Since the end of the Second World War, America has exerted a considerable influence on European popular culture. According to Sabrina P. Ramet and Gordana P. Crnkovic, the editors of "Kazaaam! Splat! Ploof! The American Impact on European Popular Culture Since 1945", these impressions can be seen in areas ranging from music, television, fast food, product branding, UFO sightings, and religion. The editors compiled articles by 13 different authors, both European and American, and arranged them into two areas of concentration; Western Europe and Eastern Europe. Each author examines a different facet of European popular culture and attempts to explain how it has been affected by American cultural influences.
Despite the fact that there isn't a unifying thesis present in the book, each author does express varying degrees of concern over the dynamic power and appeal that is inherent in American culture. In the essay entitled, "Does Mickey Mouse Threaten French Culture? The French Debate about EuroDisneyland", the author, Marianne Debouzy, chronicles the problems faced by French citizens as well as state and local authorities during the opening of EuroDisney. While some of the concerns outlined were seen as an attack on French culture by American culture; EuroDisney employees are expected to bath daily and wear deodorant, much of the outrage was focused on the use of American-style free enterprise tactics in negotiating work contracts and real estate purchases. In the essay "Fear and Fascination: American Popular Culture in a Divided Germany, 1945-1968", Uta G. Poiger examines the fascination that German youths on both sides of the Iron Curtain had for American style rock and roll and the fear that this attraction engendered in German authorities. The West German government was able to use this American cultural influence to their advantage in the political and cultural battle carried out against East German communism. With the inclusion of the piece entitled "UFO's Over Russia and Eastern Europe", by one of the books editors Sabrina P. Ramet, the topics are taken from the sublime to the ridiculous. In this essay American popular culture is seen as an influencing force on UFO sightings and crop circle formations in Russia and Eastern Europe. The author constructs a thin argument in which she blames the proliferation of UFO sightings, UFO magazines, and UFO clubs on the influence of American culture, despite the fact that recorded UFO sightings in Russia go back as far as 1910.
What struck me about many of the concerns that the essayists had was that they are many of the same concerns Americans have expressed about our own culture. The French fear of the overarching power of the Disney Company is the same fear that many Americans have about the monolithic power of companies like Wal-Mart and Microsoft. Many Americans complain that television programming is banal fluff with little redemptive power. We say we want programming with meaning and significance, but as an official for Hungary's HBO was quoted as saying in Beverly James' essay "Two Cheers for the Red, White, and Blue: Hungarian Assessments of American Popular Culture", the people don't want to be enlightened, they want to be entertained. Perhaps this means that we are all much more alike than we are ready to admit. That does stand to reason if we keep in mind that the strongest influence on American culture has come from European immigrants. The book raises questions that aren't addressed but deserve to be looked at. Is all American culture nothing more than popular culture? Can America's cultural contributions be no more significant than Jerry Lewis, McDonalds, and Disneyland? The authors presented in this book would leave the reader with this impression. While the authors don't come out and say it explicitly, the reader is left with the conceit that because American culture is seen as a negative influence on European popular culture, Euro pop culture by default has more value and worth. If that is the case, then why doesn't European pop culture have as much appeal in America as American pop culture has in Europe?
This book is important in helping American readers understand the impact that their culture has had and continues to have on Eastern and Western Europe. With the exception of two of the articles, one mentioned earlier concerning UFO's in Russia and an essay written about the exploitation of Russian ?migr? artists by American children's book publishers, the book provides initial insight into some of the issues facing U.S-European relations in an increasing global age. While not intended for readers interested in an in-depth causal analysis, it does make an adequate jumping off point for further discussion. Kazaaam! Splat! Ploof! The American Impact on European Popular Culture, since 1945'
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