Food and Music: Global American Culture
Who here loves food?
I hope you love all kinds of food because I’m about to talk about some that may divide people on whether or not they have culinary merits, just like when people feel divided on the artistic merits of pop music.
Fancy Big Mac -McSteak & Potatoes – via FancyFastFood.com
While reading discussions on films and music on blogs and other communities there’s always someone who brings up sales and availability of American films or music, stating that because they have bigger sales, more people watch/listen to them and are more known American films and music are immediately better.
Hello there, fast food restaurants around the globe.
I suspect most visiting the site have at least gotten fast food once in their lifetime, just like we’ve heard at least one pop song in our lives. Whether you like the genre — or type of food — is irrelevant. It exists to be consumed. Fast food chains have populated the world and propagated almost everywhere where there are amounts of people. They sell tons of eatable junk and they make good business out of it.
Does that mean American fast food restaurants are better?
We can easily argue that fast food worldwide — home grown fast food restaurants that sprung up after American chains arrived in other places — are heavily influenced by American service and chains. But there’s nothing better than fast food that takes on a regional flavor. There’s even the incredible KFC story in China — Chinese KFC is like nothing you’ve ever tasted.
While McDonald’s restaurants in China mostly sell the same U.S.-style burgers, KFC’s menu features dishes that would be un- recognizable to its patrons in the U.S. Alongside the Colonel’s ”secret recipe” fried chicken, Chinese KFCs also offer options such as the Dragon Twister, a chicken wrap in a Peking duck-type sauce, and spicy tofu chicken rice based on the cuisine of Sichuan province, home of China’s hottest dishes.
Dragon Twister – Bloomberg.com
That fancy big mac looks fucking disgusting. Sorry. But I find little to like in the American culinary, if that means anything with the American pop scene.
@ghost, I always thought that junk food outside the US or Canada (maybe not Canadian spinach chicken pizza xD) was tastier hahaha – I can vouch for Chinese junk food – the spicy McDonalds burger in Nanjing was pretty tasty, I thought… not only American chains, but street food xD
But junk food in the US is pretty gross.
I haven’t lived in the US, so I can’t really say if real street food is good… but those NYC street food looks pretty good hahaha.
I can vouch for Vancouver fusion food, though… going from their street JapanDog, to their Japanese semi-fancy restaurants, and their Greek and Indian. Ramen, Dimsum, and market food – everyone who’s eaten in Vancouver, can vouch for it. xD
Places with people of varied nationalities always makes for the best places to eat ;) like Lima hahaha.
Ummm…take it from someone living in the States, Kpop ain’t nothing like the pop that spews from the radio over here. The simliarities lie simply in the “kind” of music made — more R&B and pop than traditional Korean, obviously. However, production value is 110% more impressive. Lyrically, writing is more poetic — depending on metaphors and intelligent imagery than bs about being in love in the club. By virtue of the culture the music is drastically different.
Most who would say that Kpop is unoriginal (when compared to Jpop, I guess) are those who either have a bias or don’t understand the intricacies of pop music anyway. You don’t have to like a genre, but by virtue that means you know very little about it because you don’t want to put the time in to listen to it…which is COMPLETELY fair. But in that respect you shouldn’t comment on it.
Jpop has its fair share of similarities to American music, but again the culture informs the obvious differences.
Anyway, I’m done. I just have a hard time dealing with people who close their minds to the possibility of something without actually consdering it. I know that’s completely unrealistic. But don’t comment on something you know nothing about.
All that to say I agree with your article…HaHa.