ABSTRACT
The origins of the Frankfurt School 47
The theory of commodity fetishism 50
The Frankfurt School’s theory of modern capitalism 53
The culture industry 55
The culture industry and popular music 59
Adorno’s theory of popular music, Cadillacs and doowop
The Frankfurt School: a critical assessment 68
Benjamin and the critique of the Frankfurt School 75
THOSE FAMILIAR WITH THE study of popular culture might well ask if it is worth bothering any longer with the Frankfurt School. Even if it still has something relevant to say, there are now better ways of saying it. The School’s perspective, it is often argued, has become both narrow and outmoded. This view is not quite so prevalent as it would have been a few years ago.1 But it is not unusual for critiques of elitist views of popular culture to use the work of Theodor Adorno, one of the School’s key figures, as a prime example of the target at which their criticisms are directed. This stance is even less surprising when it is realised how much common ground the School shares with mass culture theory.
