Are Gladiator films irrelevant? What about Revolutionary/Civil War films? Cowboys remain a piece of cultural identity for Americans. The popularity of genres waxes and wanes but each has hooks that bring people back. Sci-fi tells us what could be and period pieces/westerns remind us of what once happened (with loads of embellishments). Turkey and Argentina have similar bits of cowboy culture but I don't live there so I won't presume to speak about them.