Page Against The (Culture) Machine

Copy of the essay is here:
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/adorno/1944/culture-industry.htm

You don't get a plaque like that unless you are a real sociological legend!

The essay / chapter of Adorno and Horkheimer's book The Dialectic of Enlightenment called 'The Culture Industry' has inspired many and still holds true in many ways today. Essentially its arguing that there is a huge capitalist industry of constructed culture that serves to deceive and fool the masses into passive acceptance of the status quo and this is opposed to what Adorno considered to be 'authentic culture' or what we might call intellectual art. I often find myself agreeing with him, mainly when watching TV on a Saturday night, however there are some problems with it:


- The role of the audience
The passivity of the audience in this essay has to be questioned. Its such a sweeping generalisation to suggest that audiences all behave in this blind fashion, accepting the messages thrown at them. Adorno was writing at the height of propaganda and advertising, but in fairness probably when these two forms of media also had their biggest effects on people,  and its probably unreasonable to suggest that these types of media work on us in the same way now. Also the obvious point is that people think about what they have seen and negotiate an understanding and maybe acceptance of it. They can however also reject things that they see.


- The role of the internet:
You can't really hold this against him as there was no way of knowing that Gangnam Style would one day reach 1 billion views, however if we are going to think about Media industry today then we clearly have to factor in the most modern and popular of mediums. The participation of Audiences in the media is something I will go into in much more depth later but all we need to say for now is that people are more active and interactive with texts and the industry now than in Adorno's time. There is also much more choice and much more freedom to create products yourself. Something I bet Adorno would have loved. His youtube channel of Marxist classical Oboe music would probably only have about 10 views though, hypothetically!


- There are other factors in our daily lives that influence us
Most people are more brainwashed or influenced by their parents, friends, society, religion or educational background than they are by the media. Sure its a factor but Im not sure that Pop music stopped the (potential) revolution.


- A lot of the culture industry's produce is healthy and good for you.
"I have been influenced by Hollywood films to better myself and I'm alright .. honest" - says washed out Media Studies teacher ! "No your not, you a brainwashed, capitalist pig who's lethargy is stopping achieve a philosophical and economical class-less utopia" screams Adorno. This is the kind of argument that Adorno would hate. But its difficult to see how he can deny the thought and creativity that comes from just watching something and being aware of different ideas, even thought they have been created by an industry and consumerist culture. Surely even Adorno would cry at the that bit at the end of Cinema Paradiso? Surely ?

- A lot of popular culture causes Revolutionary tendencies: 
The sex pistols, Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana, chuck berry, Jimi Hendrix, Punk music generally, Billy Bragg, this list could go on and on, but there are thousands of examples of youth sub culture that has risen out of the endless dross on the industry production line. A lot of this culture that Adorno would never see as high brow intellectual art has actually gone on to inspire and motivate social change. The record labels involved i'm sure profited from the success of these groups but this doesn't mean they weren't culturally relevant and in part help change society away form the status quo. Im sure the work of Dick Hebdidge on Youth sub cultures would have something to say here!

- 'Real Art' suffers from the same symptoms. 
Sure XFactor is boring, formulaic, supports individual talentless greed over the good of the group and is  probably quite damaging in large doses but so are most poetry recitals. Some of the opera and ballet I have seen, (not to mention the Proms at the Albert Hall) are  probably more elitist and filled with capitalist and Jingoistic ideology than the Lego movie for instance which as a communist narrative running through it. Its too simplistic to say...stuff I listen to = 'beneficial' and stuff I hate = 'damaging'. Which is effectively what Theodore is doing.

- It's just a little bit too... grumpy. 
It doesn't exactly feel like they are trying to objectively decide whether this exists or whether this culture has an effect, they are committed Marxist intellectuals who clearly hate the (mainly Californian) Media diet the people they encounter seem to operate on. They want to change it (fair enough!), but dont seem to critically discuss the actual impact of the observations they make