I read a couple of threads out there about the US and the lack of culture VS Europe and its abundance of culture. I feel I have something to say about it.
First, it should be separated between output of culture (creation, content gets out) and input of culture (consumption, content gets in).
There’s no debate about what the US brought in our human culture. I’m just thinking about music and it’s overwhelmingly a US thing since 100 years. The output volume is gigantic.
In terms of input though, the US are pretty bad and it makes sense because they’re a lot busy creating and thinking $$$. Europe is the consumption place.
I was thinking the other day that my friend and I had access to US music that was not even commercially successful in their own country at this time –94, Korn-. Thanks to a lot of passionate people in the chain, we had access almost in real time to what’s hot in California and across the world, with just one store in the suburbs of Paris.
I’m sure people didn’t have access to what’s hot in Marseille or Osaka in a store in Portland at this time.
It’s an old thing: English people were consuming US black music like crazy (that’s how the Beatles and so many others are born, playing RnB stuff they bought on 45s, excited) when all these musicians were poor if not homeless or about to die anonymously in the United States, their country. Hendrix was already a star in Europe and despite having played more than 10 years in his country, the US needed Paul McCartney’s recommendation of Jimi Hendrix band for Monterey to actually approve the talent of the most famous lefty in the world since then. Kind of pathetic.
This tells so much about what culture is about in the US: making bucks first (Zynga market valuation, so not right).
I remember reading Miles Davis biography being mad because he was unknown in his own country while he was a god in France. Same with Booker T and the MGs. Same with Quincy Jones etc. Once I had a private message on YouTube asking me: “how did you see this band ?? They’re from L.A. I’m in NYC and I’ve never seen them here ever!!”. Saw them twice in Paris, for cheap.
Europe culturally just likes anything new to consume. We had mangas almost fifteen years before they hit the US. In France the connection with what was going on culturally in Japan was as short as a few years. Without internet.
But it’s not just with culture outside of the country. When I see that the Sequoia National Park, a few hours away from L.A. is almost unknown to people in the city, my European brain doesn’t understand: these trees only grow naturally here, these are 2000 years old living organisms, there are two of the biggest trees in the world… I mean If California was in France, everybody living in L.A. would have done a trip in this forest and be bored about it. Yeah, yeah giant trees whatever…
Stax Records. Look at this fucking list of artists. The legendary studio A recorded some of the most immortal US music ever. Of course it has been destroyed:
The Stax studio was sold by the Union Planters Bank to Southside Church of God in Christ, located nearby on McLemore Avenue. Except for a brief time when it was used as a soup kitchen, it was allowed to deteriorate so it was torn down in 1989.
It’s like the UK destroyed Abbey Road Studios which started in 1931. Well, they didn’t:
At the end of 2009, the studios came under threat of sale to property developers, but the studio received historic site status from the British government in 2010 to protect it.
The US have a real problem with long term, sustain and respect keywords. They are too busy creating and successfully exporting entertainment –a big part of culture- while ignoring a bit too much everything else including local things that don’t make a shitload of money. During that time in Europe the creative success is usually weak, unsupported and doesn’t go much further than its own national borders while if you haven’t seen this super weird and obscure movie from New Zealand that just got out you totally suck. And if you don’t know some US trash TV or don’t listen to that 3 month old Canadian indie electro rock band you suck even more. This cultural elitism is so poisoning sometimes.
To conclude, both world are unbalanced.