Adorno & The Culture Industry - Study Task 3

QUOTES:

• 'This process has not been confined to quantity, but has resulted in new qualities'
• 'seized all media of artistic expression'
• 'amazing parallelism ... even when they have little in common on the surface'
• 'tension is but superficially maintained and is unlikely to have a serious effect anymore'
• 'Everything somehow appears "predestined"'
• 'congealed and standardised'
• '[it has been] reduced to a kind of multiple choice between very few alternatives'

Adorno explains the complete lack of individuality and creative freedom on Television and explains how it's all the same, with the same plot and basic ending, whatever the genre. He also goes on to state that TV effects the audience in a way that people as readers before TV, could 'expect anything to happen' however 'this no longer holds true', suggesting that there is not shock-factor within the audience anymore and it is never achieved.

These concepts might relate to animation in the way that a lot of children's animation is pumped out constantly on TV channels such as CBBC, CITV or Cartoon Network, where the overall narrative never changes. This might involve the story following a young boy/girl unhappy with their home life and then goes out in the world and discovers new magical things, or again young protagonist finds themselves a superpower ect. 

EXAMPLE:

Powerpuff Girls - Three young girls, with superpowers saving their city from evil.

Scooby-Doo - Four teenagers, saving people from paranormal mysteries (evil). 

Here we always know how these animation episodes will end, always with the main characters finding the evil villain and saving the day.

Analysis

The Simpsons is a tv show that has been on everyone's TV at least once and some people quote it as the best TV animated show of all time. The narrative of the Simpsons is usually the same structure, where one of the characters come into a disequilibrium and by the end of episode it is usually resolved, Adorno might add that usually 'everything [is] somehow predestined' (Adorno, 1954:213-35). This may be seen as a way of teaching values to the Simpson's audiences clearly outlining 'what to do and what not to do', however Adorno suggests that having things plainly set out this way repeatedly leaves no room for individuality and instead people are seen to be just following the 'status quo' (Adorno, 1954:213-35). On the contrary, it could be argued that it's not the fault of the producers and writers of the Simpsons, and instead could be down the way that society has developed. Adorno states that TV shows simply 'adapt to the system's own requirements', outlining the need to fit into the social norms that have been created within TV on what people's likes and dislikes are (Adorno, 1954:213-35).

T. Adorno (1954) 'How to look at television', The quarterly of film radio and television, Vol. 8. No.3, pp. 213-35