Adorno had previously discussed the formulaic nature of popular culture under capitalism (specifically popular music) in essays such as ‘On Jazz’ (1936) and ‘On Popular Music’ (1941). However, it was not until Dialectic of Enlightenment, and more specifically the chapter entitled ‘The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception’, that the concept was fully formed.
While Adorno and Horkheimer’s work on the culture industry is no doubt influential and compelling, it has been criticised on numerous fronts, from lack of empirical evidence to accusations of cultural elitism. Though the latter criticism has been, by some critics, chalked up to misinterpretation, their work, arguably, fails in its generalisation of all cultural products, their purposes and their effects. In spite of these perceived shortcomings, there is a haunting resonance and pertinence behind their formulation of the culture industry, particularly in its application to the contemporary moment. We will detail and analyse these criticisms further in the article, but first we need to dive into the intricacies of their thinking.
Adorno, Horkheimer and the Frankfurt School
Adorno and Horkheimer both belonged to Frankfurt School – a group of Marxist theorists founded in Germany by Carl Grünberg in 1923. Key thinkers belonging to this school include both Adorno and Horkheimer (the latter of which became the director of the institute in 1930), as well as Herbert Marcuse and Walter Benjamin. These theorists were connected through their development of what became known as ‘critical theory’. Put simply, their critical theory used a Marxist framework to examine capitalism in terms of social relationships within society. Due to their Marxist foundations, a great deal of the research produced by the Frankfurt School tends to focus on fascism and authoritarianism in relation to capitalism.
‘The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception’ Summary
The most influential chapter of Dialectic of Enlightenment is ‘The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception’ in which Adorno and Horkheimer outline how the culture industry has created a passive consumer, whose uncritical thinking contributes to their own oppression. In the culture industry, conformity is enforced through culture as a tool to control the masses, creating a distraction from problems of class conflict and widespread inequality.
There are numerous ways, the chapter outlines, that the culture industry promotes the interests of the powerful elite and thus subjugates the masses.
The first way the culture industry maintains order is by quelling attempts at critical and creative thinking through the reproduction of identical, or near-identical, commodities. Commodities refer to anything which can be consumed, ranging from more tangible objects to media. Adorno and Horkheimer argue that media and other entertainment commodities are produced using a formula. This formulaic method, used to stifle the imagination and transgressive or revolutionary thought, occurs at every level in the culture industry. They write that,