THE CULTURE INDUSTRY

What is the culture industry?

Theorist like Ardono and Horkheimer have argued that  the music industry is a culture industry. Everything in the media from T.V shows, to films, to music to magazines are all part of the culture industry because they are all produced in a standardised manner.

According to Ardono and Horkheimer, the culture industry is the name given to the media industry that produces artists in a standardised way. The industry takes an artist and turns them into what they want them to be based on how much the industry thinks they will appeal to the audience, their appearance and how much money they will make from the artist. They take the originality out of an artist and turn them into commodities.

Audiences are so passive that they are also part of the culture industry. They don't question why the artist are the same and shows like the X faxtor, the voice and Britain's got talent have made audiences believe that artists are surpose to look and act in a certain way. They then dismiss and artist or band that is different. 

An example of artist that are very much in to the culture industry is JLS. They started off on X factor ad through their journey in X factor they changed from the original boy band they are to the unoriginal west life type of boy band. The music industry are only interested in money and they only think of how they can sell the band and make money form them.

Pseudo individuality shows how the culture industry have changed the personality and the originality of  artist over the years and how they claim to be original but are not, they are just in different eras. For example, West life, Take that, JLS, One direction,etc.

A band that has not been manipulated by the culture industry is DAUGHTER

They are an Indie folk band from UK and they are not interested in how much money they can make as an artist but how much they are inspiring their fans and their fans opinion of the music they make. 

They are not influenced by the culture Industry to the extent of a band like JLS. JLS is a band that is interested in how they can make money from other things in the culture industry by selling the artist and not their music.   

After their transformation in X factor, JLS is now being sold as an artist on things like condoms, etc.  Unlike JLS, Daughter didn't start out on X factor but started out with Elena Tonra as a solo artist and then became a trio band when Remi and Igor joined the group. They released their first album by them selves (not by a record label) and later released a send album later that year (although artist led communion records). They started out original and stayed original and to an extent not influenced by the Culture Industry because they are not into selling their appearance but selling their music to their fans.