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The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer

concept of the culture industry


Art production has been completely taken over by industry (Adorno and Horkheimer describe the notion of culture industry as total what means that the concept of culture industry includes all culture)


The most powerful within the culture industry exercise power throughout society


For Adorno and Horkheimer the culture industry is two things:
1 taming / controlling of all revolutionary instincts
2 business


How is the culture industry controlling the people / manipulating them?

Adorno and Horkheimer describe how the culture industry works as a circulation:
the people only consume art productions that is predetermined by the culture industry =>The people get used to what they get. => Consequently, they only ask for that kind of content


The culture industry also manipulates our self-image. 
Adorno and Horkheimer give the example of the randomly chosen winner of a competition, published in a magazine.It shows the arbitrary selection of average individuals. "those in control can take someone up into their heaven and throw him out again"(p.14). The culture industry gives the feeling that everyone could be in the same position.


The culture industry combines high and low culture. The content of art production doesn't matter anymore.
Is the culture industry such a monotheistic block  as Adorno and Horkheimer describe it?
And what is with movies off the mainstream? Adorno and Horkheimer argue that film off the mainstream are a means to an end. What is meant by that?


Adorno think that everything that is produced by the culture industry is rubbish. He seems to be very frustrated and negative about the present situation. He says that everything was better in the past now there is only monotonous jazz and bad movies.


Why is Adorno thinking that new films are bad?
(this time the sound film was established)

*  the sound film is so realistic that our power of imagination fades away. We don't need it because there is no room for interpretation anymore
* during watching the film you don't have time anymore to think about what you have seen because the film continues immediately


There is no distinction between culture industry and advertising anymore

culture industry and advertising can't be separated because both of them consist of repetition
For example in magazines it is hard to distinguish between advertising and the editorial part (is that because the advertisement looks like editorial or the editorial design looks like advertisement?)


No new ideas

Every cultural product that is published by the culture industry is only recycling existing material, so it is not possible that good art will arise because art only has been arised when the artist deviates from the existing style. Adorno gives the example of Picasso and Schönberg who were always critical about the established style and create their own.


But now, the problem is that nobody will deviate from the consensus because the cultural industry only rely on the profit. 


All cultural properties are the same. All movies for example are very similar. It's differences are only propagated to create the feeling that the consumer has a choice. Adorno gives the example of Chrysler and General Motors that are pretty much the same. Culture is also seen as goods, so with films it works in exactly the same way. 


The film industry underlies a moral code. Adorno gives the example of erotic situations in films. "There is no erotic situation which, while insinuating and exciting, does not fail to indicate unmistakably that things can never go that far."(p.11). In the end of the movie the lover, who doesn't correspond with the established morals will be punished. The culture industry will never overcome its own ideas on morality