Blog post Adorno

Hello All,

We are reading Adorno's thoughts on the "culture industry" for Tuesday. The concept was first put forward in a chapter from a book Adorno wrote with Horkheimer in the 1940s called the Dialectic of Enlightenment. As you will see, Adorno is down on popular culture. For both Adorno and Horkheimer, the culture industry named a process of increasing homogenization of cultural products (films, music, news, really any commodity), which resulted in increased conformity with and acceptance of dominant ideologies. Culture was not spontanously expressed and creatively produced; rather, culture was itself a product that was made by the leaders of the culture industry and sold to the unthinking masses.

So, I'd be curious to see what you all think about Adorno's assessment. No doubt the world has changed since the 40s, but is there anything in what Adorno says that rings true today? Is there anything that just doesn't seem to apply? Be as specific as you can. Try to offer examples or case studies from popular culture today to back yourself up!

See you all Tuesday.