A Taste of "Americacore"
Why TikTok users are preparing “aesthetic” meals of hotdogs and gatorade
The first time I was introduced to the concept of “Americancore” was on my For You page.
Without context, it was absolutely bizarre: in many ways, it resembled many of the other “#aesthetic” videos floating around TikTok, with soft calming music over filtered shots of hands assembling a meal. This video was a far cry from the “aesthetic” videos of someone preparing their morning coffee or their Instagram-worthy lunch, though - while it was shot like an “aesthetic” video, with pastel filters and a music box cover of a J-Pop song, it was a video of a TikTok user pouring a Gatorade (referred to as a “super cute American drink) into an “authentic American” mason jar, tagged #americancore.
Looking through the #americancore tag was like falling down a red, white, and blue rabbit hole. Scrolling down the tag revealed other videos of its kind: Tiktok users preparing “aesthetic” meals like hotdogs and going on trips to “aesthetic” grocery stores like Publix and Whole Foods, leaving me (and other TikTokers) with one question.
What’s the deal with Americancore?
The Americancore trend has been described as “flipping the script” on modern-day Orientalism. Since VICE covered Americancore in May, TikTok users have continued to create and share videos, resulting in an increase in interest in the term during early July.
Satirical Americancore videos take their cues from hashtags like #japancore and #asiancore, aesthetic styles which heavily feature things from Asian cultures. Instagram and TikTok’s #japancore tags share the same “look”: heavily filtered “aesthetic” pictures of Asian fashion or Asian things, from plush toys, to snacks, to rooms completely decked out in all things “kawaii”. “Kawaii”, or “cute” in Japanese, refers to “cute cultures” popularized in Japan like Hello Kitty, lolita fashion, and everything cute and pastel.
Using Asian culture as an “aesthetic” is not new: from fashion, traditional games like Mahjong, to makeup trends that emulate Asian features, different parts of Asian culture have been appropriated by those who aren’t Asian and used as an “aesthetic”, with little regard for the cultures that are being used for their aesthetics.
“Americancore” videos call out the use of Asian culture (and Asian food) as an “aesthetic” by showing how strange it would look if people used American culture in the same way. This has given rise to other satirical trends like Britishcore and Mexicancore, which also parody videos that use other cultures for aesthetics.
Trends like Americancore are ultimately a small part of a much larger conversation happening on the internet and beyond about cultural appropriation.
On TikTok, Black creators have rallied under #BlackTikTokStrike to protest a lack of credit for their work such as dances, which are often used without credit by white influencers. From dances to hairstyles and more, people online have taken to social media to criticize the appropriation of other people’s cultures, using hashtags just like #Americancore.