The Culture Industry (with examples)

'Assembly Line Character'- 2008, X Factor runner's up, JLS are an example of this. Below are some of JLS' products.



'The idea of the culture industry to a model of mass culture'
Here we see that the capitalist corporation being the X Factor/Epic records has control over this group as we see their image/genre/style/songs have changed over the course of their music journey.

'Assembly Line'

These are all boy bands and they are basically all the same because they all appeal to women, are all commercial and have pop-orientated music.

The Culture Industry

On Monday 26th September 2011 we started off the lesson by watching the first auditions of some of this year's X Factor contestants. We looked at their first auditions from an industry/judge perspective and considered the following whilst watching:

• Likability
• Their potential
• Their Image
• Will they sell records
• Stage Presence
• Star-quality

We then discussed the following: Are the X Factor looking for talent OR are they just money-makers?

• What genre will the artist fit into?
• How marketable is the artist?
• What song's can they sing?
• Can they be Christmas no.1?
• What audience will they appeal to

The artist is a 'commodity' and the judges are already putting together a business plan regarding the artists; therefore the X Factor is a hegemonic institution. So to a great extent the X Factor could be seen as 'money makers'.
With reference to Production of Culture/Cultures of Production(ed)Paul Du Gay, Sage 1997.