Culture of the United States America

U.S. popular culture has a significant influence on the rest of the world, especially the Western world. U.S. music is heard all over the world, and it is the sire of such forms as blues and jazz and had a primary hand in the shaping of modern rock and roll and popular music culture. Many famous Western classical musicians and ensembles find their home in the U.S. New York City is a hub for international operatic and instrumental music as well as the world-famed Broadway plays and musicals.

Nashville is the center of the country music industry. Another export of the last 20 years is hip hop music, which is growing in influence and branching into the fashion, food and drink and movie industries. New York, Seattle, and San Francisco are worldwide leaders in graphic design and New York and Los Angeles compete with major European cities in the fashion industry.

U.S. movies (primarily embodied in Hollywood) and television shows can be seen almost anywhere except the most totalitarian places. This is in stark contrast to the early days of the republic, when the country was viewed by Europeans as an agricultural backwater with little to offer the culturally advanced world centers of Asia and Europe.

Nearing the mid-point of its third century of nationhood, the U.S. plays host to the gamut of human intellectual and artistic endeavor in nearly every major city, offering classical and popular music; historical, scientific and art research centers and museums; dance performances, musicals and plays; outdoor art projects and internationally significant architecture. This development is a result of both contributions by private philanthropists and government funding.

American holidays are variously national and local. Many holidays recognize events or people of importance to the nation’s history; as such, they represent significant cultural observance.

American culture can be interpreted as being largely based on Western culture and British culture, with influences from the native peoples, Africans brought to the U.S. as slaves, and to a lesser extent other more recent immigrants from Asia and elsewhere. Additionally, due to its large size and the value placed on individualism, there are many integrated but unique subcultures within the U.S.

Attitudes
The formative years of the United States were the late 18th century when the country was founded, and a great deal of U.S. culture is couched in the ideals of The Enlightenment. The Declaration’s mission statement about securing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; French revolution’s ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity; and the national motto of E pluribus unum (”From many, one”) reflect the country’s values and social development. Another primary influence on American culture is the constant stream of new immigrants, many of whom had fled persecution or oppression in their home countries, and were seeking freedom (including religious freedom) and economic opportunity, leading them to reject totalitarian practices.

By and large, Americans value the ideals of individual liberty, individualism, self-sufficiency, altruism, equality, Judeo-Christian morals, free markets, a republican form of government, democracy, populism, pluralism, feminism, and patriotism. (Americans often believe that their patriotism has nuances that differentiate it from nationalism and nationalism’s negative connotations.)

Society and economic attitudes
There is a close relationship between America’s political and economic traditions: that the individual pursuit of self-interest leads to the best result both for the individual and for society as a whole, is believed to be a successful formula for both economic success and optimal political function. An effect of this can be seen by the fact that while the United States government is not the most generous donor of international aid, Americans are by far the most generous in terms of individual charitable contributions. The precise amount of individual economic freedom that Americans should have is often debated, with the (usually slight) differences in opinion marking the major differences between political parties. The end result, however, is that the U.S. economy has become the largest on earth, with most of its citizens enjoying comparatively high living standards.

The fact that the United States is the largest English-speaking marketplace allows firms to compete across the country and to enjoy economies of scale (cost reductions that arise from the huge scale of manufacturing) that reduce prices and benefit consumers. The relatively uniform commercial culture–with many large stores or “chains” operating nationwide–produces a commercial atmosphere that is relatively homogeneous throughout the country.

The population of the United States tends to be centered in large cities, in marked contrast to the demographics of a century ago, when the country was quite agrarian.

The United States is generally skeptical or hostile toward socialist and communist ideologies, but some of the related movements, such as the labor movement, became a defining part of America’s heritage after the New Deal. The country was less affected by socialist ideas in the 20th century than was Europe, and the McCarthy Era and the Cold War as a whole demonstrated a deeply felt hostility to communism, which, especially at that time, was perceived as anti-individualist, undemocratic, and essentially anti-American. They are also evidenced in aspects of social policy (for example, the absence of a national health care system and the constant controversy about the size and role of the government, especially the federal government, in individuals’ lives and in states’ laws).

The American tradition of free-market capitalism has led the populace (and their leaders) to generally accept the vicissitudes of the free market and the continuous alterations to society that a changing economy implies, although social and economic displacement are common. The result is a flexible, profit-oriented socioeconomic system.