But what, culturally, is coming out of Canada, Europe, Australia, South America, or Asia (outside of Japan)? Not much that is universally appealing.
Hollywood and American TV has a ton of Canadian actors, which reminds me of the Canadian brain drain article from yesterday - maybe that's not restricted to tech :-)
"Asia (outside of Japan)" I can only speak to India. I'd say yoga and various forms of meditation (TM and some others) are pretty big in the West, as is Indian cuisine. People typecast Bollywood as this exotic industry that churns out musicals with no kissing scenes (both outdated info) but its exports are reasonably influential in the Middle East and parts of Africa. But yes relative to its size, India hasn't had much cultural influence upon the world in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Canada: music, quite a few good writers for the size of the population, a generally nicer way of life than what I experienced in America.
Australia: I've never been there, so not much to comment on.
South America: food, dance, music, books.
Asia: food, books, dance, and again music.
Oh, and you left out Africa completely, again, Food, Dance, Music, I don't know any writers from there by name.
Funny how those four seem to be pretty common. At a guess, mr or mrs almostApatriot1 you haven't really been to any of those places, and if you have you probably didn't immerse.
If 'universal appeal' starts with 'has to be English and has to feel Western' then maybe only the UK and Australia would suit you. In that case try some Crowded House and have a slice of Cheddar on your sandwich.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowded_House
(as in, punch above your weight class in boxing)
That’s just from the top of my head. There’s big swaths of our culture that radiates from all around the world.
Now more often than not it will be cloned/absorbed in the US to the point US people won’t care to know where it comes from (and to be honest it’s not a issue).