TRANSFORMATIONS OF TASTE - AMERICANIZATION, GENERATIONAL CHANGE AND AUSTRALIAN CULTURAL CONSUMPTION

Researchers within the field of cultural imperialism as well as the mo re recently developed globalisation paradigm have tended to dwell upon the economic or corporate dimensions of global cultural flows and hav e been largely indifferent to the domain of the everyday cultural tast es and forms of cultural consumption that exist in particular national contexts. This article seeks to redress this focus through an examina tion of one particular instance of cultural imperialism, the widely he ld belief in ?he Americanisation of Australian society. Using data fro m a major research project inquiring into Australian everyday culture the article focuses on the changes in cultural tastes and preferences that are evident in three generational cohorts: contemporary young adu lts, a segment of the 'baby-boom' generation now in middle age, and a group of older Australians born in the years following World War I and the 1920s. The article documents a trend in which overseas influences , particularly those originating from America, appear to be increasing ly shaping Australians' tastes in a wide range of cultural domains. Ne vertheless, despite these changes in cultural taste Australians of ail ages retain a strong sense of a distinctive national identity. Such f indings have implications for an understanding of cultural globalisati on as a process of hybridisation and intermixing.