Description: American popular culture is everywhere. All over the world, kids wear Levi's, radios blare rap songs, television stations broadcast American programs, and Hollywood movies draw huge audiences. Does this massive "Americanization" of the globe represent some sinister form of cultural imperialism? Or do audiences and consumers in the importing countries accept American movies, music, and television programs because they match local trends and desires? Do receiving communities transform these products to fit their own needs, to the point where they are no longer "American" but in fact have become indigenous? And who is in charge of all of this, anyway? Is it Wall Street, Madison Avenue, the Pentagon, the CIA, or Hollywood? Is it, at least partly, local economic and political elites in the receiving countries? Or is it simply "the people" themselves? These are the questions at the heart of this book, which contains essays by 23 authors from 14 countries who cover topics from Japan to Spain, Nigeria to Russia, and from West Germany to East Germany.

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