Whats wrong with Mass Culture?
Adorno, Debord Cultural theorists and angsty teenagers have questioned the benefits of Mass Culture since the early 20th century, when it was just developing into the monolith we experience today. Theorists like Theodor Adorno have developed arguments, rooted in Marxist theory, that mass culture is a tool for hegemony, and that it is not good for the masses, but instead leads to their continued non-engagement with politics or higher thought. Counter-cultural movements are generally traced back to the Dada art movement in early 20th century France, and the subsequent even more avant-garde situationist movement, lead by Guy Debord. Both Adorno and Debord saw a number of problems with the state of mass society, with the way it changed people’s relationships with their work, their time, and each other. Theodor Adorno describes Mass Culture in terms of the Culture Industry. He writes in response to the trends in modernism and the enlightenment, and especially in response to German fascism a
