American Culture

[David T]

Actually most of our music can be traced backed to other countries. The only exception is American jazz. That seems to be as close to truly "American" music that we can find.

That's why I said American folk itsi like dna. In regards to jazz in general, Jackson pollack comescto mind. Although I love amy Winehouse. Although her life was definitely a pollack.

My interest here is obviously enviromental but muir writings have that folk music presence. Like the mlk speech I have a dream. Dylan tapped that a bit

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[Rational Agnostic]

It happens a lot at least at my work and other places. They flip the lid up lean in sniff the food and stir it. That s*** irks me. I even seen one lady with a cold sniffling do this while her nose was running.

I don't know anyone who would do that. Weird....

 

[dfnj]

The Europeans take better care of their living spaces. Americans drive a lot. When I landed in Beijing with all the pollution I felt like I was landing in the Klingon home World. All of it doesn't really mean anything. Culture is always changing and is a function of population and products.

Take public restrooms for example. In China, they have the craziest public restrooms: China to start 'toilet revolution'

That's good culture!

There are rude people everywhere. There are kind and considerate people everywhere. I don't think you can generalize. It's all good. Culture gives us something to talk about.

Here's a really good talk about poverty statistics but there's a really cool bit at the end about culture:

New insights on poverty

 

[Sunstone]

Some years ago, I came across this passage by D. H. Lawrence: “The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted.”

As gross generalizations about a people's character go, that one isn't the worse. But I think what Lawrence might have missed -- and what so many observers of Americans miss -- is that Americans are not a single people and that we do not have but a single culture here.

There are multiple Americas. Regional differences are just the tip of the iceberg. There are also ethnic differences, differences in worldview or core values, and other differences as well.

So are there any cultural traits or values that more or less unite all Americans?

I suspect there are darn few beyond the obvious. But one of the more popular cultural traits might be a tendency for Americans to believe in self-invention, in self-definition, as opposed to allowing others to define you. Americans, I think, tend to believe that you can be whatever you want to be -- and they hold to that belief despite a weight of science that suggests it's largely an illusion.

 

[Politesse]

Uhhh...Irish...Scots....many different African cultures...Italians...Germans... You really need to look up the history and timelines of American music before you get all puffed up. As a musician I understand your prideful perspective, but in reality all of our music--with the possible exception of jazz--is just an expansion of other world genres.

Did you even read my post? I acknowledged that American culture is influenced by that of others. The same is true of the music of Ireland, Scotland, "African Cultures", Italy, and Germany. Or are you imagining somehow that all four of those European nations independently invented the Western Scale and the stringed instrument? The sources are not what make the music of a given place unique. All of the genres I mentioned have roots and motifs from many different places, but all were re-invented in a new form, named, and first played in the US. There would be no jazz or hip-hop without the Transatlantic slave trade, this is true. But it is also true that there was no such thing as jazz or hip-hop in Yoruba, Songhay, Mali, or Dahomey, until Americans started bringing it back with them.

I'm not a patriot, but I do believe in giving ourselves credit for the stuff we actually did do. It's a bloody, nasty history for the most part, but our musical innovation is a rare bright point in the murk.

 

[BSM1]

Did you even read my post? I acknowledged that American culture is influenced by that of others. The same is true of the music of Ireland, Scotland, "African Cultures", Italy, and Germany. Or are you imagining somehow that all four of those European nations independently invented the Western Scale and the stringed instrument? The sources are not what make the music of a given place unique. All of the genres I mentioned have roots and motifs from many different places, but all were re-invented in a new form, named, and first played in the US. There would be no jazz or hip-hop without the Transatlantic slave trade, this is true. But it is also true that there was no such thing as jazz or hip-hop in Yoruba, Songhay, Mali, or Dahomey, until Americans started bringing it back with them.

I'm not a patriot, but I do believe in giving ourselves credit for the stuff we actually did do. It's a bloody, nasty history for the most part, but our musical innovation is a rare bright point in the murk.

Sorry, but Hip-Hop is just another deviation of rock at 4/4 time (and yes, the Western scale and instruments were invented in other countries). The improvisational Jazz of the Twentieth Century was as close as we came to a new genre. I'm not sure what you are trying to argue here. All of the music that was "re-invented" in America was just an extension of the musical forms that, for the most part, were brought here by the early immigrants.

 

[Politesse]

Sorry, but Hip-Hop is just another deviation of rock at 4/4 time (and yes, the Western scale and instruments were invented in other countries). The improvisational Jazz of the Twentieth Century was as close as we came to a new genre. I'm not sure what you are trying to argue here. All of the music that was "re-invented" in America was just an extension of the musical forms that, for the most part, were brought here by the early immigrants.

Well, yeah. But we did something different with it. That's how music works. Masters teach students. You learn how to do what others have done, and then you do something new. Sometimes you invent a new instrument, that adds something even more novel to the pattern (the autoharp or jug or electric guitar or banjo, say). No musical genre or tradition has ever originated in any other way.