The dudes Theodor Adorno
Max Horkheimer
Frankfurt School
Enlightenment is progress?
America has huge produc9ve capacity in 1940s
The Culture Industry • Describes the industrial condi9ons in which culture is being produced • But also…the logic or the factory that informs cultural produc9on • Refers to a single system that explains the func9on of culture in contemporary society
The Culture Industry • Hollows out old categories of culture, like high art and folk culture • The culture industry replaces these things with falsehoods and “free selec9on” masquerading as free choice or democracy • Creates “mass decep9on”
Mass decep9on • Contemporary culture perpetuates the domina9on of human beings and nature under the veil of increasing freedom • Culture’s only role in contemporary society is to reproduce the values of capitalism • Fun is nothing more than “the prolonga9on of work”
3 important points about the produc9on of popular culture
1. Standardisa9on • Sameness and predictability in form and genre • Necessitated by mass commodifica9on of culture – turning culture into something that is bought and sold • Current obsession with “newness” – is it really new?
Also…Psuedo-‐Individualism
• Belief in one’s own individuality cons9tutes “pseudo-‐individualisa9on” • Enables standardisa9on to func9on • Makes “popular” culture (products of the culture industry) seem like genuine ar9s9c expressions.
2. Maintaining Status Quo • Popular culture only exists to maintain or reinforce the power of the status quo • Aims to distract people, not to engage them
3. Opposi9onal Possibili9es • Ar9s9c and cultural resistance has evaporated • Resistance is already factored in to the larger system • Rebellion keeps the system going
“something is provided for all so that none may escape”
Summary • Meaning and func9on of popular culture is determined by produc9on • By understanding how culture is produced we can understand how culture works (how it is consumed, what it means socially, etc) • Everything popular sucks
Cri9cisms • 1) Eli9st • 2) Historically limited • 3) Too totalising
What do you think?
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