Culture Industry

Mass Culture is where art is used to enlighten people and encourage them to make a difference in their lives.

Culture industry is intended to refer to the commercial marketing of culture, the branch of industry that deals specifically with the production of culture that is in contrast to “authentic culture” i.e. the mass culture.

Mass culture is authentic. It is not blind folded by different commodities to make profit. Here the art is created to develop people’s understanding of the surrounding to make a difference in their lives, to enlighten them. Whereas, the Culture Industry mainly aims at making profit.

For Adorno, the term “culture industry” does not refer to “mass culture”, or the culture of the masses of people in terms of something being produced by the masses and conveying the representations of the masses. On the other hand, such involvement of the masses is only apparent, though it seems democratic but is not in reality.

Horkheimer and Adorno deliberately chose the term “culture industry” instead of “mass culture” or “mass media”. “The culture industry continuously cheats its consumers of what it constantly promises.” Cultural products mean it is manmade and man had a significant role in it. It is a product of human knowledge and mind, production of human genius.

The role of art is not to entertain but to enlighten us. When Adorno came to America he saw that the American popular culture had nothing to do with enlightenment. Here the art is produced as a product just for entertainment. Just to make profits . Karl Marx predicted a workers revolution to happen. He thought there would be a revolution and all workers would revolt. But it didn’t happen. Though the workers’ jobs were not rewarding. The work was no longer for happiness; it was all mechanized. But the revolution didn’t take place. People lived the same.

Culture industry reduced the set of cultures to a bunch of profit making products. It is not a culture produced by the people, it is a culture imposed on them. We have limited choices to make. We choose from the limited available options and we are tricked into thinking that we made a choice. What is consumed by the people is actually produced by the Capitalists. Here all art is made and manufactured in a commercial context. This can never be art. All products of the culture industry are the same. They all reflect the values of the established system; they follow the same pattern. Same people, same platform, same boring idea, all patterns are the same but still we get tricked so easily every single time. They tend to show us what we prefer.

These media nowadays are more like a Disney land where they have their own kingdom, their own villains and heroes. Also not to mention the same old story. And we are just like those kids with sparkling eyes.. who still believes in magic.