Written half in English and half in Romanian, “Americandrim,” brings up the issue of globalization and its effects on language, national identity, culture, and the economy. The song is a social critique aimed at Romania’s propensity towards everything foreign and imported, from food to clothes, brands, and languages.
Puya (the stage name of Dragos Gardescu) is a Romanian rap artist and one of the founding members of La Familia, one of the first hip-hop groups in Romania. Their road to fame did not lack scandals and obstacles, and their popularity reached an all-time high with the release of their 1998 album Nicaieri nu-i ca acasa (There’s no place like home). After much controversy surrounding some of the band members, Puya launched his solo career in 2008, collaborating with various Romanian artists on some of the most acclaimed Romanian hip-hop songs.
Written half in English and half in Romanian, the song “Americandrim,” released in 2011, brings up the issue of globalization and its effects on language, national identity, culture, and the economy. Like the rest of Puya’s music, “Americandrim” is a social critique aimed at Romania’s propensity towards everything foreign and imported, from food to clothes, brands, and languages. According to the song, Romanians now prefer and know everything about the United States – “McDonalds, Michael, Notorious BIG; George Bush, Coca Cola si MTV; Hollywood, Mike Tyson, Iraq; FBI, CIA, Hamburger, Hot Dog; Bill Gates, Windows, Microsoft” – but know little about Romania: “Nadia Comaneci, Tiriac, Ceausescu, Hagi, Dracula.”
The title “Americandrim” is an adaptation into Romanian of “American Dream.” Romanian is going through a slow process of hybridisation because of the massive influx of lexical borrowings from English, and according to the song, this is particularly harmful to Romanian language, as Romanians, especially teenagers, see it as a trendy thing to do while, oftentimes, their mastery of their mother tongue is flawed. The song thus openly critiques those who prefer using English words to their Romanian equivalents: “rating” instead of “audienta,” “fitness” instead of “sala de sport,” “sound” instead of “sunet,” and “bro” instead of “tovaras” are some of the examples pointed out by Puya.
Moreover, as the song emphasises, this process of linguistic and cultural metamorphosis climaxes in an erasure of personal identity, since Romanians are not allowed to be original anymore: “Sunt contestat ca-ncerc sa fiu original; Ca pun ceva de la noi in rapu' asta din Salajan” (People question me if I try to be original; or bring something new to the rap music of Salajan). Ironically enough, the song also points out that knowledge of English is vital if Romanians want to survive in Romania: “Nici n-o sa intelegi ce zic daca nu stii limba engleza” (You will not understand me if you don’t speak English).
In a language rich with colloquialisms and English borrowings, representative of hip-hop culture, “Americandrim” raises a serious question that is relevant not only in Romania but in other countries that have been affected by globalisation, the United States included. The message the song puts across, thus, is that Romanians should preserve their national identity by not neglecting their own culture and what is authentically Romanian.
