Adorno and Horkheimer argue that cultural production has become standardized and industrialized like other manufacturing industries. They call this the "culture industry" which treats creative works as mass-produced commodities. It produces homogeneous, undemanding content through organized procedures aimed solely at profit. This standardized cultural output in turn creates passive, uniform consumption that is easily manipulated for commercial or political ends.
Examining Media and Ideology. Our starting point "media and Ideology" chapter from the book Media society: industries, images, and audiences
by David Croteau, William Hoynes.
Examining Media and Ideology. Our starting point "media and Ideology" chapter from the book Media society: industries, images, and audiences
by David Croteau, William Hoynes.
Art for change It is often taken for granted that art fBetseyCalderon89
Art for change?
It is often taken for granted that art functions as a tool and a vehicle of social change;
indeed, it was just this theme that we took up in our first discussion board posting. While the
vocal majority seemed to agree that art could foster social change, many of us, when
encountering work such as Warhol’s 200 One Dollar Bills or Marcel Duchamp’sFountain
might find ourselves wondering exactly what type of change such work could really make.
Does a painting that takes money for its subject do anything to unsettle a culture that seems
more and more to place the individual pursuit of money above the needs of the community?
Does a urinal inscribed with a forged signature (see Duchamp’s work mentioned above) do
anything more than offer a paltry challenge to the taste of a leisured class?
It was precisely the complicity of market system art like Duchamp’s and the American Pop
artists like Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg with the oppressive class that
was at the heart of a 1973 protest staged in front of another landmark Sotheby’s auction. On
that October day a group of New York City taxi drivers and artists stood before the renowned
auction house to call down Robert C. Scull who they claimed made his fortune robbing
cabbies and hawking art. Some of the artists marching in solidarity with the taxi cab drivers
rushed out to a nearby hardware store to by a snow shovel to sell at exorbitant price, poking
fun at Duchamp’s In Advance of the Broken Arm. Is this critique of art’s complicity with big
money an apt one?
The idea that the art market is synonymous with ‘business as usual’ is an idea that is as
pervasive today as ever—if not more so. As Eleanor Heartney reminds us in her lecture on
art and labour, one move made by activists of the recent Occupy Wall Street movement was
to set up occupations in a number of New York City’s museums. The organizers of the
Occupy Museums march declared in a public statement that “for the past decade and more,
artists and art lovers have been the victims of the intense commercialization and co-optation
or art.” They further claimed that “art is for everyone, across all classes and cultures and
communities” and not merely for the cultural elite, or the 1%. The artist activists closed their
statement by exhorting museums to open their minds and their hearts: “Art is for everyone!”
they claimed. “The people are at your door!”
These two protests demonstrate an abiding and perhaps growing suspicion of the received
idea that market system art can change things. But while market system art is placed under
intense scrutiny, a growing field of artists and educators have been working to disseminate
the practices and techniques of art making in order to sow the seeds of change. This
community based art (sometimes referred to as ‘dialogical art’ or ‘community arts’) seeks to
place in the hands of the marginalized, the worker, or, in the words of the ...
CMNS 1221 - Lecture Notes for ‘the Age of Staying Home’ MWilheminaRossi174
CMNS 1221 - Lecture Notes for ‘the Age of Staying Home’
MASS CULTURE ASSIGNMENT: There are FOUR questions in this
document. For EACH question, I want you to type an answer (approx.
250 words MINIMUM for each). Email me your four answers Before
APRIL 12th, please.
The Frankfurt School and Popular Culture
In this ‘lecture’ we’re going to look at a few important theories and theorists
in the study of popular culture.
To begin, we must understand what is meant by ‘popular culture’. When
most people use this term today, they are referring to the cultural texts of
mainstream American culture. TV shows like the Big Bang Theory,
musicians like Beyonce and Kanye West, movies like the Avengers. These
are all cultural texts that are available to large audiences, and that enjoy
widespread popularity. Not all popular culture is well received by critics, but
it is still ‘popular’ because many people like it, or talk about it, or even know
about it (the Kardashians).
No matter how stupid popular culture may seem at times, it’s important to
realize that there is no such thing as ‘pure’ entertainment. No TV show is
simply mindless entertainment – there are always messages and meanings to
be found. Popular culture – from TV shows to music videos – represents the
culture it comes from. It communicates the values and ideas of a culture, and
in this respect it is extremely useful to study popular culture.
Now, before the days of broadcast media (film, radio, TV, Internet) it was
generally assumed that the values and ideas of a society came from the top -
from the powerful people in society. As Marx wrote, “The ideas of the ruling
class are in every epoch the ruling ideas”. The institutions of power
employed art critics and authors and intellectuals, who told people what was
good art, what was bad art, and what culture was trying to communicate.
Think about the remaining forms of ‘high culture’ today. When you go to an
art gallery, you can look at the paintings and sculptures, but you usually end
up reading the signs next to the art, where someone else tells you what the
art is ‘about’. There are still cultural experts who know which opera singers
are ‘best’, and which classical music is most ‘important’.
If you ever want to see this kind of cultural elitism in action, go downtown
to the SFU Harbour Centre campus. Across Hastings Street from the
university, there is a store called Sikora Music. They sell classical music.
Everything about the store is designed to make you feel stupid. THEY know
classical music, and they know what is worth listening to, and what is not.
They even have a sign in their window, written in detailed calligraphy, that
says they have a “beginners bin” inside. Because (as we have all been
taught), Classical Music is very complex and only smart people can ‘get’ it,
and you would need to spend years LEARNING to appreciate it. Right?
…. right?
What else does the Ruling Class lik ...
Similar to Adorno and Horkheimer - The Culture Industry (15)
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Hadj Ounis's most notable work is his sculpture titled "Metamorphosis." This piece showcases Ounis's mastery of form and texture, as he seamlessly combines metal and wood to create a dynamic and visually striking composition. The juxtaposition of the two materials creates a sense of tension and harmony, inviting viewers to contemplate the relationship between nature and industry.
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1. Text taken from: Production of Culture/ Cultures of Production (ed) Paul Du Gay, Sage 1997
2. The X Factor is going to help you
understand…
• Adorno and
Horkeimer’s ‘Culture
Industry’
• Standardization
• Pseudo-individuality
• Capitalism
• Do you know what any
of these are?
6. TTHHEE CCUULLTTUURREE
IINNDDUUSSTTRRYY
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 Horkheimer argued
that the culture industry exhibited
an 'assembly-line character" which
could be observed in 'the
synthetic, planned method of
turning out its products.
7. TTHHEE XX--FFAACCTTOORR MMAACCHHIINNEE
Adorno and Horkheimer linked the idea of the 'culture
industry' to a model of 'mass culture' in which cultural
production had become a routine, standardized
repetitive operation that produced undemanding
cultural commodities which in turn resulted in a type
of consumption that was also standardized, distracted
and passive.
8. WWHHOO’’SS IINN
CCOONNTTOORRLL??
Adorno and Horkheimer's 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.
9. WWHHOO’’SS IINN
CCOONNTTOORRLL??
The capitalist corporation seems to enjoy an
almost omnipotent form of domination and
both the consumers and the creative artists
are not separate from but are directly
connected to this system of production.
REJECT EVERYTHING
THAT ISN’T FAMILIAR
Adorno and Horkheimer stressed
the structures of economic
ownership and control of the means
through which cultural products are
produced and argued that this
directly shapes the activities of
creative artists and consumers.
10. Adorno and Horkheimer argued that the 'culture industry'
operated in the same way as other manufacturing industries.
All work had become formalized and products were made
according to rationalized organizational procedures that
were established for the sole purpose of making money.
The metaphor of the
'assembly-line' was
used to stress the
repetitive and routine
character of cultural
production.
11. SSTTAANNDDAARRDDIIZZAATTIIOONN
Adorno and Horkheimer
argued that all products
produced by the culture
industry exhibited
standardized features.
The argument here is that there
is nothing spontaneous about the
process of cultural production: it
has become a routine operation
that can be carried out ' in an
office by the application of
Adorno noted that songs which became successful specific formulae.
over time were often referred to as 'standards', a
category that clearly drew attention to their formulaic
character. From the 'plan' to the details, songs were
based around repetitive sequences and frequently
recurring refrains (Adorno, 1976, p. 25). This was
done for quite calculated commercial reasons, so that
the song would imprint itself on the mind of the
listener and then provoke a purchase. For Adorno, the
production of bit songs had become a mechanical and
manipulative operation motivated purely by
commercial gain.
Think about the popular songs
that you might hear throughout an
average day (on the radio, when
out shopping, on television or
when in a club or bar). Do you
agree with Adorno's argument
about standardized songs? Are
some songs more predictable than
others? Or is such an analysis
simply irrelevant today?
12. PPSSEEUUDDOO IINNDDIIVVIIDDUUAALLIITTYY
Adorno and Horkheimer were also critical of what they referred to
as pseudo individuality. By this they meant the way that the
culture industry assembled products that made claims to
'originality' but which when examined more critically exhibited
little more than superficial differences.
Adorno and Horkheimer
evoked the image of the
lock and key - an item that
is mass produced in
millions, whose
uniqueness lies in only
very minor modifications
Think again about the music you listen to in terms of Adorno's argument about
pseudo individuality. To what extent do you think that you recognize singers, songs,
composers and symphonies by their 'trade marks'?
13. TTOO CCOONNCCLLUUDDEE
Adorno and Horkheimer believe that the culture industry
allows people to become 'masses' and be easily manipulated
by capitalist corporations and authoritarian governments.
Adorno and Horkheimer thus present us with a powerful argument about what happens
to culture when it is subject to the structural control and organization of industrial
capitalist production: it becomes merely a standardized, formulaic and repetitive element
of 'mass culture'. It has no aesthetic value whatsoever and leads to a very specific type of
consumption that is passive, obedient and easily manipulated for the purpose of
propaganda or advertising.
Does this type of reasoning sound familiar? Have you ever defended your own cultural
preferences (books, films, music, television programmes, opera, theatre) as complex
and demanding, while criticizing other peoples' as standardized and repetitive? Have
you heard people explain the worldwide popularity of performers such as Madonna,
films like Batman or the novels of Stephenie Meyer (Twilight) by arguing that the
audiences are being manipulated by the marketing and promotional mechanisms of the
culture-producing corporations'?
Editor's Notes
Using the show the X Factor as a tool to teach
Adorno and Horkeimer’s ‘Culture Industry’
Standardization
Pseudo-individuality
Capitalism
Questions/ Discussion for the lesson:
What is the purpose of X-Factor?
Do they really find someone who has the X-Factor?
What are the judges thinking when someone comes to stage/starts to sing? (Commodity status)
The act is always thought of as fitting into a box, rather than breaking the mould
So do the ‘Culture Industries’ which X-Factor is a part of predict the nature of consumers?
Are the ‘masses’ part of the of the ‘assembly-line’ of the Culture Industry?
Split the class into judges teams
Team Gary
Team Nicole
Team Tulisa
Team Louie
Ask them in their teams the following questions – then share – make out like it’s a press conference for the the launch of the show
Treat this like starter activity and feedback on the responses later in the lesson – they should come up with things like ‘someone who has that special something’ etc. – purpose of the lesson being to demystify these things through the application of A&H culture industry theory – DO THE JUDGES REALLY WANT SOMETHING DIFFERENT OR SOMEONE WHO WILL FIT NEATLY IN BOX AND IS EASILY MARKETABLE TO THE MASSES
Define the X-Factor show in one sentence
What do you want to see this year?
What group would you like and why?
Role play: Watch each audition and after discuss the following
What is your opinion on their audition? A) What feedback would you give to them live? And what would you be thinking from an industry/professional point of view that you wouldn’t necessarily share with them right now?
Issues that should come out
Thinking of the ‘artist’ as a commodity
How marketable are they?
What genre will they fit into?
What kind of songs are they going to sing?
What audience are they going to appeal to?
Can they be number one by Christmas?
Image
Already a mini business plan for the ‘potential artist’ is forming – CAPITALISM & HEGEMONY
You can send 4 artists to Boot Camp who are you going to send and why? (Judges teams discuss, then share with other judge teams)
Decide on the final 4, then each team take one artist, what song is the artist going to sing on the first show, what are they going to wear? What will they sing on the final show and who will they be singing with, why?
Janet Devlin 16 – from the start
Frankie Cocozza 18 – from 1min
Goldie Cheung 46
2 Shoes
The Keys
Jade Richards 21 – 2.33
Luke Lucas 16 – 2.27
Craig Colton 22
Amelia Lily 16 – from 1.20
John Wilding – 1.20
Terry Winstanley 51 – 1.54
Misha Bryan 19 – from 2.12
Leading on to STANDARDIZATION and PSEUDO-INDIVIDUALITY
Do the audience control culture production or do industries predict to the ‘masses?’
Do the audience control culture production or do industries predict to the ‘masses?’
There is, however, yet a further step in the argument: Adorno and Horkheimer were not only arguing about how culture had become standardized and robbed of any unique qualities, they also suggested that this resulted in a particular type of consumption in which few demands were made of the listener, viewer or reader. The 'mass culture' that was being, produced by the culture industry encouraged consumers to reject everything that was not familiar.
Maverick Sabre
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZNtticFI60
Different so won’t do as well in the charts
UK 18 – Peak position
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Need_(Maverick_Sabre_song)
No One UK 50 – Peak position
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_One_(Maverick_Sabre_song)
Find an artist who fits the theory and one who doesn’t
May be hard to find one who doesn’t – therefore to what extent has an existing one gone against the theory?