Artists that fit and go against Adorno and Horkheimer’s theory

By Dom Coleman

Artist that fitOne Direction

One Direction are a boy group which fit Adorno and Horkheimer’s theory perfectly. Five young attractive boys with little talent and have gained a mass audience worldwide. They fit the ‘culture industry’ theory perfectly are owned by massive companies which attempt to make as much money out of them as possible through merchandising. They are also what a mass audience crave.

Artist that doesn’t fitEd Sheeran

Ed Sheeran is the complete opposite to Adorno and Horkheimer’s theory as he is himself and nobody has influenced any change upon him. He has not been manipulated by anyone and has maintained the same image even before he became popular in the music industry. He isn’t similar to any other solo artist and certainly doesn’t have capitalist corporations behind him making merchandise and money from him.

How our featured artist fits the theory

Our artist will fit to this theory as she a lot of the other artists similar to her. The intertextual referencing show’s she has done the same things as previous artists because she sings about the same stories/situations as other artists. She sets the genre characteristics perfectly because of her attitude and dress sense.