The “world” doesn’t consume US-produced media “in droves” anymore, there are still some locations where that probably still happens (like Denmark, probably, I’v

The “world” doesn’t consume US-produced media “in droves” anymore, there are still some locations where that probably still happens (like Denmark, probably, I’ve never been there so maybe I’m wrong), but at the same time there are also places where US media used to dominate but it doesn’t anymore. For example in Romania, where I live, the Spotify year-end charts for 2023 had the first US artist (not Taylor Swift, mind you) in about 15th or 16th place, and Spotify is a platform generally used by the more Westernized cohort, /trending on YT is absolutely dominated by Romanian-only songs and media. I’d go even further and say that (some) Americans’ mistaken belief that their culture/media still dominates stuff at the global level, unencumbered, is a good explanation for many of the US’s geo-political missteps from the last 10-15 years or so. The age of Rocky/Rambo and Michael Jackson is long gone.