[Sarah Armstrong]

The internet means that the clearly differentiated cultures of Pre-2000s Britain and America are now much more of a continuum.

There was already a large amount of crossover in culture, but now it seems like there are even more, at a pace that seems to be increasing. We already shared music, with bands crossing the pond all the time as far back as the 60s. Now we share most TV and media too.

Even areas such as sport, which to my mind is the biggest single difference between the two cultures, have changed somewhat. I think there is a little more awareness of football in America, but also more awareness of "foot" "ball" in Britain.

White American/British and Black American/British cultures are interesting. Black Americans and Black British share more with each other than with white people, meanwhile White British and Americans share more with each other than the black people in these countries.

There is not so much of an interchange between Britain/America and Aus/NZ and Canada. It's more of a one way thing, although we do have a few Canadian and Australian inputs too. I hope this changes in future to include these countries more, although they will have to do better than crappy Australian soaps. Ireland is probably in the same boat as these countries too, absorbing Anglo culture but not adding a great deal to it.
Of course these 4 countries all have much smaller populations, which explains it.

I think 10-20 years from now we will certainly see Anglo culture as the overarching culture of all of the countries mentioned, with local variations a little less clearly defined than they are now.

This is how it seems to someone within this little bubble. But how do people outside view the situation? Perhaps in continental Europe you have long thought of Anglo culture being rather homogeneous? Or maybe you do see massive differences, who knows.

[Nurba]

Would you prefer England to join a USA-UK-Ireland-Canada-Australia/NZ axis instead of the European Union?

[saopinax]

Would you prefer England to join a USA-UK-Ireland-Canada-Australia/NZ axis instead of the European Union?

I would prefer us to have free trade with all those countries (Anglo and EU) and no military or political alliances at all.

[Seesspoxy]

I think this is true with literature as well. I think we have always read each others literature but I imagine it has picked up due to the easy spread of information via the internet. Two of the companies I regularly purchase books from, the Folio Society and Tartarus Press, are both located in England. Without the internet I doubt I would have been aware of those companies. I even can not think of any authors or publishers from the other Anglo lands off the top of my head.

I can think of plenty of Irish authors though.

[Seesspoxy]

I think this is true with literature as well. I think we have always read each others literature but I imagine it has picked up due to the easy spread of information via the internet. Two of the companies I regularly purchase books from, the Folio Society and Tartarus Press, are both located in England. Without the internet I doubt I would have been aware of those companies. I even can not think of any authors or publishers from the other Anglo lands off the top of my head.

Yes definitely. Can you imagine some author having written a sure to be bestselling book without touring all the UK and US talk shows?

The British film industry has suffered though. People would rather watch a poor plot with expensive special effects than something decent. Then again the film industry as a whole has gone down the pan.
TV drama has replaced it as the number one story telling medium in my opinion.

[johnlohanmclee]

Yes definitely. Can you imagine some author having written a sure to be bestselling book without touring all the UK and US talk shows?

The British film industry has suffered though. People would rather watch a poor plot with expensive special effects than something decent. Then again the film industry as a whole has gone down the pan.
TV drama has replaced it as the number one story telling medium in my opinion.

Agree with that. Hollywood is in a sad state imo. Reminds me though that one of my favorite movie studios is Hammer. Because of my fondness for Hammer Studios I also am a major fanboy of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Hammer recently started making movies again also. My wife recently watched their latest film, Woman in Black, and said that it was good.

[tropicana]

Hollywood is in a sad state imo.

The best films from recent years have been foreign language ones, such as the Lives of Others.

Production standards have improved so much that TV drama series are way ahead now. In a 12 episode series, over sya 5 years, you have 60 episodes.
That is 60 hours to tell a story, as opposed to 2 hours.

[Qesomud]

Modern British and American societies are VERY different from each other.

I will always see Britain closer to rest of Germanic Europe than to USA.

John Cleese used to say Americans don't understand his "British humor".

---------- Post added 2012-07-16 at 14:32 ----------

Would you prefer England to join a USA-UK-Ireland-Canada-Australia/NZ axis instead of the European Union?

We could join USA too in a Union.

Afterall, USA is closer to us than Greece is.

[arreskslarlig]

The best films from recent years have been foreign language ones, such as the Lives of Others.

Production standards have improved so much that TV drama series are way ahead now. In a 12 episode series, over sya 5 years, you have 60 episodes.
That is 60 hours to tell a story, as opposed to 2 hours.

Downton Abbey is pretty good I think and it is a BBC/PBS co-production. It seems to be successful so maybe we will see more of that.

[verybigf]

Modern British and American societies are VERY different from each other.

I will always see Britain closer to rest of Germanic Europe than to USA.

John Cleese used to say Americans don't understand his "British humor".

"We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language."
Oscar Wilde

[CULTDIAMONDS]

"We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language."
Oscar Wilde

oscar wilde was long time ago. The countries have evolved in quite different directions.

But yes, we are talking about culture, not mentality. So i will rest my case.´

As a Swede, I feel also close to American culture, despite the countries being different.

Btw, what would the world be without creative Brits? No Iron Maiden, no BlackAdder, no Monty Python, no Fawlty Towers.

As for American tv, I found the old shows (60's-70's) much funnier than the new boring mass-produced sitcoms.

[RicardoHun]

I've grown up seeing UK musicians as part of the normal scene and not "foriegn" music. The UK had more creative artists IMO feom the 70's-80's than what the US put out in that time period(Disco). Too bad Madness nor the Specials got popular over here. I loved thier music.

[luspikals]

I've grown up seeing UK musicians as part of the normal scene and not "foriegn" music. The UK haf better artists IMO feom the 70's-80's than American artist. Too bad Madnessbnever got popular over here. I loved thier music.

Loose Ends, Sade, Imagination, all good bands from the UK that were real big over here, but we had a plethora of good artists during those decades as well, I would say more so than them. IMO.

[mralabama]

Modern British and American societies are VERY different from each other.

I wouldn't say that's true when you think of it in a worldly context, America and Britain are a lot closer to each other than you might think. A group of Americans wouldn't have much trouble assimilating into Britain and vice versa due to things like shared language, etc. That goes for a lot of other Western European countries too, we might be different but in a worldly context we're pretty similar.

[evalayCap]

Loose Ends, Sade, Imagination, all good bands from the UK that were real big over here, but we had a plethora of good artists during those decades as well, I would say more so than them. IMO.

The UK had the US beat in pop music. Stuff like Genesis, Tears for Fears,Duran Duran, Madness, and the Jam still holds up, US pop music from era sounds really dated when you listen to it now.. The US had better Soul/R&B back when it was really music.(Not this garbage we hear now).

[Navzrrqt]

I wouldn't say that's true when you think of it in a worldly context, America and Britain are a lot closer to each other than you might think. A group of Americans wouldn't have much trouble assimilating into Britain and vice versa due to things like shared language, etc. That goes for a lot of other Western European countries too, we might be different but in a worldly context we're pretty similar.

I think the feeling of closenss to the UK varies by what region or state you are in. As a Texan, I feel about as close to the UK as I feel to Australia, as in not very close at all. I feel like this sentiment is shared by many other native Texans. I think I will go around asking random people how they feel about the UK.

The UK had the US beat in pop music. Stuff like Genesis, Tears for Fears,Duran Duran, Madness, and the Jam still holds up, US pop music from era sounds really dated when you listen to it now.. The US had better R&B/Soul music, the only UK Soul artist I could think of is Hot Chocolate.

Ok you do have a point. I was only thinking about Soul and R&B music, as that is what most of my knowledge pertains to.

[triarmarm]

I wouldn't say that's true when you think of it in a worldly context, America and Britain are a lot closer to each other than you might think. A group of Americans wouldn't have much trouble assimilating into Britain and vice versa due to things like shared language, etc. That goes for a lot of other Western European countries too, we might be different but in a worldly context we're pretty similar.

I've been to the UK. And the only cities I saw that shared similar mentalities are the cities in the Pacific Northwest, and New England. The cities had a whole different ambiance to them in the UK than American cities, and people don't dress as casual in UK cities like we do in the US, except for the lower class Brits. The popular culture is real similar though.

[HaseBeceDeemy]

I think the feeling of closenss to the UK varies by what region or state you are in. As a Texan, I feel about as close to the UK as I feel to Australia, as in not very close at all. I feel like this sentiment is shared by many other native Texans. I think I will go around asking random people how they feel about the UK.

I know and it's not that I feel "close" to the UK or anything, I don't really feel close to Britain. It's just that Americans and Brits are a lot more similar than we think in a worldly context so I was just responding to Janos' comment that we were "very different" from each other. Could you imagine having a fluent casual conversation with a Brit? Yeah, it'd probably be simple. Could you do the same with someone from most other countries in the world where English isn't as commonly spoken and their culture is vastly different? Probably not.

P.S.- This also goes for Ireland, Australia, Canada, etc.

[himecthekWiff]

There is no such thing as Anglo-Saxon culture and has been none since the 11th century, merely English.
mainstream American culture is indeed a British descended culture, but the term 'Anglo' is absurd and false.

Deluded Americans assume that English= Anglo-Saxon, modern genetic and Archaeological evidence has proven that the the majr5oity of English people are descended from Anglicized Britons Anglo-saxon input was probably around 20 -25%.

You say that Afro-Caribbeans and Africans resident in England have more in common with Black Americans, in many cases this is true,especially among the younger generation however some of them are culturally Anglicized to a degree.

The term Black British is false, no such thing exists anymore than there are Black Serbs or Black Japanese people. American is a concept, British is not.

Had we never seized the West Indies from The Spanish and shipped Negroes over,there would have been no London riots in 1981,85,2011

[UMATURLIN]

I've been to the UK. And the only cities I saw that shared similar mentalities are the cities in the Pacific Northwest, and New England. The cities had a whole different ambiance to them in the UK than American cities, and people don't dress as casual in UK cities like we do in the US, except for the lower class Brits. The popular culture is real similar though.

Trends like hipster and indie are common in all Anglo countries.

Otherwise, I agree, Texas is too foreign from Western Europe.

Btw, TV has to do with pop culture, and it's known here than while USA censor sex but not violence, Europe do the opposite. That also goes for United Kingdom.

The only genitals I have seen in Swedish televison have been from British tv shows/documentaries (google Sex Education), while Britain censored the word "ninja" from my favorite show when I was a kid, Ninja Turtles. We got the British censored version of that show here, as did rest of Europe I assume.

---------- Post added 2012-07-16 at 19:46 ----------

There is no such thing as Anglo-Saxon culture and has been none since the 11th century, merely English.
mainstream American culture is indeed a British descended culture, but the term 'Anglo' is absurd and false.

Anglo-culture seems to be a fake reconstructed thing. There are cultural similarities Swedes and Americans have which British people lack (playing icehockey and hunting/camping in the wildness), and the other way around.

America and Britain have their own unique things. If you create any shit about "Anglo-culture" you erase those beautiful cultural specialities that these two nations represent for me and others.

You could as well talk about "Germanic" or "Western culture".

as for Austraoia, don't know much about it, have never been there, but would like to.