Australia, the next American state? Nah bro…

NB: Before I begin, I’d like to say that this post is just another case of me observing things the way they are and asking “why?” In no way is this intended to be a stab at someone or personal attack and I apologise beforehand if people perceive it to be, it is based on my opinion and observations alone. Feel free to post your opinions and whether you agree/disagree. Let’s begin my massive rant…

Now, I’m sure you’ve all heard people (the news in particular) talk about it before by asking the question “Why is our nation losing its identity and becoming overrun with American pop-culture?” The reasons never really occurred to me until a few days ago and I decided to look into it, seriously, what the heck is going on?

So today, (9^th July) I was kinda bored at home and searched through imdb.com for movies that I’m looking forward to watching. The list went through The Forbidden Kingdom, The Dark Knight, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and finally I got to The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (TotDE). Reading through TotDE, I had a look at the boards and read a bit of the reviews to see if this movie was actually worth spending my money on. Turns out that this movie is probably best left untouched because of the acting and rapport between actors, particularly between Brendan Fraser with his on-screen son Luke Ford.

For those of you that hadn’t looked into him (like myself) Luke Ford is an Australian actor that has been in well known Aussie shows such as McLeod’s Daughters, All Saints, Stingers, Home and Away and Water Rats. As I am a curious bastard, I looked into these shows to see how the internet saw Australian TV shows as of late. To my amusement, McLeod’s Daughters was rated a measly 3.4/10; even the Power Rangers has a better score than them. Though in the defence of the latter, Power Rangers DOES rock, just not lately. It’s not just McLeod’s Daughters; shows such as Home and Away, Neighbours and All Saints (the best of the lot) struggle to score 6.4/10 on imdb.com. Now, I know the problem with relying on just one source for making this rant, but let me ask this; when have you ever heard of a large percentage of American’s wanting to be surrounded by and indulge in our culture/way of life? Hardly ever; you do get the occasional ego-trip of the news asking American superstars about our great nation, but other than that you hardly ever see much regarding it.

Referring back to imdb.com and its scoring of Australian shows, it has been programs that are still on today that are struggling to do better than the “above average” quality as opposed to the current American shows that have been scoring highly. Another thing I found out is that Home and Away in the past 3 years has won the Logie Award for the most popular Australian drama. 5.4/10 and this is the best drama in our country? You have GOT to be kidding me.

Next, onto music. Anyone ever notice an abundance of kids dressing up like their favourite rapper? Anyone ever notice that the favourite genre of music of most people today is RnB and Hip hop? How many people do you know like to listen to Oz Hip hop? In fact, are you able to name all the American hip hop artists/groups and then do the same for more than or even up to half that amount of Australian hip hop artists/groups? How many people do you know enjoy listening to Australian music? I don’t know many… Why is American alternative so much more liked than Australian alternative? An overwhelming majority of my friends like to listen to American based music (Facebook is a wonderful source lol). As asked by Australian Idol contest Levi Kereama back in 2003 “Name one Australian RnB song”.

The same goes for favourite movies and favourite TV shows. The numbers go into a ridiculous amount when counting the number of times I see House, Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Seinfeld, Simpsons, Family Guy, Heroes and many other American Shows. There was probably about an odd few amount of people I know that listed Chasers, Rove and Thank God you’re here. I also am yet to encounter someone I know that lists an Australian movie as one of their favourites. Actually, what ARE some well known Australian movies? Did you know that Moulin Rouge is an Australian international co-production with America? How about Babe? You get my point…

Now, I’d like to know why but obviously the answers will differ amongst different people. I’ve boiled it down to a few things and would like to know what people think.

1. Different/Experience – People are sick of the current way of life and seek exhilaration, excitement and fresh things all the time.
2. Idolisation – They like certain stars for whatever reason, looks, image, work/talent etc. These stars are big within American culture
3. Opinion – Like I mentioned before, opinions differ between people and the opinion here is that the shows are just better.
4. Image – Shallow, crude and probably insulting, but they like the image that it portrays.
5. Mass media and/or Marketing – It has better exposure than the Australian shows due to the large scale of production etc.

So before the opening question gets asked again, the media should probably ask this “what notable things have we done to make sure our national identity is preserved?" Sorry for such a long post =D