.

The best films are American. Most of and if not all, the best TV shows are American, along with the best bands.

I think America has led the way in a lot of areas. Maybe their sports has had the lest effect on us. Maybe we under appreciate it's influence?

Posted using Windows 7 and Google Chrome.

America has the best films?! America has the best bands?!

What in the world? Don't be afraid to turn off mtv

Logical Fallacy

Brendog wrote: »

I've even notcied I say "Bacon" instead of "Rashers" and refer to my friends as "Bro".
I'm a tit I know but I can't help it!

There is nothing particularly American about the word "bacon".

Batsy

ColeTrain wrote: »

The best films are American.

That's just a matter of opinion. It's only the British and Irish and other English-speaking countries who watch a lot of American films. If you went to Continental Europe most of them watch their own movies. Most French people you'd meet would say that French movies are the best in the world.

Most of and if not all, the best TV shows are American,

American television is a load of tripe, punctuated by adverts every 90 seconds. The shows we get from America are only the very best they produce. If we were to get a wider range of their shows then you'd see how dire US telly really is.

along with the best bands.

Again, that's a matter of opinion. America didn't give the world the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Spandau Ballet, The Stone Roses, Blur, Oasis, the Arctic Monkeys, Radiohead, Pulp, Happy Mondays, Ocean Colour Scene, Supergrass, Suede, Cast, Elastica, and The Darkness (it was Britain that gave the world those greats bands)

ColeTrain

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

There is nothing particularly American about the word "bacon".

Yes but calling rashers "bacon" definitely makes you sound American bro.

Batsy

ColeTrain wrote: »

Yes but calling rashers "bacon" definitely makes you sound American bro.

No, it doesn't. We in Britain say bacon all the time. That's the normal word for that meat.

ColeTrain

whatislife wrote: »

America has the best films?! America has the best bands?!

What in the world? Don't be afraid to turn off mtv

Don't watch it. I'll admit though my OP was certainly subjective. I may be a little Americanized. My spell checker is American too..

Batsy wrote: »

That's just a matter of opinion. It's only the British and Irish and other English-speaking countries who watch a lot of American films. If you went to Continental Europe most of them watch their own movies. Most French people you'd meet would say that French movies are the best in the world.

Disagree, in whole I think America does the best films. Subtitled for the non-english speaking countries or not, I think the quality is there.

Batsy wrote: »

American television is a load of tripe, punctuated by adverts every 90 seconds. The shows we get from America are only the very best they produce. If we were to get a wider range of their shows then you'd see how dire US telly really is.

I take your point with the amount that they produce. In my opinion though their best is unrivaled.

ColeTrain

Batsy wrote: »

No, it doesn't. We in Britain say bacon all the time. That's the normal word for that meat.

If you call this bacon then you sound American to me!

Napper Hawkins

Batsy wrote: »

That's just a matter of opinion. It's only the British and Irish and other English-speaking countries who watch a lot of American films. If you went to Continental Europe most of them watch their own movies. Most French people you'd meet would say that French movies are the best in the world.



American television is a load of tripe, punctuated by adverts every 90 seconds. The shows we get from America are only the very best they produce. If we were to get a wider range of their shows then you'd see how dire US telly really is.



Again, that's a matter of opinion. America didn't give the world the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Spandau Ballet, The Stone Roses, Blur, Oasis, the Arctic Monkeys, Radiohead, Pulp, Happy Mondays, Ocean Colour Scene, Supergrass, Suede, Cast, Elastica, and The Darkness (it was Britain that gave the world those greats bands)

Yeah...er...cheers Britain..

ejmaztec

ColeTrain wrote: »

America might not be too popular around the world. But there is no denying the influence it has had on our culture.

The best films are American. Most of and if not all, the best TV shows are American, along with the best bands.

I think America has led the way in a lot of areas. Maybe their sports has had the lest effect on us. Maybe we under appreciate it's influence?

Posted using Windows 7 and Google Chrome.

Most of the films and TV output are the same formulaic crap that's been churned out on a conveyor belt for decades. The same storylines done to death ten thousand times over.

Sykk

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

I think America greatly overestimates it's own influence

No they don't. They have massive influence in every aspect.. Jobs, exports, military, economics, politics etc.

ScumLord

HalloweenJack wrote: »

Also, a big part of America's influence comes from us living in an English-speaking country. I've lived in Spain and the Czech Republic as well and there's nowhere near as much American stuff here.

Me hole, every young land in eastern Europe, possibly the world wants to be a gangsta rapper.

Most people don't even realise they get most of their anti-Americanism from Americans. Americans have been spoon feeding the world their culture since the 50s and we've been lapping it up.

ColeTrain

ejmaztec wrote: »

Most of the films and TV output are the same formulaic crap that's been churned out on a conveyor belt for decades. The same storylines done to death ten thousand times over.

I said the best but yes they do churn out a lot of ****e too.

Da Shins Kelly

Batsy wrote: »

Again, that's a matter of opinion. America didn't give the world the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Spandau Ballet, The Stone Roses, Blur, Oasis, the Arctic Monkeys, Radiohead, Pulp, Happy Mondays, Ocean Colour Scene, Supergrass, Suede, Cast, Elastica, and The Darkness (it was Britain that gave the world those greats bands)

I don't know if I'd put them on the list..

I think for the most part I prefer British bands. Having said that, America has produced Elvis Presley, Billie Holiday, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Beach Boys, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Brian Jonestown Massacre, the vast majority of hip hop, The Strokes and many, many more. The issue of music is very, very arguable.

ColeTrain wrote: »

Disagree, in whole I think America does the best films. Subtitled for the non-english speaking countries or not, I think the quality is there.

America has its fair share of great movies, and some of the all-time greats have been American, but there are loads of foreign language movies that are brilliant and often have a subtle something special that is really lacking from a lot of modern American movies.

ColeTrain wrote: »

I take your point with the amount that they produce. In my opinion though their best is unrivaled.

This is completely true, in my opinion. Yes, there is a lot of rubbish on American TV, but there is simply nothing in the world that can rival the quality of The Sopranos, The Wire or Breaking Bad.

parrai

ScumLord wrote: »

Me hole, every young land in eastern Europe, possibly the world wants to be a gangsta rapper.

Most people don't even realise they get most of their anti-Americanism from Americans. Americans have been spoon feeding the world their culture since the 50s and we've been lapping it up.

If you are inclined to be 'spoon fed'.

superelliptic

Brendog wrote: »

I've even notcied I say "Bacon" instead of "Rashers" and refer to my friends as "Bro".
I'm a tit I know but I can't help it![/QUOTE]


Yes you can -stop using americanisms, and you'll be grand

That sort of talk makes me furious. I was on the dart going to work last monday and I was sitting beside a group of secondary school girls on their way into town. As you can imagine, they were yapping the whole trip, but I noticed that whenever they mentioned things like facebook, iphones, things they saw on MTV, pop culture stuff ,they would unconciously put on a more US inflected accent. The bizare thing is that when they were talking about gossip, lads they fancied, things happening in school, ie local things, they reverted back to a Dublin accent. It was really something to behold - like verbal schitzophrenia, or for the captive eavesdropper, an aural car crash. :mad:

ejmaztec

ColeTrain wrote: »

I said the best but yes they do churn out a lot of ****e too.

99% of it is brain-numbing sh1te.

They even turn good stuff into sh1te, like when they re-make some films or tv programmes that were originally successful in other countries.

ColeTrain

Da Shins Kelly wrote: »

This is completely true, in my opinion. Yes, there is a lot of rubbish on American TV, but there is simply nothing in the world that can rival the quality of The Sopranos, The Wire or Breaking Bad.

Three of the best. Nearly through Season 4 of BB, superb TV.

biko

American films are shoved down our throats every day on TV and movie ads.
That doesn't mean their films are the best.

In fact many great films are copied by US companies for profit and shown there and here too - because Irish audiences are as lazy as US audiences they won't go to French, Indian or other non-English speaking films.

Batsy

Originally Posted by ScumLord
Me hole, every young land in eastern Europe, possibly the world wants to be a gangsta rapper.

No, they don't.

cosmicfart

thread is completely backwards as America is a nation of emigrants, should read...do we underestimate the influence we have on America?

Da Shins Kelly

ColeTrain wrote: »

Three of the best. Nearly through Season 4 of BB, superb TV.

The writing and acting in those shows easily rivals that of a lot of movies, in my opinion.

iregk

I'm curious about the OP's comment of best tv shows are American. Some have agreed with him/her. What are in your opinion the worlds best TV shows?

Minstrel27

The best films are American - Great films are made everywhere. Don't forget they make an awful load of **** films in the states too.

Most of and if not all, the best TV shows are American - Wrong. You only have to look at the Comedy Central schedule to see a lot of the **** the Americans make. They do make some great tv but so do the British for example.

the best bands - Great bands come from all over the world

Lirange

ejmaztec wrote: »

99% of it is brain-numbing sh1te.

I reckon you'd have to watch plenty of it to know that.

Robdude

I always get a chuckle out of these threads.

In the US, nobody ever starts threads like this. I think that, by itself, says something. And, whenever I see these threads, it becomes the 'US' verse the world.

People list off all sorts of great things other countries have done. X invented this. And Y has this.

Which *individual* country has more global influence than the United States - is a much better question. And I'm not talking about specific niche influences like 'Country Z *dominates* the world's supply of coca-bean exports'. But I'm talking across the board. And, I'm not talking about 'since the dawn of time'. Keep it relevant to today; say the last 40-50 years. And, none of this 'Well, Country A played an important role in the history of Country B, so really, Country A should get credit for everything Country B has done. That's a weak and silly argument', and if you apply it enough, you'd find pretty much everyone came from some tribe somewhere and countries mean nothing.

If you had to *honestly* name one country for having the largest global influence what would it be? And why.

Robdude

cosmicfart wrote: »

thread is completely backwards as America is a nation of emigrants, should read...do we underestimate the influence we have on America?

Except that it isn't.

Emigration is the act of *leaving* your own country to live somewhere else. The majority of US citizens were born in the US. They've never emigrated anywhere.

If you are going to say that anyone who is a descendant of someone who emigrated from their home land, just about every country is completely a nation of emigrants. Including Ireland.

"The first known settlement in Ireland began around 8000 BC, when hunter-gatherers arrived from continental Europe, probably via a land bridge"

So, all of Irish culture is meaningless....it's just Europe's influence? See how backwards and silly that sounds.

ejmaztec

Lirange wrote: »

I reckon you'd have to watch plenty of it to know that.

I proved it by being a martyr, but you don't have to watch much of something to know how bad it is. The basic "storyline" is usually enough to predict what's going to happen in the next 200 episodes.:(

iregk

Robdude wrote: »

Which *individual* country has more global influence than the United States - is a much better question. And I'm not talking about specific niche influences like 'Country Z *dominates* the world's supply of coca-bean exports'. But I'm talking across the board.

I know you said lets not start at the dawn of time but I can't resist. You'd have to say the greeks. They invented democracy and central heating systems. How many people would be dead if it wasn't or that last one?

Going on the last 40-50 years two countries come to mind. Russia & China.

China as they essentially are the manufacturing hub of the world. They have such influence in that area that if they decided to shut up shop tomorrow the world would be done.

Russia as the worlds first superscalar architectural microprocessors were created a full 20 years before Intel claim they invented it. The birth of the modern era began in Russia in the late 60's early 70's.

lcrcboy

Obviously due to the USA's size and the fact that it is a superpower has lead to them having great influence abroad, but I also think its down to their cultrure, they are great at selling themselves "Americana" to the world. They are just out there no matter what trying to make a profit and sell everything thats American and I think this is one of the keys that have made them so successful globally. And its something I actually admire about them in terms of business, is their determination to sell, when Irish people are asked sell "Irishness" to the world mainly America and places like Oz, you get a lot of complaining about "how we are loosing are identity and they are all plastic paddies". If we did less of that we might actually make a nice fortune out of ourselves.

Now it will be interesting to see how rising powers like China do in the future will they have the same global influence as the USA currently has or will the Chinease just lack the same ambition and drive the Americans have to do business globally and sell.

ejmaztec

lcrcboy wrote: »

Obviously due to the USA's size and the fact that it is a superpower has lead to them having great influence abroad, but I also think its down to their cultrure, they are great at selling themselves "Americana" to the world. They are just out there no matter what trying to make a profit and sell everything thats American and I think this is one of the keys that have made them so successful globally. And its something I actually admire about them in terms of business, is their determination to sell, when Irish people are asked sell "Irishness" to the world mainly America and places like Oz, you get a lot of complaining about "how we are loosing are identity and they are all plastic paddies". If we did less of that we might actually make a nice fortune out of ourselves.

Now it will be interesting to see how rising powers like China do in the future will they have the same global influence as the USA currently has or will the Chinease just lack the same ambition and drive the Americans have to do business globally and sell.

The Chinese are buying up businesses and countries all over the planet like there's no tomorrow. They'll make the Americans, and the rest of us, look like a bunch of amateurs.

frank reynolds

america is ****. their music is rubbish and the only reason we watch their films is because we've been dumbed down and brainwashed by their "media" (Illuminati) for decades now that we are as thick as the americans themselves, believing in the hype that surrounds every bit of their utter nonsense. a prime example would be this so called "Celebrity culture">

every piece of media they create is completely designed for capitalist purposes.

the country should most definitely be nuked.

Lirange

ejmaztec wrote: »

The Chinese are buying up businesses and countries all over the planet like there's no tomorrow. They'll make the Americans, and the rest of us, look like a bunch of amateurs.

Possibly but only in the financial realm. They are unlikely to ever have the cultural influence of America. Their language is not easy to learn. Chinese are learning English at a brisker pace than Westerners are learning Chinese. Despite their manufacturing capacity and capital resources they have very little in the way of global brand name recognition. Unlike Japan their culture is not that exportable. Sure there are influences such as cuisine and other contributions but it is modest and will probably continue to be so.

Stiffler2

ColeTrain wrote: »

America might not be too popular around the world. But there is no denying the influence it has had on our culture.

The best films are American. Most of and if not all, the best TV shows are American, along with the best bands.

I think America has led the way in a lot of areas. Maybe their sports has had the lest effect on us. Maybe we under appreciate it's influence?

Posted using Windows 7 and Google Chrome.

Chrome is $hit btw

Robdude

Stiffler2 wrote: »

Chrome is $hit btw

Can you elaborate?