American culture is one of the world's most exported — Hollywood cinema, TV series, pop-rock-hip-hop music, fast food, fashion, video games: few contemporary cultures have shaped the global imagination as much as the US since 1945. It's also a culture of extreme internal diversity, every major city offering its Chinatown, Little Italy, Little Havana, K-Town, Koreatown, Mexicantown, Polish neighborhood — heritage of successive immigration waves.
American music is probably the most universal contribution. New Orleans saw jazz born at the turn of the 20th century in Storyville and Tremé neighbourhoods (Buddy Bolden, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Jelly Roll Morton). Memphis carried the blues (Beale Street, B.B. King, W.C. Handy) then rock'n'roll with Elvis Presley (Sun Studio in 1954). Detroit hosted Motown (Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross) then techno (Juan Atkins, Derrick May). New York saw hip-hop born in 1973 in the Bronx (DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, KRS-One, Wu-Tang Clan), punk at CBGB (Ramones, Patti Smith, Television), disco at Studio 54. Nashville is the world capital of country (Grand Ole Opry, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks). Seattle carried grunge (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden). Los Angeles hosts the record industry (Capitol Records) and saw West Coast hip-hop emerge (Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Tupac, Kendrick Lamar).
Cinema concentrated at Hollywood since 1910 — the majors (Paramount, Universal, Warner, Disney, Sony, MGM) produce 80% of global box-office. The Walk of Fame (Hollywood Boulevard, 2,700 stars), Universal and Warner Bros studios, TCL Chinese Theatre, Dolby Theatre (Oscars), Hollywood Sign are cinephile pilgrimage spots. NYC remains the independent cinema capital (Sundance institute, Tribeca festival) and Broadway (40 Theater District venues) is the world musical reference.
American art shines from NYC (MoMA, Guggenheim, Whitney, MET — one of the world's five largest museums) with schools of abstract expressionism (Pollock, Rothko, De Kooning), pop art (Warhol, Lichtenstein, Rauschenberg), minimalism, street art (Basquiat, Haring, Shepard Fairey). American photography (Walker Evans, Diane Arbus, Ansel Adams, Richard Avedon) and street art (Banksy marked Detroit, NYC) are also major.
Literature counts among the most influential: Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Toni Morrison, Cormac McCarthy, Don DeLillo, Philip Roth. New Hollywood and indie cinema (Scorsese, Coppola, Tarantino, Coen, Anderson, Fincher) extend this narrative heritage.
Sport is a religion: NFL American football (Super Bowl global TV event), NBA basketball (Madison Square Garden, Staples Center, Boston Garden), MLB baseball (Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, Dodger Stadium), NHL hockey, golf (Augusta Masters, US Open), motor racing (Indy 500, NASCAR). Attending an NBA or MLB game is an essential cultural experience ($50-300 a seat).
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- East Coast — New York, Boston, Washington: the urban and historical heart of the US.
- California — Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego: cinema, tech, mythical beaches and spectacular nature.
- Western Parks — Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite: the world's greatest natural landscape reservoirs.
- Florida — Miami, Orlando, Keys: beach, Disney, Everglades and the Latin dimension of the South.
- Hawaii — Honolulu, Maui, Big Island: the most accessible US tropical archipelago.