Andy Pryce

Footie, 15 years and cultural convergence

I arrived back in Washington with my family last October after a 15 year gap. The US and the DC region have changed in immeasurable ways since the early nineties. Many of our previous cultural references are now invalid. Seinfeld was THE comedy when we left, everyone knew what you were referring to when you mentioned "The Soup Nazi". Downtown DC was still recovering from the riots in the late 60s - there is now a vibrant, thriving downtown area around the Verizon center. Northern Virginia was pretty homogenous - it is now a lot more diverse and interesting. Perhaps more importantly to me though - you can now get footie (soccer) on cable TV.
 
I am an avant Liverpool fan. If I was living at home I would have a season pass like my brother. I read fansites and forums such as The Rattle every day.  

This weekend we play that lot from Manchester in England's biggest domestic soccer game. Fox Soccer Channel tells me their audience for British Football is continually growing - so much so that they are soon to be listed on the Nielsen ratings. This brings up the question of cultural convergence. Is the UK becoming more like the US (as many academic, I suppose pundits, say) and the US a little bit more like the UK? It's a difficult question for me to answer. My family is trans-atlantic in nature. I am equally at home at a baseball game over here as I am at a footie (soccer) game in the UK. Has our partially shared culture, sporting or otherwise impacted US and UK values? I grew up watching the A Team and Charlie's Angels in the UK - my predecessors' were do doubt partially moulded by Hemingway and Arthur Miller, their US counterparts by Olivier's Henry V. Can we measure the relationship between the degree of convergence in values and maybe policy against cultural penetration? Will our unique relationship with the US deepen if Liverpool put four past that lot tomorrow?

Posted at 07:30 15 September 2008 by Andy Pryce  |  Comments[1]