yep rude boy – i said invented or hugely influential
1. the television we watch: Good Lord, seriously? yep. Not necessarily speaking about the content more the technology. (although there have been classic US programs, films, cartoons that have graced our TVs over the years) US were hugely influential in development of television technology and without their investment the adoption of television would have been years later. satellite? Cable? Again without US influence…..
2. the telephone we use: Think that was a transatlantic development, but granted, they spent loads of money on it. Without the investment of US firms, again would it’s adoption been much later?
3. the ipod: MP3 more a collaboration between scientists globally; iPod designed by Jonathan Ive; British bloke.- a british bloke who couldn’t raise £60k to finance it? Again US company, US investment.
4. the music we listen to: A fair amount, of ‘Pop’ music, certainly. Again the history and origins of rock/pop music could be debated- did it all not originate from Celtic folk music? But general consensus is black slaves started playing Celtic Folk music in different key and slower beat adding their own lryics which became known as R&B. This was then stole back by whites such as Elvis and became Rock & Roll, then brit rock then pop. The rest is history. Also, Jazz and stuff. but I listen to all sorts, including Classical, Reggae (is that not based on Ska that is based on R&B & Jazz?) techno (admittedly Kraftwerk and New Order can be seen as the early innovators however without the influence of disco, funk, gay, chicago house movement that evolved into acid house who knows would we have techno music?), which are mainly not from the US.
5. cinema/movies: Bollywood is actually more prolific, and the films are seen by audinences as large as, if not bigger. And Hollywood may churn out quantity, but not necessarily quality. But I’ll give you, the US has probably done more to advance the medium.
6 the internet: Fair enough! Although again, a collaboration of scientists/engineers worldwide.
7. extreme sports: most of the winter ones were developed in Europe, XC MTB is a development of Cyclo-Cross, Parascending, Base-Jumping, Bunjee jumping etc are all European too. The US, through TV, has popularised many of these sports, however.My point
8. computing technology: early developments were made in Britain and Europe (see Charles Babbage, and I think the Japanese might have someting to say about the development of technology. US has been successful in marketing OS’s, though. again without US companies such as Cisco, IBM, Dell, Compaq, HP, Lucent, Microsoft, Apple and the supporting EMS industry where would computing be?
9. denim: Fair enough.
10. beef jerky: Preserving beef/meat in this manner has existed for thousands of years, all over the World. I only put this one in cause i couldn’t think of a tenth 😳
So. Not wishing to discount the enormous impact the US has undoubtedly made on global culture, society, industry and technology, a lot of claims of ‘Americans invented all stuff’ is simply not true. I’ve heard Americans claim that their country invented the TV, the Bicycle, the Car, the Camera and numerous other things. Myths perpetuated by their enormous media systems, and basic ignorance of actual facts.
They are good at taking others ideas, developing them, then passing them off as their own. I’ll give them that. as the japanese. Maybe the Euro’s are good at inventing stuff & there’s a lot I dislike about US politics, economics, world police, arrogance etc but i think sometimes we find it difficult to give the US credit where credit is due.
No pictures of my DT50 or Italjet that I had before this