Page 34 - summer 22

Theodore Adorno 1903-1969: the “culture industry” and hegemony

Just as significantly, the studio owners were as concerned as any other type of
capitalist to maintain their ruling class hegemony over society. Movies were a good
vehicle for promoting cultural hegemony: Hollywood could promote and reinforce

all-American values like rugged individualism and self-reliance rather than
collectivism, hard work and family values rather than political consciousness. So, just
as modern American mass-production factory owners like Henry Ford could use
“Taylorism” (“time and motion” efficiencies) to control every second of work time,
culture industries like the movies could help control the workers’ non-working time
(spare time? free time?). What was true of the movie industry could also apply to

other branches of the “culture industry” such as popular music and spectator sport.
To Adorno, popular culture was merely an instrument of ruling class hegemony.

Adorno was an expert on Modernist music. He greatly admired the avant-garde
compositions of Schoenberg and his 12-tone serial system. This reinforced his
hostility to popular culture. He singled out jazz and popular music for particular
criticism. All popular songs are basically the same, he argues, with just a catchy hook
and words inserted into the chorus to make it sound appealing and different to all
the rest. Because all such music is written purely to appeal to the mass market, it can