The Simar Soni columnist examines the resurgence of American aesthetics and its political meaning. Credit: Weining Ding
One morning fresh in September in 2022, a Kim Kardashian job appeared on my flow. Against the radical American flag, she sported a denim-annim outfit and bright bleached blond hair. Its makeup was minimal and its bare buttocks exposed, free from the real American fashion. I knew, at 16, that Donald Trump would become president again.
This memory resurfaced in the fashion magazine managed by the students, the annual charitable show of Walk on April 25. The students gathered to watch the models adorn the track in prints and gingham boots. While I crossed the pages of this season magazine, I came across the shooting of Americana – one of the shoots I styled. I remember saving the cuts from the 60s and coke cans on my moodboard with enthusiasm. These images were surprisingly nostalgic, reminding me of summers in my little hometown, when I would roll my eyes on my friends who blow country music in their Jeep. Despite being a child of immigrants who would have lacked equal rights in the 1950s, there was something so comforting in this image of Midwest America. With hindsight, I have to ask how someone like me, who always dreamed of living in a big city, could find such comfort in this romantic “American” image?
Around the world, people make fun of what they perceive America: a collage of firearms, burgers and cowboys. On the other hand, America has motivated global culture for decades. Hollywood guides international film. New York is the epicenter of finance. Los Angeles is the Mecca of social media stars. Streetwear and hip-hop, from American cities, are now common all over the world.
Unsurprisingly, “the American” was however rejected by the national urban masses. For example, when many of us go abroad, we do not identify with America. While others are from France, India and Japan, we come from California, Texas or New York. My Canadian cousins present me as their “cousin of states”, not the United States. We make this distinction because Americans and non-Americans know that America is not unified as a single homogeneous nation. America is rather a country made up of many people and cultures.
In recent years, Americana has replaced many of these regional subcultures. Today is “cool” to be American. Kim Kardashian’s attempt to embody Marilyn Monroe’s Hollywood glamor tends on social networks for months. The rich students of the North adorn $ 400 American flag Ralph Lauren flag. Cowboy boots have become a must in the culture of influence. According to Interior radioCountry music is one of the fastest growth genres, with 20 billion flows in 2023. With the rise of stars like Chappell Roan and the renewal of Ethel Cain in pop culture, it is clear that America is so back.
This increase in American aesthetics is not new. There was a 54% increase In country music has listened to since 2005 and 2015, 70% of non -white Americans listened to country music once a week. These demographic changes are widely explained by the 2008 recession and September 11. In times of crisis, we are looking for stability. There is something beautiful to sit in a restaurant with your concern to be the milkshake to order. Our clothes are a reflection of our deepest desires. When we carry our “red, white and blue” faded, we are really continuing the promise of the American dream.
Even if the revival of Americana is an adaptation mechanism, it has been combined with an ultra-conservative policy, in particular the re-election of Trump. Some may say that this conservative change is a response to the millennials and the “ultra-liberal” ideology of the older generation Z. Is this conservative trend part of the process of research of political balance? I do not agree.
Generation Z was to be the most progressive generation. UCLA noted that a majority of the informed generation Z planned to vote for the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 elections. The change between political progressiveness and aesthetic conservatism was far too rapid. The conservative tide fell too quickly to be part of the regular pendulum of “ismes”.
As a merchants, we can and have recovered Americana. Dean Gillis’s Dean Gillispie dean Gillispie’s miniatures have been highlighted at the Museum of Modern Art, symbolizing his time in prison and his process with return. Lana Del Rey represents the visuals of modern adolescents through the visuals of the 1950s in her musical clips. She often collaborates with men of color, such as Asap Rocky, who were historically excluded from these styles of art. To be clear, there is nothing wrong with loving hats of fringes or cowboys, especially when you overthrow them in a unique and contemporary way.
However, today’s version of Americaa is far from being an adaptation strategy or an artistic subversion. Rather, it is a symptom of a greater conservative cultural revolution. In a world where to talk about the Trump administration can ruin your life and lead to the loss of your visa or your diploma, it is logical to know why students would line up with American ideals. In an America which is politically conflictual in any way possible, the dreams of a united “America” exceeds culture, serving as a recession indicator. Today, Americana is twinned with a harmful and determined rhetoric to create an external group. The already mystified “American dream” becomes more and more exclusive. Americana continues to report the reactionary political landscape that we enter. So go and wear these cowboy boots that appear on Instagram, but beware of the messaging behind them. In Penn, where first -year students (including myself) wear silk and troops rolled in the evenings – where we glorify good old American money – it is easy for us to be victims of Americana, first as aesthetic but early as ideology. And when Americaa is the dominant doctrine, our policy becomes based on a notion made of American hegemony and exceptionalism. We are starting to reject our enemies, our allies and even our fellow citizens when they do not correspond to the vision of what an “American” should be.
Simar Soni is a first -year college to study Danbury’s political sciences, Conn. His email is simars@sas.upenn.edu.