Someone Asks “What Wouldn’t Be Nearly As Popular If It Wasn’t For The US?” And 30 People Answer
From Hollywood to PBJ sandwiches, there are countless incredible things for which we can be thankful to no one else than the US.
In Europe, millennial kids grew up watching Powerpuff Girls, wearing Vans slip-ons, and listening to The Smashing Pumpkins in their teenage years. Fast forward to a more recent age and the music world would never be the same without Queen B or controversial Ye. It’s fair to say that the impact of American culture around the globe has been unequaled since the dawn of time, and it’s time to celebrate it!
So today, we looked at this Ask Reddit thread to find out what American staples have found their popularity abroad, according to people, and the responses are very interesting!
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Gender reveal parties. One of the worst gifts the US has given
GPS
The American military gave away one of the coolest technologies to the world. No service fees, no subscriptions. Imagine if Meta or Apple had invented it.
National parks. It was started in America by future Republican president Theodore Roosevelt and quickly it became a world wide practice.
"Many mistakenly think America’s Yellowstone National Park is the oldest in the world but there’s one that was created a century earlier. Established by the Mongolian government in 1778, the area surrounding Bogd Khan Uul Biosphere Reserve is actually the oldest in the world. It is located south of the capital, Ulaanbaatar, and takes three to four hours to hike. You’ll find many cultural sites surrounding the park, including the ruins of Manzushir Monastery, Buddha Park, and Zaisan Memorial."
Blue jeans
The patent is American (Levi Strauss, XIX Century). But that particular kind of fabric emerged around three centuries prior, between the Italian city of Genoa and the french city of Nîmes. (Edit: dates, I didn't remember the date of the patent correctly)
Upvote for the info! -- but it is something, "America made popular" as the title suggests.
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I tell my students that the two people who made the most money off of the gold rush never saw panned or sluiced a thing. Levi Strauss and Lee Stetson.
They can't be American because of their religion? Really, is that what you're going for, here ?
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Peanut butter
I'll give them this one because the title says 'America' and not 'the US'. Peanut butter can traced back as far as the the Aztec.
Hamburgers, with pickles mustard etc. It’s a strange combo. Delicious but I doubt the entire world would have that as a common item
It was extremely common in Europe before the Americas were even discovered. When the colonists travelled to the new world, it was those people gabbing a snack at the port of Hamburg that carried the idea over the pond. I would argue that America made the cheap, poorly made hamburger popular, but not the hamburger.
Superheroes and their movies.
What about anime? Has that been around longer than the American comics, or is that genre not considered a superhero like medium? *Edit to add - my question here is not about anime being first, but that if it was already popular internationally then the US didn’t necessarily contribute something unique? I’m not versed enough in anime or manga to say if there is any kind of superhero similarities.
Disneyland and Disney.
It’s not surprising they’ve been able to expand out to other countries. There’s all the magic, happiness, and whatnot that comes with it.
That, and they are using “It’s a Small World” to hypnotize us all.
Disneyland in the USA opened in 1955. Disneyland Paris opened in 1992.
The word "OK"
Spam in northeast-asia, especially South Korea
American soldiers ate it during the Korea war and it gained popularity to the point that it's a common food for both Koreans, Japanese, and some Chinese cultures such as Shanghainese
Christmas lights strung outside of the houses!
I think you'll find that was actually Germany. From there it spread throughout Europe, then moved westward to the Americas.
The Kardashians. Yes. The world hates you
Using inch to measure TV size.
Hating the U.S.
We don't "hate" you. We just like to bring you back down à notch or two when your superiority complex goes overboard. 😇
Halloween.
As a commercial enterprise, yes. Samhain, it's root, is Irish.
Hollywood
It's not like there weren't other towns and cities names Hollywood before. OP is most likely refering to movie industry based in town called Hollywood, California.
Proms... in other countries some schools host proms just because they see it on TV.
Crocs
I question your understanding of the word "popular". Maybe "tolerated".
Black Friday. It’s a worldwide thing now even though only the US has TG the day before.
The Irish. Since we emigrated in the 1800s, all of the big American celebrities say “I’ve got Irish roots” and it’s attracted attention to that little Green island that isn’t part of England. Particularly the west coast of Ireland.
The internet, preceided by the ARPANET, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Defenses.
Yeah, the 7 main servers that control The internet are located in the good old USA thanks to ARPANET. This is obviously due to the fact that one Telephone and Telegraph company held a monopoly over. The US, and it was easy for them to connect everything. They also owned Bell labs, the birthplace of UNIX and the C programming language.
Unix
Granted. Very important. For those who do not know, the original that inspired Linux, which now is the system that runs most of internet and cloud.
Honestly? A lot of stuff. American culture has become so widely accepted and ingrained in the zeitgeist of other nations that many people no longer even identify American cultural paradigms as distinct from their own. Things like Jazz, Burgers, Hip Hop, Basketball and Rock & Roll can now be found the world over. Hell, even some things that didn't even originate in America are identified more with their American version than they are with their original format. When most people picture Halloween, they're thinking of the version of it that they've seen in American TV shows and movies. Most places you go in the world, if you mention pizza people are gonna think about the thick crust style that Italian Americans created in lower Manhattan, not the Neopolitan original served with a knife and fork. American culture is everywhere, and it has been for so long at this point that people often don't even see it anymore.
"... if you mention pizza people are gonna think about the thick crust style that Italian Americans created in lower Manhattan ..." No they're not.
Being interested & incredibly proud of your heritage.(To the point of DNA testing and rumors.)
Can't agree that's an American thing. Many expats feel the same.
Madonna,Merilin Monroe and Elvis Presley
And Michael Jackson! Man I have seen posters of him in small mountain villages from India to South America.
Being delusional or ignorant about your country's achievements.
Sorry, this has always been a popular thing. You can read all sorts of outrageous boasting about cultural origins and achievements in the ancient literature of many different nations.
cars. sure they were invented in germany, but they were extremely expensive until assembly lines became a thing. if im wrong please, as always correct me
Yes you are and you're not lol, self propeled vehicles where actually invented in France ( Steam Cars ), internal combustion engine vehicles those where indeed invented in Gemany, and yes, widout Ford's invention of the assembly line, Cars would be extremelly expencive.
Marshmallows.
We only saw them in Hollywood movies or cartoons, tried em and didnt really like em. But they're now present in quite a few desserts.
Being interested & incredibly proud of your heritage.(To the point of DNA testing and rumors.)
Marshmallow fluff!! And fluffernutters! From my home state, MA!
Graduation ceremonys for children/teens who haven't gained a degree.... Rendering the actual graduate celebration somewhat not as special as it once used to be. Thanks.
I think it's cute when little children 'graduate' from nursery to school, or from primary school to secondary school. It's purely for fun and an opportunity children and parents to take some nice photos and memories before the children leave. I don't think it takes away the specialness of an actual university graduation.
Being interested & incredibly proud of your heritage.(To the point of DNA testing and rumors.)
Marshmallow fluff!! And fluffernutters! From my home state, MA!
Tobacco.
It came from the area now the US but before the original colonies were set up it was an occasional drug used by the tribes as it was not cultivated. When the colonies were set up it started to be grown commercially, the varieties became much more nicotine rich and addictive too. Then after independence of the US it became a major cash crop that the new country depended on. Without the US, it is plausible it would never have reach the level of global addition it got to in the 20th century, and still remains high in the 21st despite concerted efforts to reduce demand for health reasons.
Cee-lawn-tro..........on EVERYTHING.
It's not even called that in the UK - we prefer coriander. Cilantro always sounds to me like a character from Don Quixote.
I scrolled for awhile without seeing it. Um.... fast food? Lol
Competition BBQ.
....also weight loss products!
Again, I'd hardly call the competition BBQ a globally popular thing thing.
Reality TV shows.
Country music
God, where in the world is that popular? Its not even popular in the US lol...
Baseball or American Football
But lol, where in the world is that popular? Lol, yea Japan loves baseball, but thats because it became an American " colony " after WW2 lol, apart from that no One Cares about those 2 sports.
BBQ, the US, especially the south has made it this giant thing, when really if anyone had smoked meat for longs periods of time and called it something else, it’d be considered a “foreign food”
Tik Tok is a Chinese app that became popular in the US and then spread through the rest of the world.
Cheese.
People caring about famous people daily life
Incorrect. Celebrity culture existed for millenia. That's why we still know about Julius Caesar, Hannibal of Carthage, Alexander of Macedonia, Cleopatra, etc. etc. Not just history books per se. People have been fascinated with notable and outstanding characters since time began. They are called "heroes" in previous times and ended up in leadership positions. Their private shenaningans, like Cleo cheating on Julius with Mark Anthony, are well-known.
Japan.
It's highly influenced by post war American reforms and culture so it would be wildly different without the US.
An american poet, Ezra Pound, is responsible for how westerners translate Japanese which in turn affected the country proper. The literal translations are very dull he gave translations of japanese their current form.
A lot of important modern every-day technology including electricity, the internet, microwave ovens, the lightbulb (popularized and made practical for mass production by Americans although originally prototyped by others), TVs, and cars.
Capitalism.
No. It was created in the UK. The first stock market was set up in I think 1571 in the UK. America did not exist. Google "Adam Smith".
Elite education and training. Top students from across the world flock to America's universities for education in engineering, finance, math, medicine, law, and everything else. The smartest (and often richest) high school students in other countries frequently will move to a different country to go to Harvard, Princeton, and even highly regarded public universities like University of Wisconsin or Michigan. But it's extremely rare for top students in the US to leave the country for education elsewhere.
(1) It's not, "Americans ", as a nation writing this, or believing this; it is just a few people nobody has ever heard of. ... If it wasn't the middle of the night when BP uploaded this, people across the US would be correcting the errors -- not just people on the other half of the globe. ... (I rated 2/3rds false the Nat'l Park post) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (2) The title clearly says, "Things America Made POPULAR" -- not "invented". The European BP commenters are replying, "but it was invented elsewhere", as though they don't understand the difference.
Ok, so THIS is why there are so many popular US bashing articles on BP. Because the US claims credit for EVERYTHING popular in the entire world. SOME people from the US have no comprehension that the rest of the word invents popular things, or that things existed before the US made them popular.
Xeno: ... If BP would have posted this 12 hours later, when Americans are awake and the other half of the globe is asleep, you would have seen the same corrections you and others have made -- but without the bile. ... You are conflating what a few people post with the idea that, "the US claims credit for EVERYTHING".
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Lol this post, "what did Americans make popular?" Americans: "everything" European BP commenters: "nope."
QBFT: (1) It's not, "Americans ", as a nation writing this, or believing this; it is just a few people nobody has ever heard of. ... If it wasn't the middle of the night, people across the US would be correcting the errors -- not just people on the other half of the globe. (I rated 2/3rds false the Nat'l Park post) . . . . . . . (2) The title clearly says, "Things America Made POPULAR" -- not "invented". The European BP commenters are replying, "but it was invented elsewhere" as though they don't understand the difference.
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Many things are considered negative (mainly junk food and sodas, tipping culture, Tiktok,...). And, many others can even be considered failures when "the rest of the world" has tried them (Halloween, Black Friday, Proms,...). In short, not convinced by this list.
How is Hallowe'en a failure in the Celtic country it originated in?
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These 53 BP Posts = "POPULAR". ... Not, 'x' also exists ... Not, "this isn't the best" ... Not "this wasn't the first". ... It's as though a lot of Panda's who comment at 11:00 hours GMT (before the sun rose in the US) don't know what 'popular' means.
Hilarious thread. Every week BP people bemoan the US bashing, then they finally get a thread of their own to laud their accomplishments and largely fill it with deluded lies. This, America, is why there are so many bashing threads. We love you, but in the words of Eddie Izzard, "Do you know there are other countries?".
This was a thread poorly disguised as "yay for the US" - I did *not* see most of this as good. It seems to me to be cherry picked from idiots so others can bash the US in the comments.
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While I was initially annoyed (my reactions were more like "that's Irish", "that's German", etc.), the article does have a point. The US, through film and TV, has become the most recognisable nation on earth. Everyone knows Coca Cola and McDonald's. And living in Japan, pretty much *everyone* thinks that Halloween is American. It isn't, of course, but with the global platform it has, everything that is popular in the US is going to seep into the rest of the world, and rightly or wrongly be considered American. It can at times be extremely frustrating for those of us who are in fact, not American (there are a few of us), but it's an undeniable truth that a lot of what I know about other countries has in some way come to me via the US.
Everybody: Arguing about which thing were invented in America/ made popular in America That one spammer: EvErYbOdY NeEdS To TrY ThIs JoB
Choreographed dance has always been a thing long before the US.
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All these, and turning round your corner at a crossroads has not become a thing.
i approached the article with an open mind, but all postings about brands need to be reviewed. in many instances, the biggest brand is the killer of many smaller or at least similar ones, so how is this a good thing? Force fed and imposed is not made popular. Similarly, made popular should include things that aren't exported as such (social phenomena like the graduation prom, although this is a bad example, since people never needed an occasion for a party) or things that were indeed huger in us than in the origin countries, but automobiles and french fries don't qualify.
I would like to add a couple of things that I think America has made popular. One thing is Democracy or perhaps better known as *representative government"; and another thing that I believe has been popularized by America is the notion of women's rights. When we see anti government protests going on in Iran and in China at the same time, I personally am uplifted and amazed. I know that there have been such uprisings even 2000 years ago. But in our day and age, for men to fight for women's rights....for unarmed citizens to stand up to the army.....well, of course I cannot be 100% sure but I think that tradition of free speech in the US has been an example. Especially protests over the past 60 years: anti war, women's rights, civil rights, black lives matter. The images of these successful protests have been seen around the world, and hopefully have inspired others.
I hate how everyone's saying "but that was first in ----" yeah maybe but it's talking about when it BECAME popular
Top comments come in 3 categories: 1. “No they did something close but largely unrelated in ______ first!” That is often not even correct. 2. Yeah and it’s terrible. 3. I’m edgy! I’ve never even heard of McDonalds or the kardashians! I’m so cool!
I certainly wish I'd not heard of the Kardashians...
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Years ago I was told that American TV screens nothing but American productions. Not sure if that's still the case today.
LoL. Not true at least not since satellite dishes
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Why are there so many downvotes from item 35 onwards. Does a downvote mean that I dislike the post , or the product / issue mentioned in the post?
They forgot Majorettes. Fading now, but many small towns here used to have a club.
Wait! Nothing good ever comes form the US! We all know this. And nothing has ever been made popular because of the US.
(1) It's not, "Americans ", as a nation writing this, or believing this; it is just a few people nobody has ever heard of. ... If it wasn't the middle of the night when BP uploaded this, people across the US would be correcting the errors -- not just people on the other half of the globe. ... (I rated 2/3rds false the Nat'l Park post) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (2) The title clearly says, "Things America Made POPULAR" -- not "invented". The European BP commenters are replying, "but it was invented elsewhere", as though they don't understand the difference.
Ok, so THIS is why there are so many popular US bashing articles on BP. Because the US claims credit for EVERYTHING popular in the entire world. SOME people from the US have no comprehension that the rest of the word invents popular things, or that things existed before the US made them popular.
Xeno: ... If BP would have posted this 12 hours later, when Americans are awake and the other half of the globe is asleep, you would have seen the same corrections you and others have made -- but without the bile. ... You are conflating what a few people post with the idea that, "the US claims credit for EVERYTHING".
Load More Replies... Lol this post, "what did Americans make popular?" Americans: "everything" European BP commenters: "nope."
QBFT: (1) It's not, "Americans ", as a nation writing this, or believing this; it is just a few people nobody has ever heard of. ... If it wasn't the middle of the night, people across the US would be correcting the errors -- not just people on the other half of the globe. (I rated 2/3rds false the Nat'l Park post) . . . . . . . (2) The title clearly says, "Things America Made POPULAR" -- not "invented". The European BP commenters are replying, "but it was invented elsewhere" as though they don't understand the difference.
Load More Replies... Many things are considered negative (mainly junk food and sodas, tipping culture, Tiktok,...). And, many others can even be considered failures when "the rest of the world" has tried them (Halloween, Black Friday, Proms,...). In short, not convinced by this list.
How is Hallowe'en a failure in the Celtic country it originated in?
Load More Replies... These 53 BP Posts = "POPULAR". ... Not, 'x' also exists ... Not, "this isn't the best" ... Not "this wasn't the first". ... It's as though a lot of Panda's who comment at 11:00 hours GMT (before the sun rose in the US) don't know what 'popular' means.
Hilarious thread. Every week BP people bemoan the US bashing, then they finally get a thread of their own to laud their accomplishments and largely fill it with deluded lies. This, America, is why there are so many bashing threads. We love you, but in the words of Eddie Izzard, "Do you know there are other countries?".
This was a thread poorly disguised as "yay for the US" - I did *not* see most of this as good. It seems to me to be cherry picked from idiots so others can bash the US in the comments.
Load More Replies... While I was initially annoyed (my reactions were more like "that's Irish", "that's German", etc.), the article does have a point. The US, through film and TV, has become the most recognisable nation on earth. Everyone knows Coca Cola and McDonald's. And living in Japan, pretty much *everyone* thinks that Halloween is American. It isn't, of course, but with the global platform it has, everything that is popular in the US is going to seep into the rest of the world, and rightly or wrongly be considered American. It can at times be extremely frustrating for those of us who are in fact, not American (there are a few of us), but it's an undeniable truth that a lot of what I know about other countries has in some way come to me via the US.
Everybody: Arguing about which thing were invented in America/ made popular in America That one spammer: EvErYbOdY NeEdS To TrY ThIs JoB
Choreographed dance has always been a thing long before the US.
Load More Replies... All these, and turning round your corner at a crossroads has not become a thing.
i approached the article with an open mind, but all postings about brands need to be reviewed. in many instances, the biggest brand is the killer of many smaller or at least similar ones, so how is this a good thing? Force fed and imposed is not made popular. Similarly, made popular should include things that aren't exported as such (social phenomena like the graduation prom, although this is a bad example, since people never needed an occasion for a party) or things that were indeed huger in us than in the origin countries, but automobiles and french fries don't qualify.
I would like to add a couple of things that I think America has made popular. One thing is Democracy or perhaps better known as *representative government"; and another thing that I believe has been popularized by America is the notion of women's rights. When we see anti government protests going on in Iran and in China at the same time, I personally am uplifted and amazed. I know that there have been such uprisings even 2000 years ago. But in our day and age, for men to fight for women's rights....for unarmed citizens to stand up to the army.....well, of course I cannot be 100% sure but I think that tradition of free speech in the US has been an example. Especially protests over the past 60 years: anti war, women's rights, civil rights, black lives matter. The images of these successful protests have been seen around the world, and hopefully have inspired others.
I hate how everyone's saying "but that was first in ----" yeah maybe but it's talking about when it BECAME popular
Top comments come in 3 categories: 1. “No they did something close but largely unrelated in ______ first!” That is often not even correct. 2. Yeah and it’s terrible. 3. I’m edgy! I’ve never even heard of McDonalds or the kardashians! I’m so cool!
I certainly wish I'd not heard of the Kardashians...
Load More Replies... Years ago I was told that American TV screens nothing but American productions. Not sure if that's still the case today.
LoL. Not true at least not since satellite dishes
Load More Replies... Why are there so many downvotes from item 35 onwards. Does a downvote mean that I dislike the post , or the product / issue mentioned in the post?
They forgot Majorettes. Fading now, but many small towns here used to have a club.
Wait! Nothing good ever comes form the US! We all know this. And nothing has ever been made popular because of the US.
