Concept of the culture industry
‘Culture industry, a term coined by Adorno & Horkheim, refers to popular culture being akin to factories that produce standardized cultural goods (Films, Radio, Magazines) used to manipulate mass society in various ways.
I think that they were pretty much in the right area as society changes and technology changes we now have TV, the internet and a few other things that can all be added to this list like Facebook, twitch, and discord for example all these things that have a niece market and also have mass production and markets being saturated to a breaking point
Cultural product
Hirsch(1972)defines ”cultural Product” as” non-Material” goods directed at a public of consumers, for whom they generally serve an aesthetic or expressive, rather than a clear utilitarian function.
Cultural goods or products are defined by the UNESCO institute for statistics
Consumer goods that convey ideas, symbols and ways of life, i.e. books, magazines, multimedia products, software, recordings, films, videos, audio-visual programmes, crafts and fashion.
Picture UNESCO.ORG
Purpose of popular culture
Some examples of popular culture are the vast and wide array of what’s the word I am looking for Genres, slaps head which include Music, Sports and Entertainment. The list goes on there are 2 main examples of popular culture Sports and TV.
Ray Browne in his essay ‘Folklore to Populore’ offers a similar definition: “Popular culture consists of the aspects of attitudes, behaviours, beliefs, customs, and tastes that define the people of any society. Popular culture is, in the historic use of the term, the culture of the people.”
The means of production mechanical reproduction
Walter Benjamin wrote an essay in 1935 that is being used today as one of the most inspiring essays written about this subject called THE WORK OF ART IN THE AGE OF MECHANICAL REPRODUCTION
Benjamin did a full rewrite of the essay after being helped during the editorial process by Theodore and Margarethe Adorno with translation it was rereleased in what everyone knows all share in a commonly recognized Book of his work 1955.
Benjamin goes on about how as time has moved forwards from the early days mass reproduction has always been a thing since the dawn of time, pictures statues even roofing material, he then introduces a thing called AURA and through reproduction, with photos and film, it loses its way by being mass-produced in the mass reproduction age even though it is a revolutionary new thing in the industry and welcoming it to film and photo, these are just some of the things he points out in his book/paper. Walter Benjamin was very much on point for the time. I love his part on Aura’s
“Walter Benjamin 1955” states The definition of the aura as a “unique phenomenon of a distance however close it may be” represents nothing but the formulation of the cult value of the work of art in categories of space and time perception. Distance is the opposite of closeness.
Introduction
The Simpsons opening takes a very, very, very Dark Turn
The Simpsons couch gag by Banksy
This episode takes a dark turn
Where you see kids making cells for the animation in a sweatshop unicorns punching holes in DVD’s1
Pandas pulling carts of Bart dolls was an obvious stab at Chinese sweatshops
And a dig at themselves it was all in fun. But at the same time, it is sending a message, It is having a massive go at places like SANTAS WORKSHOP in CHINA
The sad thing is that it is still going on in this day and age, as everyone wants a toy or music on CD all mass-produced and stamped out, to help keep up with demand for the consumer.
Within the mass production of the Simpsons for all to watch they have really poked at the bad things going on out there with the Sweatshops and also poked fun at themselves, by grabbing things like mechanical reproduction and ideas from their Books by max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno and Noeri basically stated in the book how mass production makes art film, prints, music lose something by being mass produced.
What Banksy has done is called culture jamming
“EDDIE KIM 2010” states that Culture jamming is the delicate art of subverting mainstream aspects of pop culture, using the original medium as a weapon against itself. The tactic is delicate because — when done right — the result is subtle but disarmingly effective.
I personally think it has made people look twice at what the Simpsons can actually put out as they have had a decline in the Audience base for a few years now. This has certainly opened the eyes of a lot of people, myself included at what they can actually put out these new opening scenes they started in 2008 have certainly been catching my attention
“Mr Jean 12 Oct 2010, “said the segment was “toned down a little” for broadcast, there was nothing unusual from the network in terms of delays.
“Fox has a remarkable ability to make fun of itself and be gracious,” he said.
Mr AL Jean is one of the producers of the Simpsons.
References
Kim, E. (2010, October 14). Simpsons’ opening a suddenly dark turn. Daily Trojan. Retrieved October 21, 2022, from https://dailytrojan.com/2010/10/13/simpsons%e2%80%99-opening-a-suddenly-dark-turn/
Wong, J., DustUp, Gretchaa, Marin, P., Anton, G., Lvis, Setiawan, F. A., Longsine, J., Pysmythe, Hill, K., Goseph, J., RobbLusby, AtheistPunk, Olle, Sam, Shake, M., Hayes, G., reflections32, Wong, P., … Richard. (2008, December 17). Santa’s workshop. Top Documentary Films. Retrieved October 21, 2022, from https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/santas-workshop/
Tue, 12 O. (2010, October 12). Banksy film inspired simpsons sweatshop satire. Irish Examiner. Retrieved October 21, 2022, from https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/arid-30477331.html
Cultural goods. UNESCO UIS. (2022, September 15). Retrieved October 21, 2022, from http://uis.unesco.org/en/glossary-term/cultural-goods?wbdisable=true#:~:text=Consumer%20goods%20that%20convey%20ideas,visual%20programmes%2C%20crafts%20and%20fashion.
Pop culture: An overview. Philosophy Now: a magazine of ideas. (n.d.). Retrieved October 21, 2022, from https://philosophynow.org/issues/64/Pop_Culture_An_Overview#:~:text=Popular%20culture%20is%2C%20in%20the,of%20acceptable%20forms%20of%20behavior.
Cook, I. (n.d.). Follow the things. Follow the Things | Gifts | Simpson’s couch gag. Retrieved October 21, 2022, from http://www.followthethings.com/simpsonscouchgag.shtml
Lieberman, D. (2009, May 15). USA today. Retrieved October 21, 2022, from https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/media/2009-05-14-merchandise-fox-simpsons_N.htm
Tsotsis, A. (2010, October 11). Fox pulls down banksy ‘simpsons’ video from YouTube. TechCrunch. Retrieved October 21, 2022, from https://techcrunch.com/2010/10/11/fox-pulls-down-banksy-video-from-youtube/