It's just a song.

While I was at Muncie, I had access to high speed internet. A few weeks prior to my Muncie assignment, my sister let me have a copy of the song, Wo Bist Do by the German band Rammstein. Up until that time, my only knowledge of Rammstein were of some vague connections to white supremacist groups here in the United States. While white supremacists may appreciate the band and their songs, it didn’t necessarily mean that the band held the same views. Fortunately, that sentiment seemed to be confirmed when I looked up the band on Wikipedia. Now that I knew that I wasn’t going to rock out with a band that would rather exterminate me and other like me, I went ahead and listened to their songs on Napster which I could do since I had broadband.

Anyone who knows me well would say that I have a very eclectic taste in music. Rammstein is at the outer limits of what I like. That is, the general sound of their music. Most of the music I sampled, I honestly didn’t care for. But I found and downloaded the song, Amerika.

On the surface, Amerika seems to be another America bashing song. The main message, though, seems to be railing against Americanization of the world. Indeed, plenty of the American backlash can also be attributed to the impression of American culture rather than its foreign policy. Who can deny the ubiquity of Coca-Cola or McDonalds? Can a moviegoer in the Philippines expect to not be able to see a Hollywood movie?

We're all living in America,
America is wunderbar.

Isn’t it?

While, I won’t pretend that Americanization is not taking place, I do have to balk at the Anti-American sentiments that are based on it. How can companies like Coca-Cola be so successful? It’s because people are buying their products! They have this cause—and yet, they don’t have the backbone to actually do anything about it other than bitch. Let’s continue to use Coca-Cola as an example. I have heard the excuse that Coca-Cola drives away competition in foreign countries. People support Coke because they can’t get anything else. What hogwash. Drink water. Drink goat-milk. No one but customer causes the coin to cross the counter.