market shall make you free, The

Spectator, The, Jun 24, 2000 by Michlethwait, John, Wooldridge, Adrian

Harmless fluff, you might argue. Yet the anti-global prejudice that MI2 fuels is, if anything, even more widespread amongst the chattering classes than worries about immigration: that when it comes to culture, globalisation simply means crass Americanisation. For the French, this notion might as well be the second line of the Marseillaise. But it is increasingly a middle-class prejudice everywhere. Witness the howls in old rectories across the shires about Hollywood `Americanising' Colditz and the Royal Navy's capture of the Enigma decoding machine; at prep schools children pray that Warner Bros will let Harry Potter keep his nationality. Even in the United States, Disney is apologised for wherever Chablis is drunk.

Some of these examples may indeed be ghastly. But the basic idea that globalisation is universalising dumb American culture is as far-fetched as the plot of M12. Look around the entertainment industry, and it soon becomes clear that American domination is limited to one area. In pop music, Britain has long given America more than a run for its money; now Latin America, Germany, France and even Iceland are invading the airwaves in the United States. Master Potter rules the bestseller list, just as Andrew Lloyd Webber reigns the global theatre. Wander down the (mainly European) fashion emporia of Rodeo Drive or gaze at American children fighting over (Japanese) Pokemon cards, and you might wonder whether Washington not Paris needs a culture ministry.

The exception of course is film and television. But even here things are exaggerated mercilessly. When Europe deregulated its television industry, the new channels swelled with American pap; now all the top shows across Europe are home-grown ones. British satellite television used to be filled with reruns of Dallas; now it shows ITV comedies that you did not want to watch first time. Trash to be sure; but British trash.

In feature films, Hollywood does indeed dominate the box office in almost every country. But how American is Hollywood? This week another studio - Universal fell into foreign hands, when Seagram, a Canadian-American hybrid, was bought by France's Vivendi. Indeed, the whole point about Hollywood is that, unlike its subsidised European competitors, it has never particularly cared about the nationality of its talent. Mission Impossible 2 may star Cruise, but it is directed by John Woo from Hong Kong, and it co-stars Thandie Newton and the still surely Welsh Sir Anthony Hopkins.

If globalisation's crimes against culture are often exaggerated, its positive effects are often even more glaringly ignored. To begin with, it not only helps crass blockbusters, but also increasingly much more highbrow `micromarkets'. Musicians, artists, television channels, magazines and even fine wines that would scramble for a market in only one country, can now exploit their niche in every country in the world. (The Spectator Wine Club has been one obvious beneficiary.) The Internet's role as a cheap distribution system for many (non-liquid) forms of upmarket art will only increase this trend.