Americanisation of BBC Radio 4

[Forget It (U2079353)]

completely unfunny. It’s called ReincarNathan ...


Or is it just me?

No its me too.

In general:
More insidious is the incremental use of twiddly background music in documentaries. It accompanies intro (fine except when it last 2 mins) then makes reprises during the programme. It is anti-intellectual.
R3 - is catching the twiddly music disease too - just before the Essay.

[DracoM]

I suppose brexiteers have a tendency to look west...certainly both Trump and Putin have an interest in detaching the UK from its current moorings.

Culturally US academia is very closely tied with UK, and in terms of popular music we are virtually the same market. So although I understand the irritation expressed above, things seem unlikely to change...

[Serial_Apologist]

Seconded. I think it's commonly known as a softening up process.

[Conchis]

Call me a cock-eyed optimist (there's a first-time for everything!) but I don't think this is as easily done as some people think it is.

Birtons who visit America usually find it to be the most 'foreign' country they have ever visited. The language might superficially be the same but the attitudes aren't and too many things (Britain's history and class system to name but two) militate against any really significant 'Americanisation'.


There is also the fact that Britons and Americans fundamentally find each other somewhat absurd (and with good reason, in both cases).

Beyond a lunatic fringe of people with single figure IQs, Trump is not popular in Britain: few American presidents have been.

And American spieling, American evangelical Christianity, the idea of unannounced ad-breaks on television and American sports have not caught on in Britain - and are unlikely to.

[MrGongGong]

No its me too.

In general:
More insidious is the incremental use of twiddly background music in documentaries. It accompanies intro (fine except when it last 2 mins) then makes reprises during the programme. It is anti-intellectual.
.

Meaning WHAT ?

[Serial_Apologist]

Call me a cock-eyed optimist (there's a first-time for everything!) but I don't think this is as easily done as some people think it is.

Birtons who visit America usually find it to be the most 'foreign' country they have ever visited. The language might superficially be the same but the attitudes aren't and too many things (Britain's history and class system to name but two) militate against any really significant 'Americanisation'.


There is also the fact that Britons and Americans fundamentally find each other somewhat absurd (and with good reason, in both cases).

Beyond a lunatic fringe of people with single figure IQs, Trump is not popular in Britain: few American presidents have been.

And American spieling, American evangelical Christianity, the idea of unannounced ad-breaks on television and American sports have not caught on in Britain - and are unlikely to.

I would argue that American culture did begin to have an influence on the British variety in the 1920s, with the coming of jazz records, though my impression (possibly mistaken) is that this was a largely middle class appeal, with the emergence of the "flapper", as an affordable petty bourgeois form of rebellion against residual Victorian puritanism. This then gathered force in the 1930s when the American musical and especially its movie versions provided an escape from the misery of the Slump, targetted on working class cimema goers, to really take off post-WW2, with American-style consumerism acting as Marshall Aid's cultural alibi in matters of style and fashion, including music with growing mass access to TV and the arrival of rock 'n' roll in the mid-1950s.

[Conchis]

I would argue that American culture did begin to have an influence on the British variety in the 1920s, with the coming of jazz records, though my impression (possibly mistaken) is that this was a largely middle class appeal, with the emergence of the "flapper", as an affordable petty bourgeois form of rebellion against residual Victorian puritanism. This then gathered force in the 1930s when the American musical and especially its movie versions provided an escape from the misery of the Slump, targetted on working class cimema goers, to really take off post-WW2, with American-style consumerism acting as Marshall Aid's cultural alibi in matters of style and fashion, including music with growing mass access to TV and the arrival of rock 'n' roll in the mid-1950s.

The influences you describe aren't unique to Britain, though. Most Western European countries saw America as 'the good guy' in the cold-war period and were still in the first flush of their gratitude to the U.S. for its part in defeating the Nazis. Pre-Suez, I'm pretty sure America would have got a great write-up from any average Briton, though things shifted during the Vietnam war and the recent elections of dud presidents like Dubya and Trump (and superficially glamorous ones like Obama) have only stoked the cynicism.

I dislike American television a lot: it's too glossy, too slick, the comedies don't transfer well and I'm suspicious of people who think they are somehow superior to the domestic product.

[Bryn]

. . . the comedies don't transfer well . . .

Really? Soap, The Simpsons, The Big Bang Threory . . .

[vinteuil]

Really? Soap, The Simpsons, The Big Bang Theory . . .

... Cheers, Frasier, Taxi, ...

[Frances_iom]

The influences you describe aren't unique to Britain, though. Most Western European countries saw America as 'the good guy' in the cold-war period and were still in the first flush of their gratitude to the U.S. for its part in defeating the Nazis. Pre-Suez, I'm pretty sure America would have got a great write-up from any average Briton, though things shifted during the Vietnam war and the recent elections of dud presidents like Dubya and Trump (and superficially glamorous ones like Obama) have only stoked the cynicism.

I dislike American a lot: it's too glossy, too slick, the comedies don't transfer well and I'm suspicious of people who think they are somehow superior to the domestic product.

The French had the right idea - limit the amount of non-local productions - most American material has already earned its cost in the US thus can undercut any local products - however I fear that Brexit will guarantee a considerable further Americanisation of British media

[HighlandDougie]

Call me a cock-eyed optimist (there's a first-time for everything!) but I don't think this is as easily done as some people think it is.

Birtons who visit America usually find it to be the most 'foreign' country they have ever visited. The language might superficially be the same but the attitudes aren't and too many things (Britain's history and class system to name but two) militate against any really significant 'Americanisation'.


There is also the fact that Britons and Americans fundamentally find each other somewhat absurd (and with good reason, in both cases).

Beyond a lunatic fringe of people with single figure IQs, Trump is not popular in Britain: few American presidents have been.

And American spieling, American evangelical Christianity, the idea of unannounced ad-breaks on television and American sports have not caught on in Britain - and are unlikely to.

Hmm, to quote the now somewhat obscure Letitia Elizabeth Landon - b. 1802 - d. 1838 - better known as L.E.L., poet and novelist, "All sweeping assertions are erroneous" (a sweeping assertion in its own right, of course, but, in this case, one which I would contend contains more than a grain of truth). Being a historian by training and persuaded by facts, rather than generalisations, where is the evidence for the above - and assertions in the subsequent post - which would convince me that you are not talking tosh?

[eighthobstruction]

Hmm, to quote the now somewhat obscure Letitia Elizabeth Landon - b. 1802 - d. 1838 - better known as L.E.L., poet and novelist, "All sweeping assertions are erroneous" (a sweeping assertion in its own right, of course, but, in this case, one which I would contend contains more than a grain of truth). Being a historian by training and persuaded by facts, rather than generalisations, where is the evidence for the above - and assertions in the subsequent post - which would convince me that you are not talking tosh?

....as a generalisation of a sterotypical generalised generalisation....I'd say it strikes pretty true....

....mind you Monty Don takes me the same way....

[Conchis]

The French had the right idea - limit the amount of non-local productions - most American material has already earned its cost in the US thus can undercut any local products - however I fear that Brexit will guarantee a considerable further Americanisation of British media

Then, fear not, as Brexit aint gonna happen.

[Conchis]

Hmm, to quote the now somewhat obscure Letitia Elizabeth Landon - b. 1802 - d. 1838 - better known as L.E.L., poet and novelist, "All sweeping assertions are erroneous" (a sweeping assertion in its own right, of course, but, in this case, one which I would contend contains more than a grain of truth). Being a historian by training and persuaded by facts, rather than generalisations, where is the evidence for the above - and assertions in the subsequent post - which would convince me that you are not talking tosh?

I would dispute the assertion that 'creeping Americanisation' is any more prominent in Britain than in any other European country.

The French are probably on to a good thing by limiting the amount of US product on television to 'defend' their own culture, but I don't believe the Italians, say, have any such qualms.

As to the American comedies cited above, I've never laughed once at any of them.

[Ian Thumwood]

The most noticeable thing for me with Radio 4 news is that when they wheel in an expert, they always, without fail, seem to come from The Guardian. I think that the BBC does have the same agenda as this paper and, to be honest, I feel that the guest appearance by Guardian readers reinforces the BC view as opposed to offering much insight. There was a fascinating comment in this week's Morning Star about how often that paper was looked at in newspaper reviews or asked to comment. Granted that the majority of newspaper are Rgith wing, it is amazing that the Guardian gets the lion's share of interviews - especially as it's circulation is now so small.