Brad Paisley's 2009 album American Saturday Night discusses how the United States has become a global society through cultural appropriation and hybridization. The album examines how elements of different world cultures have been incorporated into everyday American life. Country music, which originated from British folk music and Appalachian traditions, has also contributed to shaping American identity while appealing to global audiences. As technologies and capitalism drive the globalization process, cultural forms and art spread widely while also being adapted locally. This blending of global and local influences exemplifies how the U.S. has become a melting pot and microcosm of the world.

1. Faculty of Arts & Human Sciences
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Student URN 6333707
Programme Communications and International Marketing
Level MA
Module Number CMCM057
Module Name Globalisation:Theories,Discourses and Practices
Short Assignment Title
The USA as a Global Societyanditsappropriationof the Global
Culture:‘JustAnotherAmerican Saturday Night’
Word Count 3,248
Module Tutor: Constance Bantman
Submission Date: 19th May 2015
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2. The USA as a Global Society and its appropriation of the Global Culture:
‘Just Another American Saturday Night’
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The USA as a Global Society and its appropriation of the Global
Culture: ‘Just Another American Saturday Night’
You know everywherehassomethin'they’reknown for
Although usually itwashesup on our shores
Brad Paisley, American Saturday Night
In 2009, American country music artist Brad Paisley released his seventh studio album
titled American Saturday Night. With career-hits like Online and Celebrity, taking a humorous
standpoint on pop culture and serious takes on suicide with Whiskey Lullaby, this album
featured a new perspective on “our times” and globalization in general with songs like
Welcome to the Future, Accidental Racist and the album’s namesake, American Saturday
Night1. The artist, who has acknowledged that it had never been in plans to dwell in such
themes when it comes to his music, admitted that it was pertinent for him to work on this
project because “(he) had so much (he) wanted to say” (Pastorek, 2015). This is reasonable,
taking into consideration having the first African-American President being elected just a year
prior to the release of the album, with Barack Obama taking office and bringing a wave of
change to the nation in 2008. Paisley catalogued this (album) as a “different take on
patriotism”, highlighting the present America and the small, everyday things and progress that
most people take for granted. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the now 42-year-old
singer brought a seemingly superficial, yet interesting comment that summarizes the melting
pot that is (the United States of) America2:
1 For lyrics seeAppendix 1.
2 Acknowledging that America is a continent that is divided North and South America, the further use of the term
in this essay will solely refer to the United States of America.

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“In the times I’ve visited Italy, it’s great, I love it, two weeks of Italian food. But by
the end of it, I’m ready for enchiladas – and good luck. You’re not gonna find ‘em.
Only in America do you have this melting pot, this amazing melting pot that
somehow we make work, for the most part.”
This notion of ‘melting pot’ has been used to refer to America quite often. The country
has long been associated with this fusion of cultural and regional traditions, best portrayed in
the array of fast-foods that have appropriated world-cuisine. However, it is not just that which
has been a result of a further, more complicated factor in American history that makes the
United States an exemplary melting pot, but the unavoidable truth of its origins and settlement
of different European communities, merging with Native tribes –to some extent– and the
inevitable contact with innumerable cultural mixes through immigration from its very
foundation to the present.
Politically, and more strongly after World War II, the American culture and ideas on
societal organization have been broadly and heavily discussed, as well as adapted, rejected or
transformed across the globe. This kind of cultural globalization has been referred to as
Americanization and, many times, the two terms find themselves being interrelated or
seamlessly exchanged. Where globalization is the direct consequence of the expansion of
European culture across the planet via settlement, colonization and cultural mimesis
(Berndtson, 2000, p. 158), Americanization implies a process by which all things American are
affecting more and more of the world (Ritzer and Stillman, 2000, p. 41). However,
Americanization does not mean total influence by Americans, and its impact differs from
country to country. The question is, then, why has Americanization come to be interchangeable
with the term globalization, and how America became the epitome of a global society, which

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can be summarized through the mélange that is described in Brad Paisley’s song, American
Saturday Night?
Music is a network of production and consumption that has played a key role in
globalization as seen from an Americanization perspective. Popular music makes a strong
impact within –and outside– the USA while Hollywood dominates the world TV and film
industry although some claim this impact has been extremely exaggerated. From Robertson’s
(2003) point of view, the ‘Americanization of the world’ so often centers on ‘Hollywood’ and
takes on the meaning of cultural hybridization (p. 261) to explain this impact, saying that the
USA is the “consummation of globalization”. American Country Music, not as popular as rock or
with as broad of a reach as other popular music genres, has come to shape an identity of all
things American, from its values to beliefs, interests and pastimes.
The country genre, as explained by Billy D. White and Frederick A. Day (1997),
“originated in upland areas of the Southeastern United States, evolving from British folk songs
that were transplanted to Appalachia in the nineteenth century.” (p. 23) Appalachian folk
musicians borrowed tunes and themes, rejecting the bawdy drinking-song traditions in favour
of songs that reflected the deep sadness and harsh view of life among poor mountain dwellers
that have been described today as “three-minute word movies” by songwriter John Hartford,
telling stories of the lives of ordinary people. In contrast, modern country music takes on both
southern and western regions, linking the country and western elements of music influenced by
hillbilly3 music and a romanticized image of the cowboy.4 The fusion of these two regional
3 Term used by people from the country, rural or mountainous areas in theUnited States, primarily in the
Appalachia,to describethemselves with pride.
4 The cowboy is a traditional malefigureof western North America. By definition,he is an animal herder who tends
cattle on ranches,traditionally on horseback.Ithas become to identify American masculinity as praised through
western novels, often showinga reckless,defying personality.

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influences highlight faith and simple values, as well as the glorified drinking, night life and sex
themes portrayed throughout most of the songs, including the story of the ‘country boy gone
wrong’. (p. 24)
Where American Country Music as a genre becomes pertinent is in its sudden presence
in multiple music charts across the country, with a wave of young artists like Taylor Swift and
Hunter Hayes who have opened the window to other genres by attracting a young and
emerging fan base. Although this is a more recent outreach, the genre has been showing rapid
commercial growth in the past few decades, with crossover artists such as Kenny Rogers and
Dolly Parton in the 1970s, George Strait and Randy Travis in the 1980s, and Garth Brooks in the
1990s. What these artists all have in common is their capacity to cross over genres to appeal to
a bigger audience, as well a long list of hit songs where the traditional, rooted country themes
are easily observed. Brad Paisley, albeit stepping outside the comfort zone of his country-music
beat, has taken a long leap in pushing forward this new set of ideas and values which
constitutes to country music and country living just as much as pickup trucks, cowboy boots,
Miller Lite and a girl in a summer dress.
This popularity the genre enjoys, which stems from the strong reflection of American
cultural regions, is also a product of an adaptation to the changes above mentioned as of the
ability to assimilate important culture areas in order to appeal to a particular audience. The
cultural area that is cited by White and Day, and referred to as the United States as a whole, is
“the effects of older culture areas (which) are persisting, and that newer regional culture areas
(which) are emerging.” (p. 23) Local hybrids in music, whether these may be in country music or
otherwise, is then perceived as an expression of modern and contemporary spirit of local or
national cultures, as explained by Motti Regev in terms of rock music. In his ‘Rockization’
theory, Regev explores the idea of one genre of music hybridizing local traditions so that it

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creates the sense of otherworldliness that makes it strange but also relatable through its ethnic,
regional and national culture adaptations.
From this otherworldliness also comes the contrasting sense of sameness, which is the
product, then, of a world or global culture that is developed through diversity. “Cultural
diversity, variation in content and meaning of expressive culture all involve the use of cultural
and art forms. The globalization of culture renders all mechanically and electronically
reproduced art forms available for use practically everywhere.” (Regev, 2003, p. 223) Here, the
transformation, transmutation and permutation of art and cultural forms, as in the case of
music and country music in particular, creates a cultural uniqueness while preserving “works,
genres and styles of these forms, as well as their producers and audiences, interconnected and
interrelated as components of social networks of information, and as actors in social spaces of
power, hierarchy and prestige.” (p. 224)
Similar to this process, globalization networks equally through production,
dissemination, consumption and interpretation, of both art and cultural forms, through
selective appropriation and hybridization. If we take the definition of globalization as the
“intensification of worldwide social relations, which link distant localities in such a way that
local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa” (Giddens,
1990, p. 64) or “the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the
world as a whole” (Robertson, 1992, p. 8), then it is to be understood that globalization is “a
process in which socialization of citizens happens increasingly in the context of global
knowledge, global awareness and global imagery” (Berndtson, 2000, p. 158).
The reason Brad Paisley uses to sustain the importance of such a title and album being
produced and released at this particular moment in history, as afore mentioned, is to discuss

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the new perspective of our times. Globalization is inherently a symbol of our time, linked to
changes in the role of state and market, and of modernization. It looks not only at politics and
economics but historical tendencies that shape values and behavior patterns of both individuals
and nations. (Berndtson, 2000) Among the forces that drive this process is capitalism and
technological advances. Berndston states that capitalism extends commodity chains across the
planet in search of the lowest price for labours, the greatest expertise, the cheapest materials,
and the largest markets, whereas technological advances are the enablers of this, generating
high awareness of the world through international media and commodity culture, making
globalization an experience.
In American Saturday Night, the experience of globalization is summed up in a one-night
time span where a she is “going around the world without leaving here”. This is only achieved
by both a capitalistic and technological world that produces a series of opportunities into a
specific area, unifying seemingly contradictory scenarios (e.g. Canadian bacon on their pizza
pie; cooler full of Coronas and Amstel Light; Little Italy and Chinatown living side by side; etc.)
into a daily-life kind of experience that becomes the norm. The globalization process in which
this is possible is the appropriation of cultural elements and traditions by one particular
community, creating cultural possibilities that would’ve been impossible without the enablers
only granted by modernity. In contrast to what this process mean in other cultures and
communities, what is lacking from the American perspective is the division between provincials
and cosmopolitans. Ritzer and Stillman (2000) notes that, while he cosmopolitans partake on
the experience of globalization, provincials are ignored or exploited by it.
Collectively, globalization generates the opportunity to express culture and cultural
diversity in a multi-directional flow. In America, this flow has been ongoing since its very origin,
when Western-European culture was brought to its shores through colonization, settlement

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and immigration, being now spread around the world by the term of Americanization.
However, America can be referred tor as the offspring of a westernization process that then
prompts what is now known as Americanization, hence it not spreading all things American but
a “western taste, dress, food and lifestyle” that has come to signify “progress” (Hebron and
Stack, 2008, p. 87).
The difference between this idea of progress relies ultimately in westeners and non-
westeners. Westeners, and in this case Americans –as the offspring of westernization–, think of
this process as progress, seeing global integration and the proliferation of worldwide media as
benign – normal everyday life and experiences. Non-westeners, in turn, see the subtle and
overt Western ideas, beliefs and values on human rights, gender equality, democratic processes
and social justice, religion and culture values such as self-expression, spontaneity, released
sexuality and the defiance of tradition as a threat and nefarious imperialism. (Hebron and
Stack, 2008, p. 88) Because of this, globalization suffers great criticism through an
Americanization perspective.
The impact that this influence has in the world, however, is only superficial.
Americanization can be thought of as a paradox, where it is never total but rather partial and
selective. In this sense, globalization as Americanization means only that, because of the
position of the United States, it will be the major originator of the globalization process
(Berndston, 2000, p. 166). It is the unique historical development of the country, its ideological
orientation characterized by equality and adaptability, as well as its economic prowess rather
than just a grand scheme to dominate the world that makes the American culture a powerful
force of worldwide diffusion of what characterizes it. “The nature of the globalization process is

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inherently American also in another important way. As the world is becoming more and more
hybrid, it begins to resemble the United States in some respects.” (p. 166)
Although Ritzer and Stillman (2000) find it odd to think of the Americanization of
America for the mere reason that they indicate that Americanization implies a process by which
things American are affecting the world, it is easy to see how the same effect Americanization
has in other nations of the world is seen in its own culture. Although not referred to as
Americanization, the term creolization can be thought of in a similar perspective. The
creolization of western influences in what is now the American culture melting pot is, in its own
origin, the Americanization process that is being spread around the globe. As the reception of
American culture in other countries has always been selective, adapted to certain degrees that
suit the particular needs and cultures of a specific society, or rejected altogether, so has been
the case of what constitutes the American culture, and country music as an example. Though
perceived as a symbol of identity and nationalism, the music genre that claims to be all-
American is, too, the result of a selective process of outside, foreign influences into the cultural
area. In the field of music, this blend and creolization of sounds, rhythms and lyrics can then
enjoy the dichotomous and contradictory characteristics of otherworldliness and sameness.
American popular culture, having reached a hegemonic position at this time, has been able to
influence not only film and music but also lifestyles and values, making the lines between high
and popular culture disappear.
According to Volker R. Berghann (2010), it is important to take a look back in history to
understand Westernization and Americanization and the European-American relationship and
influence around the world. In his essay The debate on ‘Americanization’ among economic and
cultural historians, Berghann appoints the first use of the term to British journalist, William
Stead, two years after the 1900 Paris World Exhibition where the United States showcased its

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steel-cutting machinery. It is after 1945, by virtue of the technological-military and industrial-
commercial prowess, that America emerges as a superpower and the term takes a grander
importance and recognition. It is because of this sense that Berndston (2000) concludes that
“Americanization goes beyond America, because the United States is the only country in the
world today offering a model of a global society.” (p. 167) However, Berhann makes the
distinction in that “it is not merely the adoption of certain lifestyles and production techniques
like Fordism and Taylorism which originated in the United States” but that it “refers to the
cooperation of means of cultural transfer.” (p. 109)
This cultural transfer turns into a cultural diversity. In the United States, this cultural
diversity is rapidly increasing and that, “in spite of superficial characteristics to the contrary, the
USA itself is becoming ever more heterogeneous in cultural terms […] the idea of global USA or
the world as an extrapolation of the USA makes a lot of sense.” (Robertson, 2008, p. 261) This
can be expressed in the means of a global society which is formed by both global and local
dimensions and identities, making the world more pluralistic rather than hegemonic, with
individuals who are more likely to adapt, innovate and maneuver within a globalized world and
react to the provocations of cultural globalization by transforming the process and increasing
the commodification of social life and the velocity and centrality of the media (Ritzer and
Stillman, 2000). It is, ultimately, a design to capture the increased interpenetration of global
culture across a variety of nations, regions and spheres.
While the United States takes a leading part in transnational activities, the threat that is
perceived with it is not so to local and national cultures. In the same way that America has been
able to selectively appropriate foreign influences into its culture, so is the power bestowed
upon the local agents of each country to adopt American influence and retain cultural, political

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and economic autonomy. In consequence, international powers also have great influence over
American markets (Ritzer and Stillman, 2000, p. 42), though it is still the world’s largest
economy with a strong reach and influence. To achieve this, and because it partakes from a
capitalistic ideology, America has learned that its cultural products must transcend regional and
ethnic differences in order to sell, being webbed in an inherently multicultural society. The
result of this can be then perceived as the creation of a culturally homogeneous global village.
The establishment of this homogenized global culture due to the emergence of new
global infrastructures, advances in transnational communications, and the information
revolution needs, in order to work, to be able to coexist with their local identity and culture.
Going back to Brad Paisley’s American Saturday Night, and his explanation for the inspiration in
which he bases the lyrics, it’s the idea that this is possible in America, that, “somehow we make
(it) work”. Whether this only works in order to maintain the idea of the ‘American Dream’ alive
today, or because it’s perceived that this particular influence be beneficial for some countries,
the heterogeneity that the world once enjoyed is turning now into a global international system
hastened by technological advances like satellite and cable television, cellular phones, faxes
and the Internet, and it affects the globe equally, including America. In order to work, the glocal
culture needs to localize the westernization and the Americanization of the local –where
Americanization can refer to the other nations while westernization, from a colonial-settlement
origin perspective alludes more to America– in a non-threatening, mutually affirming manner
as expressed by Hebron and Stack (2008). “The ultimate realization of a ‘glocal culture’,
therefore, will depend on how successfully the components of globalization (cosmopolitan,
individualized, democratized, and secularized) are ‘grafted’ into preexisting local cultural
values, traditions, and practices that are communal, hierarchical, and sacred.” (p. 98)

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The result of this series of cultural adaptation and appropriation phenomenon that has
been a pivotal and ongoing aspect of the American culture since its very origin is the melting
pot that makes possible the consummation of globalization in the country as being portrayed as
a global culture that is able to trespass regional and national borders through the array of
products tactically marketed with the otherworldliness and sameness appeal. It is only in
America where the combination of these systematic arranges becomes part of everyday life,
becoming nothing more than just another American Saturday Night.

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Appendix
Appendix1
American Saturday Night
Woahhhhh woahhhhhhh
She’s got Brazilian leather boots on the pedal of her German car
Listens to the Beatles singing back in the USSR
She’s goin’ around the world tonight
But she ain't leavin’ here
She’s just going to meet her boyfriend down at the street fair
It's a French kiss, Italian ice
Spanish moss in the moonlight
Just another American Saturday night
There's a big toga party tonight down at Delta Chi
They've got Canadian bacon on their pizza pie
They've got a cooler full of cold Coronas and Amstel Lights
It's like we’re all livin' in a big ol' cup
Just fire up the blender, mix it all up
It's a French kiss, Italian ice
Margaritas in the moonlight
Just another American Saturday night
You know everywhere there's something they’re known for
Although usually it washes up on our shores
My great- great- great- granddaddy stepped off of that ship
I bet he never ever dreamed we'd have all this
You know everywhere has somethin' they’re known for
Although usually it washes up on our shores
Little Italy, Chinatown, sittin' there side by side
Live from New York, It's Saturday Night!
French kiss, Italian ice,
Spanish moss in the moonlight
Just another American, I’m just another American, it’s just another American
Saturday night
Songw riters
Paisley, Brad Douglas / Lovelace, John Kelley / Gorley, Ashley
Published by
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC, WARNER
CHAPPELL MUSIC INC, SONY ATV MUSIC PUB LLC

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