Mass culture

High culture

• At least since the Renaissance there has been a concern among intellectuals over the ‘quality’ of cultural artifacts and of the overall social production of cultural materials

• The belief has been that exposure to and, eventually, appreciation for fine art, literature, music, and so on would elevate the tastes, and moral and intellectual character of humankind

• In practice, the access to “high culture” was mostly limited to the elite

High culture

• Because of the expense of production, and the inability to distribute exposure widely (people had to attend a performance, access an original manuscript (or a rare, expensive copy) or travel to where a piece of art was kept (most of which was not available to the public) in order to be exposed to high culture

Finance

• Most art, music, etc. was financed by the wealthy through ‘patronage’ of artists– Michelangelo– Mozart

• Some work for hire– Portraits– Lessons for the children of the wealthy

Finance

• One area where a more free-market system was developed is in the book market, which exploded after the development of the press by Gutenberg– Vast expansion of literate middle class– Started with religious manuscripts but soon

expanded to philosophy, religion, classics

                                                                                     

Low culture

• Throughout time it appears that common people, in the course of their lives, created artifacts, music, stories, jokes, and so on as a form of amusement, moral training, communion, etc.– ‘folk culture’– Religion is an important part of this culture

Folk culture

• The source of most tales of this sort is lost in antiquity– Often ‘oral culture’ (stories passed from generation to

generation without being written down)– Original authors are unknown

• Authorship not that important

– Works evolve over time, so that the original may not closely resemble the current version

– Passing on the stories, music, art styles, etc. is part of the role of the elders of the community

– Children learn, as part of their education, the ‘ways’ of the group, which include its folk culture

                                                                                                           

       

Folk culture

• A number of authors, etc. have attempted to capture folk culture– Brothers Grimm– Canterbury Tales

Mass culture

• With the coming of technologies of mechanical reproduction, the possibility of wide distribution of cultural artifacts at low cost was realized– Book trade first

– Wide distribution of music sheets, scripts for plays, etc.

– Recording of music

– Motion pictures

– Broadcast

Mass culture

• With each expansion of the mechanical ability to reach wider, and poorer, audiences, the hope among the social reformers was that aesthetic taste, literacy, reason and moral enlightenment could be expanded to the lower classes

• Mass culture would be an ‘uplifting’ force in society

Mass culture

• The belief was that as education spread, and therefore the demand for poetry, opera, and so on, these forms of high culture would be made available to everyone through mass media. Alexander Graham Bell first envisioned the phone as a means for people to receive musical performances or poetry readings.

Mass culture

• Though not nearly so reflective of the wishes of the social reformers and intellectuals, folk culture also found a means of spreading widely through the media.– Burlesque and popular music– Popular magazines and paperbacks– Wild West stories transferred to the movie

screen

Mass culture

• With the burgeoning mass media industries, a new form of culture was emerging that was not simply a mechanical extension of the other two—mass culture– Mass culture is culture as commodity

• Produced for sale rather than as an expression of spiritual or communal feelings

• No interest in education/taste improvement of the public• Treated as a business, like any other, where investment must

turn a profit or the business will be closed down and capital shipped somewhere else

Mass culture critics

• Horkheimer and Adorno– Displaced neo-Marxists– Attacked popular culture for being formulaic,

repetitive, repetitive• Support authoritarian mindset, fascism

– Focused on popular culture of the time, big-band jazz

More recent leftist critique

• Continues to see mass culture as having little intrinsic value

• Helps to cultivate complacency

• Uses up hard-earned leisure in mindless activity

• Cultivates an attitude of spectatorship– Nation of spectators rather than actors, citizens

Mass culture is:

• Cheap

• Disposable

• Sensational/sleazy

• Forgettable

• Based on excitation that lasts for only a short time

• Devoid of real meaning

Mass culture lacks:

• Authenticity

• Emotional attachment by its creator

• Moral impact

• Ability to provide community

• Aesthetic quality

• Complexity

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Post-modernist thought• Popular (mass) culture not in any way inferior to

elite culture– Camille Paglia

• Topics and presentations chosen by poor and working class

• Appeals to sensations, emotions – privileging the rational/intellectual was always

mistaken

• Brings pleasure to viewer—entirely appropriate goal

• Society of the spectacle• Disconnected, decontextualized content• The image has become more important than the

thing itself– People will deny the real when confronted with it if it does

not conform to the image presented in popular culture

• Leaders who present appropriate spectacles rather than engage in wise and thoughtful policy development are preferred (and are better rulers) than less visually and emotionally eloquent but wise rulers