The pageantry of Oprah Winfrey’s talk show, the Coca-Cola empire, Michael Jackson’s turn from the King of Pop into an iconic global recluse: American pop culture – Hollywood cinema, television, pop music – dominates the rest of the world through its hegemonic presence. Does that make everyone a hybridized American, or do these elements find mediation within the other cultures that consume them?

Fabricating the Absolute Fake. America in Contemporary Pop Culture by Jaap Kooijman applies concepts of postmodern theory – Baudrillard’s hyperreality and Eco’s “absolute fake,” among others – to this globally mediated American pop culture in order to examine both the phenomenon itself and its appropriation in the Netherlands, as evidenced by such diverse cultural icons as the Elvis-inspired crooner Lee Towers, the Moroccan-Dutch rapper Ali B, musical tributes to an assassinated politician, and the Dutch reality soap opera scene.


A fascinating exploration of how global cultures struggle to create their own “America” within a post-9/11 media culture, "Fabricating the Absolute Fake" reflects on what it might mean to truly take part in American pop culture.