1、 1 / 35American CultureThe culture of the United States is primarily a Western culture, but is also influenced by Native American, African, Asian, Polynesian, and Latin American cultures. American culture started its formation over 10,000 years ago with the migration of Paleo-Indians from Asia into
2、the region that is today the continental United States. It has its own unique social and cultural characteristics such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, cuisine, and folklore. The United States of America is an ethnically and racially diverse country as a result of large-scale immigration from
3、 many different countries throughout its history.Its chief early European influences came from English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish settlers of colonial America during British rule. British culture, due to colonial ties with Britain that spread the English language, legal system and other cultural inh
4、eritances, had a formative influence. Other important influences came from other parts of western Europe, especially Germany, France, and Italy.Original elements also play a strong role, such as the invention of Jeffersonian democracy. Thomas Jeffersons Notes on the State of Virginia was perhaps the
5、 first influential domestic cultural critique by an American and a reactionary piece to the prevailing European consensus that Americas domestic originality was degenerate. Prevalent ideas and ideals that evolved domestically, such as national holidays, uniquely American sports, military tradition,
6、and innovations in the arts and entertainment give a strong sense of national pride among the population as a whole. American culture includes both conservative and liberal elements, scientific and religious competitiveness, political structures, risk taking and free expression, materialist and mora
7、l elements. Despite certain consistent ideological principles (e.g. individualism, egalitarianism, and faith in freedom and democracy), American culture has a variety of expressions due to its geographical scale and demographic diversity. The flexibility of U.S. culture and its highly symbolic natur
8、e lead some researchers to categorize American culture as a mythic identity; others see it as American exceptionalism.It also includes elements that evolved from Indigenous Americans, and other ethnic culturesmost prominently the culture of African Americans, cultures from Latin America, and Asian A
9、merican cultures. Many American cultural elements, especially from popular culture, have spread across the globe through modern mass media.The United States has often been thought of as a melting pot, but beginning in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it trends towards cultural diversity, pluralism an
10、d the image of a salad bowl instead. Due to the extent of American culture, there are many integrated but unique social subcultures within the United States. The cultural affiliations an individual in the United States may have commonly depend on social class, political orientation and a multitude o
11、f demographic characteristics such as religious background, occupation and ethnic group membership.Regional variationsSemi-distinct cultural regions of the United States include New England, the Mid-Atlantic states, the Southern United States, the Midwestern United States and the Western United Stat
12、es-an area that can be further subdivided, on the basis of the local culture into the Pacific States and the Mountain States.The western coast of the continental U.S. consisting of California, Oregon, and the state of Washington is also sometimes referred to as the Left Coast, indicating its left-le
13、aning political orientation and tendency towards liberal norms, folkways and values.Southern United States are informally called “the Bible Belt“ due to socially conservative evangelical Protestantism, which is a significant part of the regions culture and Christian church attendance across the deno
14、minations is generally higher there than the nations average. This region is usually contrasted with the mainline Protestantism and Catholicism of the northeastern United States, the religiously diverse Midwest and Great Lakes, the Mormon Corridor in Utah and southern Idaho, and the relatively secul
15、ar western United States. The percentage of non-religious people is the highest in the northeastern state of Vermont at 34%, compared to the Bible Belt state of 2 / 35Alabama, where it is 6%. Strong cultural differences have a long history in the U.S. with the southern slave society in the antebellu
16、m period serving as a prime example. Not only social, but also economic tensions between the Northern and Southern states were so severe that they eventually caused the South to declare itself an independent nation, the Confederate States of America; thus initiating the American Civil War.Music of t
17、he United StatesThe music of the United States reflects the countrys multi-ethnic population through a diverse array of styles. Among the countrys most internationally-renowned genres are hip hop, blues, country, rhythm and blues, jazz, barbershop, pop, techno, and rock and roll. After Japan, the Un
18、ited States has the worlds second largest music market with a total retail value of 3,635.2 million dollars in 2010 and its music is heard around the world. Since the beginning of the 20th century, some forms of American popular music have gained a near global audience.Native Americans were the earl
19、iest inhabitants of the land that is today known as the United States and played its first music. Beginning in the 17th century, immigrants from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Germany and France began arriving in large numbers, bringing with them new styles and instruments. African slaves broug
20、ht musical traditions, and each subsequent wave of immigrants contributed to a melting pot.Much of modern popular music can trace its roots to the emergence in the late 19th century of African American blues and the growth of gospel music in the 1920s. The African American basis for popular music us
21、ed elements derived from European and indigenous musics. The United States has also seen documented folk music and recorded popular music produced in the ethnic styles of the Ukrainian, Irish, Scottish, Polish, Hispanic and Jewish communities, among others.Many American cities and towns have vibrant
22、 music scenes which, in turn, support a number of regional musical styles. Along with musical centers such as Philadelphia, Seattle, New York City, San Francisco, New Orleans, Detroit, Minneapolis, Chicago, Atlanta, Nashville, Austin, and Los Angeles, many smaller cities such as Asbury Park, New Jer
23、sey have produced distinctive styles of music. The Cajun and Creole traditions in Louisiana music, the folk and popular styles of Hawaiian music, and the bluegrass and old time music of the Southeastern states are a few examples of diversity in American music.CharacteristicsThe music of the United S
24、tates can be characterized by the use of syncopation and asymmetrical rhythms, long, irregular melodies, which are said to “reflect the wide open geography of (the American landscape)“ and the “sense of personal freedom characteristic of American life“. Some distinct aspects of American music, like
25、the call-and-response format, are derived from African techniques and instruments.Throughout the later part of American history, and into modern times, the relationship between American and European music has been a discussed topic among scholars of American music. Some have urged for the adoption o
26、f more purely European techniques and styles, which are sometimes perceived as more refined or elegant, while others have pushed for a sense of musical nationalism that celebrates distinctively American styles. Modern classical music scholar John Warthen Struble has contrasted American and European,
27、 concluding that the music of the United States is inherently distinct because the United States has not had centuries of musical evolution as a nation. Instead, the music of the United States is that of dozens or hundreds of indigenous and immigrant groups, all of which developed largely in regiona
28、l isolation until the American Civil War, when people from across the country were brought together in army units, trading musical styles and practices. Struble deemed the ballads of the Civil War “the first American folk music with discernible features that can be considered unique to America: the
29、first American sounding music, as distinct from any regional style derived from another country.“The Civil War, and the period following it, saw a general flowering of American art, literature and music. Amateur 3 / 35musical ensembles of this era can be seen as the birth of American popular music.
30、Music author David Ewen describes these early amateur bands as combining “the depth and drama of the classics with undemanding technique, eschewing complexity in favor of direct expression. If it was vocal music, the words would be in English, despite the snobs who declared English an unsingable lan
31、guage. In a way, it was part of the entire awakening of America that happened after the Civil War, a time in which American painters, writers and serious composers addressed specifically American themes.“ During this period the roots of blues, gospel, jazz and country music took shape; in the 20th c
32、entury, these became the core of American popular music, which further evolved into the styles like rhythm and blues, rock and roll and hip hop music.Social identityMusic intertwines with aspects of American social and cultural identity, including through social class, race and ethnicity, geography,
33、 religion, language, gender and sexuality. The relationship between music and race is perhaps the most potent determiner of musical meaning in the United States. The development of an African American musical identity, out of disparate sources from Africa and Europe, has been a constant theme in the
34、 music history of the United States. Little documentation exists of colonial-era African American music, when styles, songs and instruments from across West Africa commingled in the melting pot of slavery. By the mid-19th century, a distinctly African American folk tradition was well-known and wides
35、pread, and African American musical techniques, instruments and images became a part of mainstream American music through spirituals, minstrel shows and slave songs. African American musical styles became an integral part of American popular music through blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, and then rock
36、 and roll, soul and hip hop; all of these styles were consumed by Americans of all races, but were created in African American styles and idioms before eventually becoming common in performance and consumption across racial lines. In contrast, country music derives from both African and European, as
37、 well as Native American and Hawaiian, traditions and yet has long been perceived as a form of white music.Economic and social class separates American music through the creation and consumption of music, such as the upper-class patronage of symphony-goers, and the generally poor performers of rural
38、 and ethnic folk musics. Musical divisions based on class are not absolute, however, and are sometimes as much perceived as actual; popular American country music, for example, is a commercial genre designed to “appeal to a working-class identity, whether or not its listeners are actually working cl
39、ass“. Country music is also intertwined with geographic identity, and is specifically rural in origin and function; other genres, like R these include gangsta rap and heavy metal.Rock, metal and punkRock and roll developed out of country, blues, and R the first major American bands came in the early
40、 1970s, like Blue yster Cult, KISS and Aerosmith. Heavy metal remained, however, a largely underground phenomenon. During the 1980s the first major pop-metal style arose and dominated the charts for several years kicked off by metal act Quiet Riot and dominated by bands such as Mtley Cre and Ratt; t
41、his was glam metal, a hard rock and pop fusion with a raucous spirit and a glam-influenced visual aesthetic. Some of these bands, like Bon Jovi, became international stars. The band Guns N Roses rose to fame near the end of the decade with an image that was a reaction against the glam metal aestheti
42、c.By the mid-1980s heavy metal had branched in so many different directions that fans, record companies, and fanzines created numerous subgenres. The United States was especially known for one of these subgenres, thrash metal, which was innovated by bands like Anthrax, Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer
43、, with Metallica being the most commercially successful. The United States was known as one of the birthplaces of Death Metal during the mid to late 1980s. The Florida scene was the most well-known, featuring bands like Death, Morbid Angel, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, Malevolent Creation, Obituary and
44、 many others. There are now countless death metal and deathgrind bands across the country.Television channels and networksIn the United States television is available via broadcast (“over-the-air“), unencrypted satellite (“free-to-air“), direct broadcast satellite, cable television, and IPTV (intern
45、et protocol television).Over-the-air and free-to-air TV is free with no monthly payments while cable, direct broadcast satellite, and IPTV require a monthly payment that varies depending on how many channels a subscriber chooses to pay for. Channels are usually sold in groups, rather than singly.Bro
46、adcast televisionThe United States has a decentralized, market-oriented television system. The United States has a national public broadcast service known as the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Local media markets have their own television stations, which may be affiliated with or owned and opera
47、ted by a TV network. Stations may sign affiliation agreements with one of the national networks. Except in very small markets with few stations, affiliation agreements are usually exclusive: If a station is an NBC affiliate, the station would not air programs from ABC, CBS or other networks.However,
48、 to ensure local presences in television broadcasting, federal law restricts the amount of network programming local stations can run. Until the 1970s and 80s, local stations supplemented network programming with a good deal of their own produced shows. Today, however, many stations produce only loc
49、al news shows. 6 / 35They fill the rest of their schedule with syndicated shows, or material produced independently and sold to individual stations in each local market.Major broadcast networksThe five major U.S. networks are NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and The CW. The first three began as radio networks: NBC and CBS in the 1920s, and ABC was spun off from NBC in 1943. Fox is a relative newcomer that began in 1986, although it is built upon the remnants of the former DuMont Television Network, which was an earlier “fourth network“ that operated from 1948 to 1956. The CW was created i
