There are an abundant amount of similarities and differences between Italy and The United States. But when it comes to pop culture, I personally believe it leans more toward having more differences than similarities. The other thing to consider is that many movies, tv shows, and even music is taken from the states and listened to/watched here. Here are some things I've noticed about the pop culture differences:
The selection of genres in movies is a lot broader in the United States than it is here in Italy. I tend to see more romantic comedies, comedies, action, and thrillers in the US. On wednesdays people from OUA go to the movie theater and it’s a movie made in the US and plays in English but in America I never go see movies that are made in Italy nor do we even have showings in Italian. I feel like italian films are focused more on the culture or history. In America we have a lot of unrealistic movies that include gory scenes, inappropriate things, and special effects. For example, I dont see any animated movies like Disney that are italian. But this observation might be just because of the Italian films i've been exposed to.
When it comes to tv shows, I've talked with multiple people that I work with just to see what they do in their free time and they have mentioned tv shows that I am not familiar with. But they were very familiar with some tv shows I threw out. I noticed that many people watch american tv shows in italian. For example, at my famitaly dinner one of the girls started rapping Fresh Prince of Bel Air and then sang some of the Frozen songs with me. They also mentioned how they watch Friends, New girl, American Horror Story, and some others. As mentioned in the internship class, there are very few popular tv shows so many italians revert to watching american tv shows.
As for pop music, it is very very different. Trap music is now becoming a bigger thing in Italy. I mentioned to Sanja multiple rap songs and she had NO CLUE what some of them were, yet they are some of the most popular songs in America. From going out and being around Italians, I think they listen to a good majority of pop music instead of trap music. One of the biggest things that caught me off guard was one night I was out and they started playing cotton eye joe!!! I don't even know if every American knows that song..
Another thing that I consider when observing the differences between the pop cultures are the prominent things in each culture at this time. For example, movies, tv shows, and music have a huge influence on americans of all ages but especially teenagers and young adults. Americans idolize rappers and actors/actresses and some even make that a main focus of their lives.