Fabricating the Absolute Fake - Revised Edition : America in Contemporary Pop Culture America in Contemporary Pop Culture - Revised Edition

In __Fabricating the Absolute Fake__, Jaap Kooijman explores the ways people around the world interpret and attempt to reproduce “Americanness.” Tracing the ways America has been appropriated by pop culture produced outside the United States, he examines such icons as the Elvis-inspired performer Lee Towers and the Moroccan-Dutch rapper Ali B. This revised edition features a new chapter on Barack Obama’s global celebrity and an afterword on teaching American pop culture. Like the first edition, it will prove an illuminating resource for scholars of American culture and popular cultures the world over. 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 Onze wereld wordt gedomineerd door de Amerikaanse popcultuur. Fabricating the Absolute Fake onderzoekt de dynamiek van Amerikanisering aan de hand van hedendaagse films, televisieprogramma's en popsterren die reflecteren op de vraag wat het betekent om Amerikaan in een mondiale popcultuur te zijn. Jaap Kooijman analyseert zowel Amerikaanse popcultuur (Oprah Winfrey, Ally McBeal, Michael Jackson) als Nederlandse populaire cultuur (Ali B., Linda de Mol, Shouf Shouf Habibi!. Dit om te laten zien hoe wij een eigen Amerika vormen binnen een post-9/11 mondiale mediacultuur die wordt gedomineerd door de Verenigde Staten van Amerika. In plaats dat wij steeds Amerikaanser worden, hebben wij de Amerikaanse cultuur geïntegreerd in die van ons. Bovendien kan de Amerikaanse popcultuur een bindende factor zijn tussen verschillende culturele groepen binnen een vernieuwde Nederlandse identiteit When rock star Bono told Oprah Winfrey that America is an ideal that is supposed to be contagious, the talk show host was moved to tears. Such an imagined America, rather than the nation-state USA, is the topic of Fabricating the Absolute Fake. Pop and politics become intertwined, as Hollywood, television, and celebrities spread the American Dream around the world. Using concepts such as the absolute fake and karaoke Americanism, the book examines this global mediation as well as the way America is appropriated in pop culture produced outside of the USA, as demonstrated by such diverse cultural icons as the Elvis-inspired crooner Lee Towers and the Moroccan-Dutch rapper Ali B. This revised and extended edition includes a new chapter on Barack Obama and Michael Jackson as global celebrities and a new afterword on teaching American pop culture. Table of Contents Acknowledgments Additional Acknowledgments Introduction. Fabricating the Absolute Fake 1. We Are the World. America’s Dominance in Global Pop Culture 2. The Oprahification of 9/11. America as Imagined Community 3. The Desert of the Real. America as Hyperreality 4. Americans We Never Were. Dutch Pop Culture as Karaoke Americanism 5. The Dutch Dream. Americanization, Pop Culture, and National Identity 6. Yes We Can, This Is It. America and Celebrity Culture Conclusion. Let’s Make Things Better Afterword. Teaching the Absolute Fake Notes Bibliography Index

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