Adorno and Horkheimer
Adorno and Horkheimer adopted the term ‘culture industry’ to
argue that the way in which cultural items were produced was analogous to how
other industries manufactured vast quantities of consumer goods. Adorno and Horkheimers
view of cultural production has, with some justification, often been portrayed
as the pessimistic lament of cultural elitists who were dismayed at what they
perceived to be the homogeneity and vulgarity of “mass” taste, and who were
concerned that the potential for artistic creativity in music, literature and
painting had been co-opted and corrupted by the production methods and
administrative regimes of industrial capitalism.
This means that Adorno and Horkheimer believe that the
culture industry forms mass audiences who can be easily manipulated by
capitalist corporations and authoritarian governments. They believe it limits
creativity for artists as everyone is now the same and the mass audience are
controlled and do not expect anything more. Artists now are seen as products
and we try to make as much money as possible in a short period of time as
singers now have a short ‘shelf life’.
Artists that follow this theory are JLS, One Direction
Justin Bieber and many more. They all have products sold of them which would
appeal to their target audience so that they make more money aside from
singing.
Artists who do not follow this theory would be less
mainstream artists someone like Lana Del Rey. She has a unique voice, a little
bit different to what the mass audience expects and she isn’t being tried to be
sold as a product.
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