Hello friends, how has your week gone? Well, I hope! I celebrated my birthday on Monday, that was nice. Capcom released some Street Fighter UNO, which is awesome and of course SSFIIHD Remix is practically here!

I need something to keep my mind going until then, as such I wanted to distill a very broad topic and make a concise blog. Normally I'd put up a bunch of links for the topic that I want to talk about and bring in the history of each subject but I've discovered that I solicit more comments when I let you fill in the blanks. So here goes...

I believe that the USA is stuck in a creative death spiral.

If you look at popular culture through the ages you will see certain patterns emerge. The ebb and flow of popular culture, the changing trends and tastes and even the fight for censorship, authority and youth culture. We've seen the US become the catalyst for some of the most amazing global trends, only to turn around and abandon what they have created, or worse, let the corporate entities strip it of its uniqueness, repackage the idea and sell it to the masses.

Let's take jazz for example. It is said that jazz is the only original American art form. Jazz incorporated the early forms of progressive band music, poetry, gospel and dance. I agree that the music, ideology and culture of jazz was original, however it was not the only original American artform. The USA also spawned a modern version of jazz known as Hip Hop. Similar to jazz it was not solely a form of music as it was multiple elements. True Hip Hop consists of four elements; the emcee, the DJ, the b-boy and the graffiti writer. In its own way Hip Hop has a voice, way of dance, art and street poetry that perfectly mirrors what Jazz had done 100 years prior.

However between the creation of Hip Hop in the 70's and the market saturation in the 80's, it fell in and out of favor with popular culture. Was it due to the overexposure on film and television? The abandonment of the other elements in favor of, and exclusively to the rapper? Our perpetually fickle youth culture? Or was it a little bit of all of the above? For whatever reason the USA seems hell bent on creating wondrous things and then leaving them by the wayside before they get a chance to mature.

What is interesting is how other countries embrace and keep the cultures that we create. These other countries not only keep the cultures alive but actually allow them to flourish and mature. The four elements of Hip Hop are very alive and well in every major country on Earth. Japanese and French b-boy crews have some major dance battles every year. The best graffiti artists are just as likely to come from an impoverished favela in Brazil as they would from a German metropolis. DJ's the world over compete in multiple arenas. Yet the four elements are most often ignored in the USA, where we now associate Hip Hop music with the solitary rapper.

Take a look at the legacy of the other creative cultures that the US was instrumental in shaping. Notice how they too failed to evolve. In other countries animation is respected as an artform. There are films for every member of society. From family features, comedies, fantasies and romance to more adult fare. Yet in the USA we have allowed ourselves to believe that animation is meant only for children or at the very least families. Adult animation, like anything else with the word "adult" is simply taboo. We try to deceive ourselves as a morally superior country when we still have high levels of domestic violence, open and overt racism and sexism and channel after channel dedicated to insipid "reality" programming that caters to fans of sex, guns and controversy. Some moral superiority indeed!

The biggest obstacle facing US culture is our own treatment of the creative industries. We have a history of self-censorship that tend to limit, or worse, force those artistic endeavors into stagnation. As comic books were crippled by the publishing industry in a knee-jerk reaction to the controversial book, the Seduction of the Innocent, by adopting the Comics Code Authority. The graphic novel format and associated culture was barely getting started before it was crippled by the CCA. As jazz and Hip Hop had their own voices and outlet so too were comics beginning to change the mainstream. The graphic artists, illustrators and typists of the day changed the perception of art and culture. Andy Warhol never created anything as much as he exploited the things he grew up with, such as the panels, word balloons and fonts of comic books. Yet the comic book format itself would never become culturally relevant outside of Hollywood remakes, videogame licensing and a core following. As the comic medium was crippled by self-censorship so too did the music industry and videogame industry choose a similar path. Those industries should have instead fought a long and hard battle to change the collective consciousness of authority and media.

By conceding to these rating systems the message has been sent to the mainstream that these are niche products rather than creative outlets. They are to be regulated and controlled like a utility. The message is that animation, comics and videogames are supposedly made and marketed towards children. When violence or sex turns up in one the US media has a field day. But this isn't always the case abroad. In Japan, in Europe they are more accepting of comics, graphic novels and even videogames as an artistic medium. These mediums can explore any number of themes without any hang-up attached to them.

Comic characters (like TV characters in Japan) are not meant to remain perpetually fighting through the same obstacles forever, but rather share an interesting arc and move on. Superman would not have been continuously fighting against Lex Luthor for 70 years had he been created in Japan. Abroad those epic characters are meant to be retired and allow new legends to be born. Comics and graphic novels have their own audiences and this is understood. People don't look twice in Japan to a man reading a manga whereas an adult reading a comic book in the US is labeled some sort of immature kook.

I do not understand why the USA is unique in this regard. Why are we so willing to take a risk, innovate and create so much only to turn around and abandon these cultures? Why do we allow corporations to sell us cultures that we invented and when they fall out of favor? Why do we act surprised that those cultures are flourishing abroad?

It makes me angry that videogames are viewed with such disdain by the mainstream media. Often times they lack the perspective of a gamer. They fail to recognize the US contribution to electronic gaming, from the first electronic pinball machines to the first arcade cabinets and first home console systems. I doubt that most even recognize that SEGA is an acronym for Service Games, a company founded by an American while living in Japan. As the great American artistic and industrial movements so too did videogames deserve some recognition. The art, literature and language of gaming is unique. The music itself has become iconic and recognizable in concert halls, as well as in the club setting with homebrew DJ's using 8-bit synthesizers. Game culture is a unique and vital part of the greater American and global culture. It should never be pigeonholed by the media outlets.

There would be no 1UP, no Kotaku, no game journalism debates or heated board battles had it not been for US gaming industry and US gaming culture. Yet when will we allow videogames to mature? Why does the game industry insist on developing sequel after sequel and become worried when the 5th generation of Guitar Hero, or 8th of Tony Hawk, doesn't do as well as the previous titles? Videogames, like the rest of the entertainment industry, make money but are essentially locked in a death spiral of creativity. They continuously borrow from each other in a vain attempt to hit that profit margin. The true potential for growth exists in allowing these creative mediums to mature and grow. To see games made and marketed for every age and demographic. These are the problems holding back the US comic book and animation industries as well. They are the problems with videogames. These things will never mature because we will not allow them to.

How can we change this?