International and Social Impact
American popular music has become extremely popular internationally. Rock, hip hop, jazz, country and other styles have fans across the globe. BBC Radio DJ Andy Kershaw, for example, has noted that country music is popular across virtually the entire world . Indeed, out of "all the contributions made by Americans to world culture... (American popular music) has been taken (most) to heart by the entire world" . Other styles of American popular music have also had a formative effect internationally, including funk, the basis for West African Afrobeat, R&B, a major source for Jamaican reggae, and rock, which has profoundly influenced most every genre of popular music worldwide. Rock, country, jazz and hip hop have become an entrenched part of many countries, leading to local varieties like Australian country music, Tanzanian Bongo Flava and Russian rock.
Rock has had a formative influence on popular music, which had the effect of transforming "the very concept of what popular music" is while Charlie Gillett has argued that rock and roll "was the first popular genre to incorporate the relentless pulse and sheer volume of urban life into the music itself" .
The social impacts of American popular music have been felt both within the United States and in foreign countries. Beginning as early as the extravaganzas of the late 19th century, American popular music has been criticized for being too sexually titillating and for encouraging violence, drug abuse and generally immoral behavior. Criticisms have been especially targeted at African American styles of music as they began attracting white, generally youthful audiences; blues, jazz, rock and hip hop all fall into this category.
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