Kristýna Vytejčková 4. D
Cultural life
The turn of the century brought new technology of mass communications: motion pictures,
the phonograph, radio and television. The audience for stories and music and theatre increased
in size. People in San Francisco or elsewhere could watch the latest pictures or hear the least
music.
Cultural life was directed to all men and women. It did not mean that the new machines
produced new ideals, but that they made the old dreams suddenly possible. Much American
art and at the turn of the century and trough the 1920´s, praised the power of the new
technology. By the mid 20th century, many people thought that the control of culture had
fallen into the hands of advertisers who used culture just to make money. The fact was that
culture had become too easy.
As so consequence, many intellectuals and artists at the end of World War II began to try to
construct more difficult kinds of culture. Difficult art emerged in New York City. During
World War II many avant-grade artists escaped in fear of Adolf´s Hiter´s Europe. They
imported many of the ideals of the European avant-garde. It is a paradox that Europeans had
often looked to American mass culture for inspiration. In the United States the avant-garde art
became a way for artists an intellectuals to isolate themselves from shallow culture.
And so in the 1960´s there were two different coexisting worlds: the public world of popular
culture and the private world of modern art. These two separate cultural worlds have begun to
influence each other as ca be seen in the modern art of today.
American culture has given many outstanding writers, filmmakers, and musicians to the
world. The country´s 19th century literature was dominated by such names as Mark Twain,
Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, and Henry James. Among the great
American writers of the 20th century have been Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John
Steinbeck, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, the dramatists Eugene O´Neill and Tennessee Williams,
and the poets Ezra Pound, T.S Eliot, and Robert Frost.
One of the most popular and internationally influential art forms has been the motion picture.
American filmmakers such as Charlie Chaplin, Howard Hawks, Orson Welles, Frank Capra,
John Ford, John Huston, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg gained world renown for
cinematic artistry.
The country has developed several distinctive and highly influential types of popular music:
jazz, blues, country and western, and rock and roll. The most important performers have
included Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellinghton, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane in jazz,
Muddy Walters in blues, Hank Williams in country and western, and Elvis Presley in rock and
roll.
America and Americans
What do we really know about Americans? Do we really know so much as we think? Can we
really judge by media and films? Are they able to say us so much about real mentality of
ordinary
human
being?
From all that films we can have a view that American people don’t do anything but watch TV,
do enormous shopping and visit concerts of Breatny Spears. But is it really so?
It’s true that media and Hollywood can’t give us actual view of American society but it could
help
us
to
have
a
little
bit
brighter
picture
of
life
there.
We know that life in the USA is quite hectic and very fast. It is a country of antinomy. There
are a lot of very rich and very poor people. There is no time to relax for workaholics who
have stress and other part of people have a lot of time because they are not used to work.
The whole world takes over American ideals of everything. You can see it everywhere: on
TV, on billboards, in newspapers, journals, style of dressing and so on.
If it’s a tradition to wear black suits in America, so in a few weeks the whole Europe and then
also Asia will wear this trend. But it is not only about ideals and values, it is also about money
and money can do a mega star from everyone who is a little bit able or capable. The best
example is that of young pop stars who are nearly unable to sing without payback and all their
fame
is
about
rich
wardrobe
and
a
lot
of
scandals.
When people talk about modern life, they often use the words consumer society. It is a
society, where goods have bigger account than other things. It is connected with comfortable
life and we want to have life more and more comfortable and it’s the reason why we buy all
that machines, why we do the shopping in bigger and cheaper supermarkets, where we can
buy
everything
under
one
roof.
As I have mentioned before, films and especially American films have a big influence on
people who watch them: young boys and sometimes also girls. They like that typical heroes as
Arnold Schwarzenneger, Van Dame and so on. I’m not a big fun of this kind of films, so I
don’t know what people like about that people and heroes. I’m fascinated even by the fact that
they are able to fight about 3 hours and after it they have not injury. I like only one American
series - Ally McBeal and I like watching this quite witty series.
The biggest producer of films is Hollywood. We can see every week about 2-3 new American
films,
which
are
often
well
done.
American music aseptically pop music makes about 90 % of all music industry in the world.
It is well known that the USA has a big problem with violence. There is well known Mafia
and policemen are not able to solve all the problems. Every day there are a lot of killed
mugged people. This is one of the reasons why a lot of people are afraid to go out in the
evening and at night. Perhaps all this crime is caused by big differences between rich and poor
people. The other reason could be a big variety of nations who have to live together.
Not only from films we know the expression “ An American dream”. And what is it? We can
know it from the film “Pretty woman”. But American dream is not only about prostitutes and
rich businessmen. It is quite indefinite approach. But on the whole I think that it is about one’s
biggest dreams and the way they come true. Very often the dreams are about big happiness
and much money. Because America is the country of dreams which {sometimes} come true.