THE DISAPPEARANCE OF AUTONOMOUS ART

THE RISE OF THE CULTURE INDUSTRY

THE CREATION OF COMMODIFIED CULTURE

THE IMPACT OF MASS PRODUCTION/CONSUMPTION OF COMMODIFIED CULTURE

EXAMPLES:

TELEVISION

ASTROLOGY

MUSIC

RESISTING ASSIMILATION

An influential group of (Marxist) social scientists who worked at the Institute of Social Research (1923-1950), which was connected to the University of Frankfurt.

Principle interests

1) The development of a criticism of historical materialism/economism in orthodox Marxism

2) The elaboration of a critique of advanced capitalism (updating Marx)

3) Incorporating Freudian psychoanalysis into Marx's theory (especially understanding the unconscious)

4) An attack on instrumental rationality as the basic principle of capitalist society

5) Attack on the direction taken by the Enlightenment

FS studies influenced by their era – ‘30s & ‘40s:

- Fordism, mass production

- emergence of an entertainment industry

- growth of mass media

- manipulation of culture by the Nazis and other totalitarian regimes

FS moved away from focus on political economy towards assessing how ideas and beliefs are transmitted by popular culture:

- Thus how was the personal and private realm undermined by the "socialisation of the ego" and - the management and control of leisure

As individual consciousness/unconsciousness encroached upon by agencies which organise free time, FS stressed the need to develop a sociology of mass culture.

- Cultural phenomena could not be analysed within the simply base-superstructure model

- Culture could not be treated in the manner of conventional cultural criticism which analysed cultural products in a vacuum

Culture emerged from the organisational basis of society as a set of ideas, mores, norms and artistic expressions.

Culture subdivided into

a) material culture – everyday life

b) intellectual culture – science, the humanities, art & religion

Products of artistic culture neither:

- simply a reflection of specific class interests nor

- of an entirely autonomous sphere

However, FS thought art to be relatively autonomous.

Art was enmeshed in reality and just as reality contained objective contradictions, so art was caught up in and expressed contradictions.

Contrast drawn between those works which resisted assimilation to existing modes of production and exchange and those which do not. In many 'genuine' works of art, they believed, there are moments of affirmation and negation.

Art represents the particular in such a way as to illuminate its meaning.

Through its form or style, art can create images of beauty and order or contradiction and dissonance - an aesthetic realm which at once leaves and highlights reality.

Art's object world is derived from the established order, but it portrays this order in a non-conventional manner.

The emancipatory effects of art are generated by its rejection of the dominant forms of the world order

"In this universe, every word, every colour, every sound is new, different – breaking the familiar context of perception and understanding...in which men and nature are enclosed. By becoming components of the aesthetic forms, words, sounds, shapes and colours are insulated against their familiar, ordinary use and function; thus they are freed for a new dimension of existence."

Herbert Marcuse – Counterrevolution and Revolt

"Culture Industries. A term usually used to designate those organisations that produce popular culture, i.e. television, radio, books, popular music and films. It is also used more widely to include all cultural organisations. According to the Frankfurt School, the culture industries serve an ideological function, ensuring capitalist hegemony, providing a bland and undemanding popular culture."

Penguin Dictionary of Sociology

The very term culture industry replaced the concept of mass culture.

Culture today is the result of demands which are evoked and manipulated.

The term culture industry is not to be taken literally - refers to the standardisation of cultural entities themselves and to the rationalisation of promotion and distribution techniques. The seriousness and challenge of autonomous art is weakened through speculation about its efficiency.

The consumer has no sovereignty. The culture industry, integrated into capitalism, in turn integrates consumers from above. Its goal is the production of goods that are profitable and consumable. It operates to ensure its own reproduction and the cultural forms it propagates must be compatible with this aim.

The production of autonomous art contradicted audiences expectations and in particular, their ‘norms of thought’. The contradiction between autonomous artistic composition and the prevailing level of consciousness meant that art might contribute to a crisis of values and attitude. However while autonomous art is still created, such a crisis is prevented by the bulk of cultural production which almost exclusively develops cultural forms compatible with the preservation of capitalism.

The culture industry must sustain interest but ensure a passive, relaxed and uncritical reception: this is induced through the production of patterned and pre-digested cultural entities.

Its product reproduces, reinforces and strengthens dominant interpretations of reality. It reconciles society and the individual, identifying the latter with the former. The plots, the goodies, the heroes rarely suggest anything other than identification with the existing form of social relations.

The products of the culture industry are characterised by standardisation and pseudo-individualisation.

"Within moments of most films starting out we can predict quite accurately how they will end, who will win out, lose or be forgotten...As long as a product meets certain minimum requirements, a feature which distinguishes it from others, a little glamour and distinctness, marks of mainstream (conventional) character, it is suitable material for popular presentation."

It is not just the industry produce that is standardised - cues evoke 'correct responses'.

"It impedes the development of autonomous, independent individuals who judge and decide consciously for themselves. The industry appeals to, develops from and reinforces a state of dependence. The message it conveys is most often one of adjustment and obedience. Its essential content can be reduced to one axiom: since things cannot be other than they are, 'become that which thou art'."

Desire for distraction reflects needs to escape from the responsibilities and drudgery of everyday life. Lack of meaning and control people experience grows from the reality that they are not masters of their own destiny.

Recurring crises of the mode of production, engenders fears and anxieties about life creating conditions of dependence. Situations continually arise in which people cannot cope. Personal problems are frequently internalised public issues.

In the face of the systems pressures, many take flight and escape into the world of entertainment which offers relaxation and relief. The natural corollary of a capitalist mode of industrial production is the culture industry.

However media reinforce the psychological attitudes to which we are accustomed. The culture industries do not challenge images of reality but reproduce them. Leisure experiences serve to sustain capacities for labour.

The individual is tolerated only so long as his complete identification with the generality (the social totality) is unquestioned.