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Examples of Cultural Homogenisation

Now that we know what cultural homogenisation is, what are some examples of it in real life?

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What are some examples of cultural homogenisation?

Some of the most prominent examples of cultural homogenisation in the real world are: food, music, celebrations and fashion. We will be taking a deep dive into each of these in this section of the website.

1. Food

While food worldwide is usually unique and diverse, most people have shifted towards more westernised food practices like frying, fast foods, the use of other meats, the three meals a day ideology just to name a few. Many meals that people have today are simply modified versions of Western food.

An example of this is Japan’s food history. Before the 1970s, most Japanese meals were traditional foods. However, in 1970 when the first KFC opened, the manager overheard foreigners reminiscing about having turkey for dinner. This resulted in the creation of the ‘Party Barrel’, which exploded into popularity later in 1874 after a marketing campaign.

Image showing the party barrel

Western food entered Japan much earlier though. Europeans entered Japan as early as in 1543 and have since been influencing the Japanese diet. The introduction of cooking books would later arrive in 1872 and this introduced many more European dietary ideas such as eating three meals a day, contrary to the traditional two meals a day the Japanese were used to. It also encouraged the use of many more types of meats such as pork and .

The flesh of a young calf, used as food. (Oxford Dictionary)

2. Music

Modern music is known for its simplicity and unoriginality. While old works had unique instruments and a wide range of genres. As time went on and technology improved, music started to deteriorate.

This started in the 2000s as technology evolved into the music industry. Music became cheaper to produce and it was easier to get sales. Instead of selling physical media like cassette tapes or CDs, music could be streamed and sold online. With its popularisation, lots of artists could make easy money. Instead of relying on sales, all they needed to make money was a click from a screen on most streaming platforms, for example, Spotify. This along with the fact that these people try to replicate past hits to get the most success.

Image showing a phone with Spotify and other music apps on it.

This revolution in the music industry led to the making production and distribution of music much more cost-effective. This led to waves of artists seeking quick profits by replicating past hits as it is no longer worth it to try and experiment with new techniques. making modern music less original and diverse compared to older eras. As this trend continued, music from around the world started sounding more and more similar as time went on and traditional elements from diverse cultures are rarely added.

3. Celebrations

Many celebrations are shared around the world. A well-known example of this is Christmas. While being a Christian holiday originally since around the 300s. Since the 1800s, It has become a worldwide phenomenon with around 400 million people around the world celebrating it. Of all of those people, 81% of them aren’t Christian.

Image showing a celebration of christmas

Another example is Halloween, another celebration done by Christians but is done all around the world, specifically in 37 countries on October 31st. Most European countries but the amount of Asian countries has also increased significantly. Children of different cultures can be seen trick or treating in a lot of these countries today.

This contributes to cultural homogenization because these originally specific cultural or religious celebrations, such as the two mentioned earlier, have evolved into global phenomena. They are now celebrated by people of various backgrounds, often leading to the standardization of these holidays and replacing more unique local practices.

4. Fashion

A real-world example of the spread of cultural homogenisation through fashion is the rise of T-shirts, Shorts, Jeans, and other informal clothing. Specifically this can be seen through the popular K-Pop groups BTS and Blackpink who were seen blending old-school streetwear concepts such as logo T-shirts, bucket hats, and athleisure with new ideas that speak to the Korean market such as pastel colours and designs.

Epicene: Having characteristics of both sexes or no characteristics of either sex; of indeterminate sex. Oxford Dictionary.

Image showing the party barrel

These styles were soon spread to Western countries. This in effect led many people to stop wearing their traditional clothing as they thought Western designs were the new norm in fashion and classic designs were not.

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