During the 20sth century, people looked to places like London, New York and Paris for fashion, music and entertainment. From flappers to hip-hop, everyone was steeped in Western culture. After the end of the Cold War and the beginning of globalization, it was predicted that Western culture would rule the whole world, but this is not true at all.
Another big change can be seen around the world. Different music and trends from other countries have made a place for themselves in the western world. For example, South Korean culture has gained a stronghold and fans of Korean bands can be spotted everywhere. Marty Caplan, Professor of the University of Southern California, has said that it has been the other way around for Western culture to gain ground around the globe, and expectations of a culture spread across the globe have been proven wrong.
Today, the probability that a teenager in New York listens to K-pop or West African pop, afro beats, is much higher. In Mumbai, a young person can be found watching an Indian-made romantic drama alongside a French comedy. According to data presented by the WTO and OECD, in 2020, the import of films, radio, television and other audio-visual services from the US to OECD countries decreased from 40% 10 years ago to 25%. Meanwhile, the entry of crops from other countries into the US increased 6 times.
According to the Economist’s study of data from Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming platform, from 2017 to 2021, the craze for English songs is still on top. Of the 50 most streamed songs on Spotify over the past 5 years, 47 are in English. Despite this, their grip is loosening. In countries like India, Indonesia and South Korea, with a strong music industry, in the last 5 years, the share of English songs in the top 100 songs has decreased from 52% to only 31%. On the other hand, as the popularity of local artists singing Spanish songs has increased, the popularity of English songs in Latin America and Spain has dropped from 25% to 14%.
