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Culture Philosophy Politics

The Emoji Movie and The Culture Industry

The Emoji Movie is a story of rebellion and co-option. This video shows the parallels that this story has with the nature of the culture industry as a whole. When the profit motive completely takes over society, cultural innovation and rebellion are transformed into another commodity that is sold back to us to be passively consumed. If Adornian critiques of trashy kids’ films are your thing check this out.

Categories
Aesthetics Article Culture Politics

Music and Rebellion

Arnold Schoenberg – Six Little Piano Pieces

Can popular music be subversive? According to the critical theorist Theodore Adorno the answer is firmly, ‘no’. The reasons for this are related to the structure of contemporary society itself; “We live in a society of commodities—that is, a society in which production of goods is taking place, not primarily to satisfy human wants and needs, but for profit. Human needs are satisfied only incidentally, as it were. This basic condition of production affects the form of the product as well as the human interrelationships.” A Social Critique of Radio Music – Adorno