Austropop - A Transcultural Style and a Product of Cultural Contact

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1, 0, University of Vienna (Anglistik/Amerikanistik), course: CSI: Vienna, language: English, abstract: In this paper, I have tried to describe what a cultural transformation can be, using Austropop as a specifically Austrian example. For that, I first have rethought articles by Erward Larkey, Richard Wagnleitner and Gerd Gemnden. Their contributions and the critical class debates were necessary in order to understand cultural exchanges in a German speaking context. Going back in history and reconsidering the roots of certain developments can shed light on the reasons for their existence, as in the case of Austropop. Therefore, I have added a short history of Austropop that focuses more on the how and why than on its actors. In chapter three, I have analyzed a particular Austropop artist and compared him to his American 'counterpart' and pointed out the differences, similarities and especially novelties that came to life through a cultural exchange.