Analysing Globalisation of Popular Culture in CMNS 250 Essay

This essay delves into the complex phenomenon of the globalisation of popular culture, examining its origins, evolution, and far-reaching effects. It explores the dominant role of American pop culture in shaping global trends, from movies and music to fashion and consumer goods. The essay analyzes the impact of this cultural exchange through various structural levels, including pre-structural, uni-structural, and multi-structural perspectives. A key element is the analysis of ethical designer Katherine Hamnett's work, which is used as a case study to illustrate the essay's themes. The discussion covers the spread of cultural products, the influence of Western traditions, and the challenges faced by local industries. The essay also highlights the impact of television shows, social media, and the rise of celebrity culture in shaping global tastes and values. Ultimately, it concludes that the globalisation of popular culture has significantly influenced the world's cultures.

Running head: GLOBALISATION OF POPULAR CULTURE
Globalisation of Popular Culture
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Introduction:
During the age of globalisation , the most popular among all had been the globalisation of
the culture. The American “Pop Culture” gains the most amount of attention thus shaking the
people from the core. The pop culture is nothing but the popular culture which had been an effect
of the globalisation, worldwide, even though it is considered as Americanisation (Kasiyamo).
The states of United States had played the greatest role in producing the goods of popular
culture. These included movies, the television shows, the newspapers, music, the fast food,
consumer products such as clothing and the different types of consumer goods. The following
essay aims to discuss the popularisation of the pop culture with the analysis of the company of
Katherine Hamnett, an ethical designer, who in the year of 1979 had brought her own label in the
international market. Her designed clothes following the path of the pop culture will be analysed
through the five different structural levels which include the pre-structural level, the uni-
structural level, multi-structural, the relational and the critical level.
Discussion:
If the pre- structural level is analysed, kit can be seen that the Globalisation of the pop
culture enabled a large number of industries to make the American cultural product public, and
distribute them to the people of the nation. According to Koojiman, one of the biggest trend of
1980s had been the over sized T-Shirts designed by the UK designer Katherine Hamnett which
contained large slogans written in block letters. This had been evident when the celebrity Roget
Taylor of Queen wore a shirt with the slogan of “Worldwide Nuclear Ban Now” (Crane,
Kawashima and Kawasaki). This became hugely popular in the Rio festival with the first

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emergence of Rock music in Brazil. This had slowly turned into a worldwide popularity as the
trend was an expression of what the people feel. Also there had been the popularity of the
cosplay costumes which had first started in California. This began to offer people the readymade
cosplay costumes and other accessories such as wigs. The costumes had been designed based on
the comic books and the Disney films. Moreover, there had been the introduction of anime and
video games too in the costumes. These items also became hugely accepted by the newer
generation and the items used to be sold at more than 100 dollars or even more (Beeton). The
price of the items used to go up based on the commission request of the products. The people
began to buy more of these costumes as they had been the replica items made by the tailors and
targeted the audience who had been fans of the comic series r the films.
According to Crane, if the uni – structural level is considered, the globalisation of the pop
culture had come with an emergence of the popularity of the western traditions and the fashions.
There had been popularisation of clothes, which had increased the contact between the ordinary
people as they began to bond with each other culturally. In the year of 1984, there had been a
design of a series of T Shirts which said “Frankie Says”. Also as per the discussion of Crothers,
the people began to culturally connect to one another since this slogan used to promote the
culture of Frank. This kind of shirts had been designed by Paul Morley, the founder of ZTT
Records. The T-Shirts which used to say “Frankie Says No War!”, had become very popular at
that time, along with the T-Shirts which said “Frankie Says Relax”. The Slogan T-Shirts had
gained a huge popularity during the period of renaissance. Kasiyarno further discusses that these
kind of clothes used to be very popular among the newer generation, and one such example had
been the series of the T-shirts released by the House of Holland. These had taken the control of
the market during the mid 2000s and had been a huge competition to the other fashion industries.

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The slogans used to be painted with neon colours which attracted those people top a great extent.
The slogans use to be “Do Me Daily Christopher Bailey”, and also “Flick Yer Bean For Agyness
Dean” (Cleveland et.al.). This had greatly influenced the fashion of the western people
popularising the culture of the then times.
As per the statement of Nayak, the United States had popularised this pop culture to a
great extent and connected the entire world to this culture. The produce of the popular cultural
goods used to globalise the pop culture through different kinds of television shows, movies ,
music and also the newspapers (Rabine). There had been the television show “F.R.I.E.N.D.S”,
which popularised the western tradition. It had brought together a huge number of fans as they
had been gathering in the studio Central Perk, a coffee shop which had been the main shooting
place of the Television show. Medina, Carmen and Wohlwend also state that many of the people
used to connect with one another, by talking and discussing about the episodes of the show,
along with waiting for long hour in the coffee shop to have a free coffee. The real central Perk
couch had been a popular item during that time, which even continues today. The whole world is
a fan of the characters of the television show, and also the way the western culture had been
portrayed through it. In accordance with this, there is another example of the FemPop (Crane,
Kawashima and Kawasaki). It had been a culture based blog, which had been first started by the
journalist Alex Cranz. The blog gradually turned to be a very popular Web Magazine since it
dealt with the feminism and the main stream media. Crane also states that there had been the
weekly podcasts, various other Television shows which used to talk about the then culture and
bright out the issues that the generation had been facing. Talking of the feminism had made the
blog quite famous and this had been a great contribution in the popularising the pop culture
(Clebeland et.al.).

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The greatest effect of globalisation of the pop culture had been the overtaking of the
industries of the other nations. The younger generation got more influenced by the pop culture
that it had been a great concern for the cultural industries of other nations. As per the discussion
of Medina, Carmen and Wohlwend, the popular television shows and the web series such as the
“Game of Thrones”, the “Breaking Bad”, or the “Big Bang Theory”, not only attracted the
younger generation to the western culture, but there also had been an influx of the consumer
goods with such themes in the market of the other nations. Nayak also discusses that the cultural
goods of the nations started having a back gear, and the business had an increase of the apparel
items, phone cases and covers, the key chains or even the wall arts based on these television
shows. This had not only resulted in a decline of the cultural economy of the nations, but also
influenced different other entrepreneurs to build their business from this pop culture art (Crane,
Kawashima and Kawasaki). Due to the import and export of such cultural goods, there has been
an increased threat to the industry of the nation. One of the evidence that supports this statement
is the products of “The Body Shop”. Also according to Crane, Kawashima and Kawasaki , more
than 65 percent of the company’s products used to be commercialised and traded to the other
countries, where the people sought to the use of these products leaving behind the products of
their own nation (Crothers). They had a huge contribution in making the products more organic
and green which attracted the entire world and thus threatened the other skincare companies of
the different nations (Koojiman).
The knowledge of the famous pop culture of America had an influence over the other
cultures of the world and acted as an instrument of cultural changes in the other countries. As per
the statement of Crane, the television shows had a major role to play in this, one such instance is
the television show of “Keeping up with the Karsashians.” This Television show depicted the

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manners and the ways in which the Kardashian family used to live (Beeton). The show gradually
brought the entire world together and became internationally famous. The families of the other
nations began to get influenced by the stark representation of the American lifestyle and its
glamour (Scriven). Slowly the people all across the world started to practise such kind of
lifestyle in their families. The television show also had an influence over the rise of the
celebrities who used to take up the tradition just to become famous. According to Cleveland, the
music industry of United States, along with the catalogues and the magazines had a great role to
play in the change of the cultures (Geczy). They actually taught the world how to dress up and
how to be beautiful. For instance, the girls who were the age of twelve started wearing mini
skirts and began to imitate Britney Spears, the famous artist. Also as per the statement if
Medina , Carmen and Wohlwend, on Opera. A show depicted the girls who were of the age
group of ten to thirteen and were dressed up like the Spice Girls. They wore a tube top and a
minis skirt. Thus the pop culture depicted the women in a very attractive look which allured the
females all across the world thus bringing about a change in their cultures (Haenfler).
Conclusion
Thus from the above discussion it can be concluded that the globalisation of the pop
culture had not only an influence upon the cultures of the world but also attracted a huge number
of youth to the field. The globalisation of this popular culture acted as a threatened a competition
to the other companies of the world because the American companies played a great role in
distributing the goods and products based on this popular culture and tradition. Thus this culture
gradually attained a huge global influence, through the portrayal of the culture through the

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movies, the music shows, the television programs, the newspapers as well as the apparels and
clothing.

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(2016): 1090-1102.
Crane, Diana, Nobuko Kawashima, and Ken'ichi Kawasaki. "Culture and globalization
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Crothers, Lane. Globalization and American popular culture. Rowman & Littlefield, 2017.
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