Popular Culture

Adorno's Theory

Theodor Adorno argued that capitalism fed people with products of ‘culture industry’ the opposite of ‘true art’ to keep them satisfied. Adorno believed that big companies were creating False needs for people which were practically taking over peoples actual lives. He believed that people didn't have their own opinion on music and just followed the popular music. This can be related to my genre as most people who listen to pop are pretty young, at this time the audience would listen to who ever is the most popular instead of going out and finding their own music, they would listen to songs that are on the radio. 

Hebdige's Theory

Dick Hebdige is a media theorist as well as a sociologist. He focuses on the study of subcultures within society. He has a more of a modern approach to Adorno's theories and believes against it saying that the consumers are not as easily manipulated than Adorno may think. He believes that the audience have a choice about what they consume and can choose whether to reject it if they want. 

Hebdige also suggested that the audience are free to resist large conglomerate companies by ignoring them, undermining them and finding different products to consume. He also suggested that consumption is an active process where the difference in the ideologies and social construction of the audience led to different reading and interpretation of the same products.