As the 10th season on American Idol inches nearer it got me thinking: “How the heck did we get to 10 seasons of this show anyway!?” American Idol has been praised to allowing the boy or girl next door to become a star and suggests that anyone off the street could have “star quality”.
What has really intrigued me is that Simon Cowell has been at this game far longer than even American Idol has been around. As weird as it may seem to have 9 American Idols running around the US (with the exception of the bozos who couldn’t make it, even after WINNING the show*coughRUBENSTUDDARDcough*; or who now get a thrill out of playing a played-out character in GREASE on Broadway *coughTAYLORHICKScough*), there are far fewer American Idols running around then there are Idols in spin-offs of the popular show (Insert Country Name)’s Got Talent around the world.
Before American Idol came to be, Simon Cowell created the dynasty that is now known as the Got Talent Franchise.
His company, SYCO, created the show in Britain, than created a spin-off of it here at home.
There are currently 30 countries with their own spin-off of the show.
Here are a few:
- Croatia’s “Super Talent” went live in 2009
- The Philippines’ “Pilipinas Got Talent” has been on-air every Saturday and Sunday since February 20th, 2010
- Luxembourg’s show confusingly translated into: “When You Can Do Something” (yep. I don’t get it either) began in 2009
- “La France a un Incroyable Talent” premiered in France on November 6th, 2006
- And the Arab World’s “Arab’s Got Talent” is set to premier in 2011.
The Got Talent franchise is the fastest growing international Franchise. To raise the stakes, Cowell created the show World’s Got Talent in which the winners from each country will compete against each other for a 1 million dollar cash prize. They will be judged by a panel of 6, 4 of whom are from the UK and US.
But why? What is this fascination with Western, average-quality, reality TV!? The Answer: Cultural Imperialism. Cultural Imperialism is simply when a dominant culture (like the US or UK), imposes its cultural ideals, and beliefs onto subordinate cultures. Essentially, Cultural Imperialism allows us to “Americanize” other cultures, countries, and people.
Some believe that Cultural Imperialism is a good thing. For example, Columbia professor and author of the article “In Praise of Cultural Imperialism” David Rothkopf believes that cultural imperialism is good because it allows for more globalization of our world. It rids our society of the danger of the word “foreign” because we are able to look at other countries and see similarities between us and them. Rothkopf believes that Globalization promotes integration, removes cultural barriers and that globalization is a vital step toward both a more stable world and better lives for the people in it.
Other theorists believe that Cultural Imperialism is robbing less-developed countries of their culture and individualism. Livingston White, author of the article "Reconsidering cultural imperialism theory" believes that European countries colonized southern countries in the name of "spreading" Christian civilization to the "primitive" people in other parts of the world. He believes that we should not forget that the differences in cultures make the world a rich and diverse place and that every individual of each country should have the right to express his or her own culture. He argues that a cultural uniformity would lead to the extinction of cultures and would represent a great loss.
I believe that Livingston says it best in this excerpt:
American culture is intruding on most cultures in the world, in many cases threatening their existence. Superman, Spider-man, and Batman replace local heroes; Pepsi and Coke replace local fruit drinks; and "trick or treat" begin to replace Dia de los Muertos. Perhaps more insidious, to compete with American cultural imports, local varieties and products begin to mimic American products. All the exportation of goods and information from the United States to the entire planet contributes to the exportation of the American culture.
American culture is intruding on most cultures in the world, in many cases threatening their existence. Superman, Spider-man, and Batman replace local heroes; Pepsi and Coke replace local fruit drinks; and "trick or treat" begin to replace Dia de los Muertos. Perhaps more insidious, to compete with American cultural imports, local varieties and products begin to mimic American products. All the exportation of goods and information from the United States to the entire planet contributes to the exportation of the American culture.
The Cultural Imperialism at play in the Got Talent series is beautiful. Here is a great example of a Western culture completely imposing itself on not 1 but 30 (omg) countries around the world. But how seriously should we take these spin-offs? Yes, they were a Western creation but surely there are people everywhere who sing, dance, juggle, or who have other talents. Is it possible to simply regard programs like this as pure entertainment, meant to give people around the world a release from their everyday lives? Or is Cultural Imperialism really going to be the demise of multiculturalism throughout the globe?
By: Krystle Igbo-Ogbonna
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