- Texts by Adorno, Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, Leo Lowenthal.
- Synthesis from radical Marxism and psychoanalysis to explain effects of popular culture to the mind of its audience.
- Leftist: urgency to escape from the fascist capitalist system in the America.
- Walter Benjamin reads popular culture in positive manner in contrast to the 4 scholars.
Popular culture went through a streamlined production to generate money. The outcomes:
- monotonous, standardised
- 'Retour ala Normale': forcing conformity into the unconsciousness to maintain the status quo
- superficial needs over essential needs
- life and art reduced to monotonous line of production
Pseudo-individualisation(the 'drugs for mindless consuming zombies'):
- to conceal the formulaic standardisation in music by giving it varying characteristics, such as repackaging to make consumers buy the same thing over and over.
- make the consumers docile through musical rhythm, physical response to pop music immediately expose to the desire for mass to obey.
Impact to the society:
- Perpetuation of the set formulas that works, made desirable for the sake of giving infantile security.
- (Herbert Marcuse) Products indoctrinate and manipulate the society, causing them to demonstrate one-dimensional thought and behaviour.
Authentic Culture & Mass Culture:
- Intellectuals' outcry that presses on the total revolutionary change from the core to achieve authenticity.
- Avant-garde cinema screened only for a niche target audience. (elitist)
- Pop culture's consumption can be resisted and played as a form of rebellion; consume without being brainwashed.
- Shift from elitism to democracy in art. For instance, reproducible art have the capacity to fight back against traditional elitist culture.
- Digital culture have brought art to our fingertips. The exhibition value no longer depends on context it is placed on, instead it is designed to transcend through spatial boundaries to spread its revolutionary potential for social change.
- Auteur Theory: relationship between cinema and art where signature styles, like in the work of art, is incorporated in cinematography.
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