By analysing the popular culture of America, especially during the last decade, it is evident that the issue of racism causes the most concern for Americans and this is evident from films, music and television. Unfortunately, ethnicity can be a problem in America, even in today’s modern society. Not to say that this is not a problem in other countries in the world, but because of the vast amounts of American cultural products we consume, it is easier for consumers to see it as an American problem. According to an article written on the image of the black male in America, it states that, ‘there are three broad images of the black American male… the “Gangsta” or Hip-Hop image, the athlete, and the rarely discussed black intellectual.’ The Hip-Hop and athlete image are publicised so highly in the media, and because of this, they become the stereotypical view of the black American male. ‘More adolescent black males aspire to be Michael Jordan and Master P rather than intellectuals like Cornel West or Henry Louis Gates…That is what America expects.’ Maybe this has always been the case for black Americans, the fact that they cannot seem to get respect for being educated students. It is only during the last decade that American film producers have been casting black American’s to play heroic roles. The film ‘Independence Day’ was a blockbuster hit for the American film industry and starred Will Smith as the lead character. It is not often that films show black men saving the white men, which is a travesty in itself. If popular culture is going to say something about American identity it should not deliver stereotypical views to its audiences. It is films that appeal to teenagers which should be the cause for concern, simply because they appeal to the younger generation and they are the generation who will be producing fresh American identity for the future. Issues of race, gender and sexuality should be treated with care when producing a teen film, as they are incredibly influential on their target audience.
During the 1950’s rock and roll music was blamed for almost everything that went wrong and usually the blame was aimed at the teenagers of the time. Parents had never seen their children behaving in such a delinquent manner and blamed it on the new cultural product, which was rock and roll. Elvis was the biggest rock and roll star to have ever hit America and was broadcast on television, in magazines, on radio; it was a new experience for everybody. Without the new technology that was around in the 1950’s, the success of Elvis would not have spread as wildly as it did. Not only was it music that caused such outrage for parents during the 1950’s, films were also considered a bad influence. In a film review, Tom Dirks says that the 1950’s film, ‘Rebel without a Cause is a film that, ‘…sympathetically views rebellious, American, restless, misunderstood, middle-class youth…the story provides a rich, but stylised look at the world of the mid 1950’s from the perspective of the main adolescent character.’ This is exactly what the film industry tries to achieve every time they get an idea for a film; they want it to be seen as representing something that reflects on an issue in the correct way and this statement says that, ‘Rebel without a Cause’, does this extremely well. The film replicates quite a lot of characteristics of the teenage view of American culture, as the film shows rebellion from the teens, yet they know when to tolerate the control, which their parents have over them. This also represents certain aspects of society in America today, although in my view there are a lot more entities today that create rebellious youths.
Rap music is an example of American popular culture, which greatly influences young people, but it does not necessarily influence them in the correct way. It is widely known that many gangster rappers use explicit language and use ‘black’ terminology when making music. However, America is not the country we once believed it to be, with cosy families in their white picket fenced houses, the stereotypical view of what Americans would like us to believe. Rap music reinforces the African influence, which is commonplace in modern American society. African Americans make up the American identity, even though they are one of the many sub-cultures, which exist in the United States. The youths of America today are lucky enough to witness a union of the ‘Black’ and ‘White’ fellow citizens in their country. The worldwide known rapper ‘Eminem’ is a great example of this, since he works with the rap group ‘D 12’ and performs his songs in the style that has only ever been done by a black American. As controversial as Eminem is, he still continues to sell albums and singles worldwide, because he speaks his mind and writes lyrics, which reflect how he feels about American society, therefore producing another issue surrounding American identity. His views on American society tend to be racial, in the way that he raps about the treatment of black society, and he is different from many other Americans whose, ‘…understanding of Blackness is basically one definition only, racial identity’. However, the importance of racial identity has not been as great in recent years and America has seen changes concerning ethnicity. This also goes for the change in attitude towards homosexuality; since culture has evolved the media industry has found that there is a great demand for products of a diverse nature.
It is recognised that to portray American identity accurately through means of popular culture, the mass media industry would have to discard the American stereotype. Although, television programmes tend to incorporate comedy into a narrative that is different from the mainstream in any way, simply because they know that comedy sells. ‘Will and Grace’ for example, is a camp sitcom, which highlights the idea of sexuality and gender, but the comic element overshadows theses ideas. A film that does work well with exploring the nature of homosexuality and everyday life stars Kevin Kline and is called, ‘In and Out’. Since the main part of the film is set in a school, as the lead character is an English teacher, it is easy to associate teenagers as the target audience. True to life, the young students in the film are outraged and feel cheated when their much-loved teacher is accused on national television of being gay. When they realise just how good a teacher he is and that he has not changed as a person, the students come to terms with their teacher’s sexuality. This kind of homosexual identity is not usually portrayed as a good thing in films and television programmes and usually hides behind another genre. Yet, when the narratives involve moral dilemmas and debate about what is wrong or right when it comes to sexuality, the audience can appreciate that these situations occur all over the country and that it is a part of their national identity.
Americans do see themselves as the country that is leading the way forward for the rest of the world, they have their dream, and the American dream about what it is that they are supposed to achieve in their lives. This ideology about the American dream is drummed into American children from a young age, they learn about it at school and from their predecessors and as they emerge into their teenage years, they find that many movies, television programmes and songs contain lots of hidden ideas about American culture. As it stands, American culture is unique as is any culture, but it is distinctive because American’s do pride themselves on having a culture of extremely high morals, yet the popular culture within the country tells another story. American identity is extremely vast, simply because there are many subcultures within American society that contribute to it. Being that teenagers are so influential within the media market today, it is easy to see why teen movies are so popular and why many of the films have an equally popular soundtrack to accompany it. Popularity sells products and the influential companies know this, which is why they create products, which will appeal to youths. Teenagers of America today are the main targets of cultural products; music and film have always been a hit with a young audience. But it is teenagers who are more likely to be deeply affected by the media industry, which is why we should recognise that the youth of American society will always be the innovators of American identity. What we see as the youth of America today, will be the next generation of people who will make a difference in a few years time to the way the country exists. What the youths consume in today’s society from the American media industry is different to what their parents and grandparents consumed in their teenage years. American identity is changing rapidly all the time and this is evident through films, television programmes, music and magazines. American identity is not something that stays the same forever, as with other national identities, they evolve. Of course there will always be certain stigmas attached to America, the things that will never change, but as far as popular culture goes, there is always room for change, hopefully a change for the better.
Tim Dirks, www.filmsite.org
Gina Dent, Black Popular Culture, 1998, p.296
