The culture of the 20th century was “administered” and the administration of this new society was facilitated by the “culture industry.” It was this unholy alliance between state and entertainment that had caught the attention of Adorno and Horkheimer and the Frankfurt School during the rise of Fascism in Germany. © 2020 by Philosophy Talk and PhilosophyTalk.org. Back in the 1940s, he and Max Horkheimer published a rather, well, feisty chapter on what they called the “culture industry.” Their argument was complicated, and it was dressed up in sometimes impenetrable language—that’s how you got famous those days!—but the central idea seems to have been that every single product of mass culture is designed to preserve the status quo, holding the evil capitalist system in place. [AUDIO] Political Utopias: Just Wishful Thinking? The industrial aspect had long since taken over the “cultural” aspects and, since the late nineteenth century, “culture” had been co-opted by a vast capitalist profit-making machine. We review Adorno's conception of the 'culture industry' as it is found in three writings: the essay 'On Popular Music' (1941), the 'Dialectic of Enlightenment' (1944), and the essay 'Culture Industry Reconsidered' (1963). Here, he was joined by Theodor Adorno and the two Germans joined a large colony of émigrés and exiles in Hollywood. Popular culture emerged from the lower classes, from the folk, from the middle classes, but these distinctions were lost under the homogenizing impact of the industry, which needed to level out differences to sell to the greatest number of buyers. Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947) was born in the sun of Hollywood, beside the pools of Santa Monica, in the capital of mass culture designed to entertain and to (literally) stupefy the American public. There is something deeply mysterious about music. Nevertheless, Adorno maintained his task as “cultural critic” and produced a large body of works as a music critic. Although Adorno’s aesthetic viewpoint is more fully laid out in his books on music, he often mentioned the fact that art is no longer a privileged object but simply one more commodity in a world of consumerism. Philosophy Talk is produced by KALW on behalf of Stanford University. Theodor W. Adorno was born Theodor Adorno-Wiesengrund, his father’s (Jewish) name retained only as an initial. Marx, long before Freud, understood that the commodity was a “symptom” of a desire for something else, and Adorno connected Marx and Freud through the Culture Industry, the cave of the masses. This connection, whether appropriate or not, whether or not the students understood the scholarship of the Frankfurt School, was perhaps the cause for the decades long opposition to its philosophy from the right wing. The watcher and answer back. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation. Marx, long before Freud, understood that the commodity was a “symptom” of a desire for something else, and Adorno connected Marx and Freud through the Culture Industry, the cave of the masses. Adorno wanted to become a professional pianist but lacked the talent necessary for such a career. Theodor W. Adorno was born Theodor Adorno-Wiesengrund, his father’s (Jewish) name retained only as an initial. Some have accused Adorno of being a racist for this blind spot, but it is more likely that he disliked the improvisational nature of this form of music that seemed so casual, without structure or compositional permanency. Museums, as much as art galleries, are part of the larger cultural industry, one hawking art for profit and the other corralling the items for entertainment and exhibition value in an artificially “sacred” space. [AUDIO] Do the Privileged Have Special Obligations? The resulting book Dialectic of Enlightenment contained the essay “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception,” a seminal study of contemporary mass media. Philosophy for the Young: Corrupting or Empowering? Adorno’s death is claimed, by many, to have been hastened by the assault of his rebelling students who chastised the old revolutionary for not being revolutionary enough. And yet there has also always been good art, in spite of everything. Culture becomes a commodity that provides pleasure-giving entertainment to the repressed masses that are allowed to express their regressive and childlike impulses and instincts through emotional music and exciting films. Popular culture emerged from the lower classes, from the folk, from the middle classes, but these distinctions were lost under the homogenizing impact of the industry, which needed to level out differences to sell to the greatest number of buyers. In 1943 Max Horkheimer had to leave New York and go to Los Angeles for his health. That’s what Theodor Adorno seems to have believed. The question is who is in control? In America, the culture industry distracts the view of the people away from economic and social issues and points them towards the pleasure of escapism through entertainment. [email protected], THE CULTURE INDUSTRY As the world has been flooded with information or facts or knowledge, people have replicated the habits of thinking taught by the Culture Industry. What Adorno argues in The Cultural Industry is essentially that large corporate interests who profit in the industry of "cultural consumption" (advertisers, politicians, entertainment entities) seem to be using the new technological advancements to lull the masses into a state of passivity where they allow themselves to be manipulated. (I’m not about to defend Justin Bieber!) They’ve all created modern works of art that have shocked and ... 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