I assume it’s largely due to stuff such as their stinking rich economy before WW1, first language being english, population size, propaganda etc. but I’ve never seen a succinct explanation as to how the country basically became the absolute cultural giants they are today.
You basically cannot escape the USA and their influence everywhere you go, and in a sense they have overtaken us over here in the UK in terms of cultural relevance. Why isn’t this the case for other English speaking countries such as Australia and Canada?
Edit: Using the term ‘In a sense’ has riled up quite a few people. Yes, the USA is definitely far more culturally relevant than the UK nowadays.
Second Edit: Thank you all for your replies! I’ve learned quite a lot tonight 🙂
In: Other
A lot of it was timing. Europe fought WW I and II and the outcome was that the english empire fell and India gained independence. Among other things it left english as a language that people knew. It also left a leadershiprole for the taking.
Some of it was the fact that US is very large and united under 1 banner, meaning that it could get advantages of democracy and cooperation and apply those to a vast area. It gave momentum to projects such as the railroad, radio and the car. USA was more liquid than other places on this earth, had more land ready for things such as Las Vegas, for building large factories and industrializing. Europe and other places alreaddy had houses on every hill and a small organic growth going on.
Beatles was a good example of how the english language had the potentiial to reach out and how modern US got momentum handed over from UK.
This paired with technology reaching a point where it could reach out over large distances. People sat tightly packed to watch the westerns. People heard a lot of stories from USA.
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