Theory of art and aesthetic principles

¶ … Art

Adorno and the Frankfurt school on "American Idol"

Smugness, passivity, and anti-intellectualism are fostered by most of the programming on television, according to Adorno (67). Even programs with a surface atmosphere of a radical free-for-all of democracy, like the carefully marketed, carefully crafted "American Idol" reality-show concept have a hidden agenda of complacency. The show suggests that everyone with singing ability, whether they are white or black, thin or overweight, eccentric-looking or beautiful, can be a glamorous star, an "American Idol." This cultural myth is suggested by the superficially democratic texture of the show. The public is presented as the ultimate arbiter of choice, even though the choices themselves are carefully shaped by a prefabricated selection process, headed by a former pop idol of the 1980s and a smug, caustic British man whose bad behavior and transgression of normal etiquette norms thrill the hearts of the viewers.

In "American Idol" the commercial nature of the popular music industry is concealed behind a veneer of democracy. Good taste and singing ability seem to be the only 'real' factors of value the competition -- connections and other non-talent related aspects of the music industry do not seem to come into play. The fantasy that anyone can make good in America, provided they work hard and have enough ability is created by the show. But mass passion that could be channeled into voting, and the real, political mechanisms of the democratic process are instead made to serve mass, commercial culture. The ability of a teenage Indian-American to stay afloat from week to week in the polls takes on significance because of the media attention generated by the show, as opposed to the death of teenage Americans in Iraq. A media creation becomes an issue of importance in the media. The media attaches great importance as to who survives from week to week, and scandals attaching to different participants, or the cultural significance attached to the ability of carefully sanitized selections of slightly different races and body types to survive and pass through the cultural machinery of star production (as their image is carefully crafted with makeup and clothing consultants) takes on significance simply because the media accords the show attention. Thus everyone feels he or she must watch the show to know about something that is deemed important, but really is not, and is simply a means of generating a commercial product to serve the music industry.