Immigration and Popular Culture free essay sample

Fussbudget Immigration and American Popular Culture All of the different ethnic groups that migrated from their homeland to the united States left some kind of mark on American popular culture. The European immigrants during the sass created a very large splash in the public eye through the use of cinema. In addition, the Jamaican immigrants in South Bronx during the sass made a name for themselves by introducing a form of music called rap.In this paper, I will be analyzing and comparing the similarities and differences between the effects of he Jewish immigrants and the Jamaican immigrants on American popular culture and how popular culture redefined these groups and gave them social and political Identities In the United States. Jewish immigrants of the sass took American popular culture by surprise through their mass takeover of the Hollywood film Industry. Through the creation of many production companies, these immigrants were able to establish themselves as a dominant figure in the movie industry early in their careers. Many of these Jewish productions are common names in our current cinema Industry such as Warner Brose. Miramar, and any of the other companies owned by the Weinstein brothers. A majority of the films produced by these companies were created on the idea of gangsters. However these gangsters portrayed in the films were double agents in the eyes of American people: criminal yet heroic, stylish yet tasteless, bold yet ultimately defeated. The gangster masquerade was an Important exercise in popular culture 3) Through these cinemas the movie producers were able to introduce slang terms into our society.Some of these terms, which are still popular today, are gate, clip, beef, and the joint. With these terms sneaking their way Into the American vernacular, the Jewish film producers were able to develop new words that were used by all of society and are soul used In our current era. By creating this image of the Jewish gangs « these immigrants not only created a name for themselves in Hollywood, but they were able to create a socio-political Identity In America.By establishing the Idea of the Jewish gangster In American popular culture, the Jewish immigrants developed a social image as being tough talking gangsters alongside the fact that the Jewish immigrants were seen as criminal figures. Due to he high levels of statistics that proved that Jewish immigrants were contributing to the corruption of American morals through a disproportionate Involvement In pimping, prostitution, robbery, and assault(21), the American public was beginning to label the young males of the Jewish immigration community as Juvenile delinquents.With this labeling of the Jewish youth, the Ameri can public began generalizing gangsters as not being American, but as being a foreign characteristic. He anti no gangster, hes one of them old-fashioned desperado. Gangsters is foreigners, and hes an American. (27) The confidence in which the character Pops, The Petrified Forest, distinguishes between gangsters and other forms of criminal behavior shows that after five years of producing these criminal based films the gangster had already become a widely circulating model of aggressive masculinity and suspect class and ethnic mobility. (27) Not only did the association of gangster/ 1 OFF public began idealizing that anything criminal was caused by the foreign immigrants. During the era of the post 1965 period came another very important immigration group: the Jamaican. During the sass and the sass, the Jamaican played an important role in the launching of a new form of music called hip-hop. The beginning of this Cultural Revolution began because of the high level of American cultural literacy the Jamaican immigrant came to the United States with.The country of Jamaica had been flooded with Americans goods and products since the sass. From American rhythm and blues to Hollywood Western mov ies, Jamaican took the offerings of First World power and changed them from During the sass, the Jamaican immigrants were able to create in the American paradigm of the music business. This shift was founded mostly on the Jamaican concept of barcarole(178) which translates to making new products out of minimal resources. One of the most recognized Jamaican immigrants that generated the idea of hip hop was a man by the name of Clive Campbell, aka DC Cool Here.One of Campbell more popular creations was when he extended the break of the song by switching between two of the same records. The idea of break dancing came from this early innovation. In addition, Clive Campbell created applied the ideas of using a vocalist during the break. Some of the catch phrases used consisted of to the beat fall and you dont stop. (180) These ideas that Campbell was introducing into American music were concepts that were already being used in Jamaica. If Jamaican had never immigrated, hip hop would have never become as popular as early as it did.With this introduction of rap into American culture came a love-hate relationship between Jamaican and the identity that they were given. Although many Sumerians practiced the idea of radical consumerism, a majority had salty feelings towards the idea of living in the economic and cultural shadow of the United States. However, many Jamaican immigrants had already seen themselves as internationalization because of the American missionaries, soldiers, and business people bringing them American cultural stuff. 197) This created the idea that New York City was no longer the center for Caribbean immigrants, but it was more of a Northern frontier as described by Roy Simon Bryce-Elaborate. This image of the Jamaican immigrants being on the forefront of the immigration frontier created an economic platform that everyone was trying to cash in on. For instance, the Jamaican government began sending ambassadors to the World Fair in New York in an attempt to spread their cultural boundaries. With the Jamaican immigrants making a huge impact in the American music business, they also were able to open new doors for their homeland in the international economy.The Jewish immigrants from Europe and the Jamaican immigrants both made a tremendous impact on the identity of American Popular culture. The Jewish immigrants revolutionized the film industry with their introduction of gangster films in Hollywood. With this splash landing in American culture the Jewish immigrants also managed to give themselves a bad name. On the same note, the Jamaican immigrants redefined the American music business with their use of the hip hop/rap genre. However, the Jamaican managed to make their impact on popular culture have a positive effect on their social image. Without these groups, popular culture