The Culture Industry

The Culture Industry is a media theory created by Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer. Their theory stated how the music industry uses artists and bands as a product to sell to audiences. They argued that the industry exhibited an 'Assembly-line character' where artists were all transformed and conformed in a similar way to appeal to audiences and make money. Not only were they all produced in a similar way, the industry made vast quantities of this certain artist and audiences have gotten used to this image and sound and therefore dismiss anyone who steps out of the image. An example of where this has happened is JLS a band who formed on their own terms originally, however after appearing on the X Factor were conformed into a band that were almost the same as previous boy bands such as Take That and West life. Not only in terms of music and appearance but then they would churn out products with their brand and faces on them to make more money. 

They linked the idea of the culture industry to a model of 'mass culture' in which cultural production had become standard, and a repetitive process which took the basics (in the music industry) of a band or artist and produced them into something that audiences could easily consume and that was similar to something that had been successful before, knowing that will make money. They also stated that in the Culture industry the idea was to reject everything that you aren't already familiar with, essentially destroying any chance of originality in the industry. Even though their promotion may claim they are  'different' and 'unique' they will have still been changed in a certain way so they will appeal to mass audiences. 

Adorno noted that song which became successful over time were often referred to as standards, a category that grabbed attention to their conformed character. There is nothing spontaneous or majorly different in terms of songs as in one way or another, they will be made to sound similar whether it's similar lyrics or a familiar beat etc.