Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno (1903-69) was a Jewish German who was a neo-Marxist, with the rise of fascism in Nazi Germany and living in the modernised Age of Enlightenment, criticized how humanity has become stagnant and the ideas of his era would rather conform than to think out of the societal box. (The European Graduate School, n.d.) In Dialectic of Enlightenment (Adorno and Horkheimer, 1944), Adorno, alongside Max Horkheimer mentioned about the culture industry. Adorno’s idea of fetishizing culture was developed in the Age of Enlightenment, also known as modern society.
The culture industry, according to Theodor Adorno (1944), is when culture becomes standardised, where it is produced solely for profit for the elites. Culture, especially popular music like jazz, is therefore fetishized for value that it does not deserve. (Adorno and Horkheimer, 1944) Building on the Marxist ideas of capitalism into popular culture, …show more content…
“Korean stars have had a big impact on consumer culture, including food fashion, make-up trends and even plastic surgery.” (Shim, 2006, p. 29) South Korea also has its own Cultural Industry Bureau, responsible for exporting its popular media and music culture to the locals and the global audience. Adorno (1944) mentioned how the industry uses reliable profit success but rejects anything that is too risky for them to venture. The content of South Korean’s films and movies followed the ‘tried-and-tested’ success formulas of Hollywood’s own film industry (Shim, 2006), the only difference being it has a local context, perpetuating the ‘sameness’ and standardized productivity of culture industry; which not just a pre-dominantly Western idea as contemporary society, alongside globalization allows the industry’s pervasiveness to cross borders and into other
The culture industry, according to Theodor Adorno (1944), is when culture becomes standardised, where it is produced solely for profit for the elites. Culture, especially popular music like jazz, is therefore fetishized for value that it does not deserve. (Adorno and Horkheimer, 1944) Building on the Marxist ideas of capitalism into popular culture, …show more content…
“Korean stars have had a big impact on consumer culture, including food fashion, make-up trends and even plastic surgery.” (Shim, 2006, p. 29) South Korea also has its own Cultural Industry Bureau, responsible for exporting its popular media and music culture to the locals and the global audience. Adorno (1944) mentioned how the industry uses reliable profit success but rejects anything that is too risky for them to venture. The content of South Korean’s films and movies followed the ‘tried-and-tested’ success formulas of Hollywood’s own film industry (Shim, 2006), the only difference being it has a local context, perpetuating the ‘sameness’ and standardized productivity of culture industry; which not just a pre-dominantly Western idea as contemporary society, alongside globalization allows the industry’s pervasiveness to cross borders and into other