The Culture Industry, The Machine of X-Factor (Term Paper Sample)

Do you agree with Adorno that the "culture industry" produces standardized commodities? If you do agree with Adorno’s claim, what would art works or photographs have to do to avoid becoming commodities? If you disagree, give examples of artifacts/forms of cultural production/types of photographic practice which, to your mind, are "popular" yet resistant to or critical of the dominant (capitalist) mode of production.
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Theodor Adorno- An Introduction
Theodor Adorno is considered as one of the leading philosophers and thinkers of 20th century. Although Adorno has written on an extensive range of different topics and subjects, but his primary and major concern was to deal with the subject matter of human deterioration and suffering. CITATION Bri13 \l 1033 (O'Connor, 2013) He has deeply researched the effect of advances societies upon the condition of human beings. Adorno was prominently impressed by personalities such as Marx, Hegel and Nietzsche. He was majorly associated with The Institute for Social Research, located in Frankfurt School. CITATION And \l 1033 (Fagan, n.d.)
Adorno is more famous across the globe for his analysis of the culture industry. He has noticed that the society’s entertainment business is day by day getting formulaic, mechanical and dominating, just like any other regular workplace. Adorno has further asserted that the individuals of the advanced society are highly organized at their work places as well as in their idle hours. CITATION Lam11 \l 1033 (Zuidervaart, 2011) Undoubtedly these individuals are highly willing to avoid the boredom and uniformity of their organizations; these people are simply altering to one more part of machine, which is from a manufacturer to a consumer. So according to Adorno, there is not a little bit of chance left for those individuals, to become free and independent individuals and thus participate in forming their societies; both at play or at their workplaces.
Production of Standardized Commodities by the Culture Industry
The Culture Industry
The different objections and the criticism of Theodor Adorno regarding the culture industry are highly valid in reference to the present culture of the consumers. The expression of culture industry was adopted by Adorno for arguing the means by which several items of a culture were being manufactured. The production of those items was very much similar to the way in which some other large industries produce huge amount of goods for their consumers. So, the culture industry was also displaying the character of some production line, which can highly be viewed in the planned and synthetic method of producing the cultural products. CITATION Fab10 \l 1033 (Durao, 2010)
The Machine of X-Factor
The concept of culture industry has been linked by Adorno to a particular model of culture which was extensively publicized with the help of mass media. In such model of culture, the cultural manufacturing was a standardized and a repetitive practice. As a result of this practice, many undemanding and unpleasant cultural products were being produced. The overall effect of this situation was that, a particular type of utilization came into existence. This utilization was also distracted, standardized and passive in nature. CITATION Owe13 \l 1033 (Hatherley, 2013)
Who is in Commanding Position
Adorno’s concept of cultural manufacturing has frequently been displayed by many critics as a pessimistic moaning of a cultural pretender, who was highly shocked at what he detected to be the uniformity and obscenity of the taste of majority of society. CITATION Deb96 \l 1033 (Cook, 1996) Many critics had condemned Adorno that he was primarily concerned with the fact that the capability for artistic imagination and innovation in music, painting and literature had been corrupted and co-opted by different methods of production and various administrative systems of industrial and factory capitalism.
But the reality is that a supreme form of authority is being enjoyed by the capitalist business. The innovative artists as well as the consumers cannot be distinguished from this capitalist business. In fact they are directly related to this production system. So, Adorno has emphasized the economic possession and economic control structures of the ways by which several cultural commodities are manufactured. Adorno has asserted that it also immediately forms the activities of innovative artists and their buyers. CITATION WES13 \l 1033 (Phillips, 2013)
Everything Uncommon Thing should be Rejected
The way in which the culture industry worked is very much similar to several other production industries. The culture industry has also adopted the sole mission of forming money. The each and every work done in the culture industry is formalized and the industry is producing commodities according to the justified organizational policies. The symbol of the production line was utilized to emphasis the routine and repetitive status of cultural manufacturing. CITATION Lea13 \l 1033 (Leannacatherina, 2013)
Standardization
Every single commodity belonging to the culture industry displayed features that are pretty much uniformed and standardized. It gives strength to the argument that now there is nil originality and authenticity in the system of producing cultural commodities. The cultural manufacturing can now easily be called a regular and an unexceptional operation. It is simply just a routine action that is performed at a work place by applying a particular formula. CITATION Dav11 \l 1033 (Darbyshire, 2011)
Even the ever green and the most popular songs were also frequently mentioned as benchmarks, a group that evidently dragged curiosity to their conventional character. A huge number of songs were grounded on monotonous sequences and commonly repeated refrains. The logic behind all such repetitions was the commercial reasoning, as it will help the song to establish itself on listener’s mind and hence stimulate the purchase.
This argument is regarded as extremely relevant and valid even today. There are a lot of songs that are very much predictable as compared to other songs.
Pseudo Individuality
The image of the key and the lock was also evoked by Adorno- a commodity that is produced in mass quantity, but its individuality consists in slight modifications. Adorno presented a critical analysis of the term Pseudo Individuality. It means the different ways by which the culture industry manufactures commodities. All of these commodities claim to be highly original and unique. But a critical analysis of these commodities clearly shows little more than cosmetic differences. CITATION Dav06 \l 1033 (Khabaz, 2006)
Adorno maintains that culture industry can be very easily exploited by the undemocratic governments and the capitalist organizations. The culture industry also permits people to convert into masses. Thus a very strong argument related to the culture arises. When culture is controlled by the structure and the capitalist organizations, then it just turns into a formulaic, standardized and a repetitive component of that sort of culture which is extensively propagated by means of the mass media. CITATION Mar08 \l 1033 (Danesi, 2008) This type of culture does not contain any pleasant value and it results in a very particular sort of consumption which is obedient, passive and can easily be exploited for achieving the cause of advertising or propaganda.
Photography- A Commodity
In recent times, many critics are of the opinion that the phenomenon of commodification is occurring in the world of photography too. The commodity can be defined as a product which contains similar attributes and it is of no importance that who has produced it. CITATION Cat08 \l 1033 (Waters, 2008) The thought of commodification is a frightening one. CITATION Wha12 \l 1033 (Anon., 2012) It clearly means that people are contesting upon price and are rushing towards the bottom. But this fact has to be accepted that commodification can’t be stopped, as it is a real market procedure. It has to be understood that when a particular product’s improvement overshoots the client’s needs, the phenomenon of commodification takes place. In recent times, most of the clients give very little importance to the superior photography techniques and better photography equipment, except for a few art lovers. The process of commoditization always demolishes an organization’s capability to acquire profits by compromising differentiability, while o the other hand; de- commoditization provides several opportunities for capturing and creating potentially gigantic wealth.
This gives rise to the question that, does the art of photography still possess any worth for its spectators? But how it is possible for someone to regard photography as a commodity? For instance, the image of every single photographer who takes picture of Delicate Arch will be unique and absolutely different from each other. So it can be said that it is the structure of the pricing, the marketing and the sense of value, which have turned the photography into a commodity.
Do Buyers Possess a Real Value Sense?
The modern day buyers are obviously smart enough, and that is the reason they rush towards the low priced models which are royalty free. No price swapping, the image can be used for every single campaign and most importantly on the expiration of the license; there is no fees for reuse. CITATION Cha10 \l 1033 (Borland, 2010)
Should Buyers Be Blamed?
One model example is Time Magazine’s notorious cover of spring 2009. The prediction is that the Time Magazine mostly pays 3000 Dollars for the image on its cover page, but in spring 2009, the magazine has given 30 Dollars for such image. This situation has ...