In today’s society, it is not unreasonable to say that many (perhaps most) people feel rather powerless. When everything from politics to education seems overwhelming and inaccessible to the average person, we might feel inclined to turn toward something we think we do control: pop culture. However, philosophers Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno would argue in The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception that it is no different, that mass culture is simply another means of social control and capitalism.
Despite its publication nearly two decades ago, Horkheimer and Adorno’s work is increasingly relevant today. They discuss how each branch of culture, like film, music, magazines, and now social media, is a monopoly and business intended to benefit only the most powerful within the industry and in society. The idea that pop culture is swayed by or ‘for the people’ is not even an intentional (or particularly sly) facade by the culture industry, but rather a notion we voluntarily buy into.
Horkheimer and Adorno write, “Something is provided for everyone so that no one can escape; differences are hammered home and propagated. The hierarchy of serial qualities purveyed to the public serves only to quantify it more completely… The advantages and disadvantages debated by enthusiasts serve only to perpetuate the appearance of competition and choice.” This brings a somewhat recent cultural phenomenon to mind – ‘Barbenheimer.’ The simultaneous release of Barbie and Oppenheimer in the summer of 2023 sent people to theaters in hordes and stirred both the film industry and box offices in the wake of the pandemic. Together, the seemingly clashing movies grossed “the fourth-largest weekend in box office history,” according to Wikipedia, largely due to their pop cultural significance and virality on social media. These two films created the illusion of a cultural competition, when in reality, the winner would not be one movie or another as decided by the people. The real winner is the studio head, the producer, the industry; the cultural ‘moment’ is merely a gimmick.
The philosophers also touched on an adjacent issue plaguing contemporary culture, writing that “the technology of the culture industry confines itself to standardization and mass production and sacrifices what once distinguished the logic of the work from that of society.” Again using the film industry as a model, it’s becoming increasingly rare for movie studios to greenlight any project that does not have preexisting intellectual property (IP). At the expense of creative evolution, companies invest in reboots, prequels and sequels, as the IP has already proven profitable. Barbie is an example, as well as a number of major films from this year alone (Superman, Jurassic World Rebirth, Wicked: For Good, Downtown Abbey, etc). These works are not made for the people, as Horkheimer and Adorno theorize, but as long as consumers blindly comply, the culture industry will remain a deceptive game for only the powerful to play.
Adorno, Th. & Horkheimer, M. (2006). ‘The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception’. in: Durham, M.G. & D. Kellner (2006), Media and Cultural Studies: Key Work, Malden, MA: Blackwell, [pp. 41-72]
I really liked how you connected Horkheimer and Adorno’s theory to Barbenheimer it’s such a clever example of how cultural “choice” can actually be controlled by the industry itself. Your point about creativity being replaced by profit-driven repetition also stood out to me. It made me think about how algorithms on streaming platforms now act in a similar way they keep recommending what’s already popular, which further limits our sense of freedom as audiences. Maybe the culture industry today isn’t just in film, but embedded in every click we make online.
I enjoyed reading your analysis of Horkheimer and Adorno’s theory of Barbenheimer. I agree with your argument on how the culture industry illusionizes choice and how, even though it may seem like it’s “for the people”, we, the audience, buy into it. This reminds me of how social media like TikTok or Instagram make it seem like audiences are using their own voices and free speech, but in actuality, it’s encouraged by the industry for this content. It’s the same idea that Horkheimer and Adorno had talked about.
This podcast really made me rethink the popular culture we consume every day. It turns out that the “culture industry” is not merely serving the public, but rather a concealed form of control. The author’s use of the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon as an example was particularly vivid, and it also made me realize that the “choices” we think we have are actually predetermined by capital and algorithms. As students, we indeed need to think more about our position in cultural consumption.
The “Barbenheimer” trend is an excellent example of how this happens. I agree with your idea about Horkheimer and Adorno’s concept of the Culture Industry, which suggests that it keeps people entertained in order to control them. The two films, Barbie and Oppenheimer, looked completely different, but they were both created and marketed and marketed by the same big studios. People felt like they were choosing between them, but in reality, both choices helped the same companies make more profit. This shows how the culture industry gives us an illusion of choice when, in fact, every option supports the same system.
I believe in the idea that you present, as Adorno and Horkheimer also warned that mass culture turns art into a product, losing its originality. This is easy to see today!
I really love your example which shows us how the culture industry creates an illusion of choice while turning culture into profit. At the same time, audiences today are not entirely passive — through their reactions, creativity, and online discussions, they bring new meanings to these films that go beyond marketing. The value of Barbie and Oppenheimer lies in how people interpret and connect with them, rather than how they are sold. After all, without the cultural depth and meanings these works draw from, there would be no foundation for their commercial success. –Jingyun