Fabricating the absolute fake: America in contemporary pop culture

Monografie | Monograph

The pageantry of Oprah Winfrey's talk show, the Coca-Cola empire, Michael Jackson's turn from the King of Pop into an iconic global recluse: American pop culture - Hollywood cinema, television, pop music - dominates the rest of the world through its hegemonic presence. Does that make everyone a hybridized American, or do these elements find mediation within the other cultures that consume them? Fabricating the Absolute Fake applies concepts of postmodern theory - Baudrillard's hyperreality and Eco's "absolute fake," among others - to this globally mediated American pop culture in order to examine both the phenomenon itself and its appropriation in the Netherlands, as evidenced by such diverse cultural icons as the Elvis-inspired crooner Lee Towers, the Moroccan-Dutch rapper Ali B, musical tributes to an assassinated politician, and the Dutch reality soap opera scene. A fascinating exploration of how global cultures struggle to create their own "America" within a post-9/11 media culture, Fabricating the Absolute Fake reflects on what it might mean to truly take part in American pop culture.

Object Details

• ISBN: 978-90-5356-492-9
• Extent: Seite(n): 184
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Status: Veröffentlichungsversion; begutachtet (peer reviewed)

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: American Studies

Classification and Topics

• Subject: Philosophie ; Soziologie, Anthropologie ; Kultursoziologie, Kunstsoziologie, Literatursoziologie ; sonstige Geisteswissenschaften ; Nordamerika ; USA ; Popkultur ; Gegenwart ; Kunst ; Medienkultur ; Amerikanisierung ; kulturelles Verhalten ; Identität ; Niederlande

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Kooijman, Jaap
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Amsterdam Univ. Press
• (where): Niederlande, Amsterdam
• (when): 2008

Further information

• URN: urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-318138
• Rights: GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften. Bibliothek Köln
• Last update: 21.06.2024, 4:27 PM CEST