The process by which the American television and film industry, for the most part based in California, spreads their own highly sexualized, consumer driven, version of American culture that heavily emphasizes sex, violence, celebrity, and youth as both virtues to be extolled and goals to be achieved. Ignoring and often doing everything in their power to blur, if not erase, the dividing line between the fantasy of the cinemas world view and reality. This process has become pandemic with the proliferation of reality television wherein a person can achieve "Californication" without possessing any real talent but rather just the ability to make a fool of themselves on a world wide stage.
Theodore Adorno shares the same views as the song Californication about the manufacturing of cultures and the inappropriate images and promises it expresses. Adorno said that the culture industries produce 'unsophisticated' products that replace critical art forms which then makes people forget about the important things such as the question of social life and the meaning of it altogether. He also said that people are too materialistic and like things purely because of how much they cost, or if everyone else has one. A lot of the things Adorno says here are very relevant to the song Californication and it was therefore, extremely important that we learnt and studied about him and it will be a big help when coming to shoot the video and to write about it.
Bibliography: Adorno, Theodor W. (1991), The Culture Industry: Selected essays on mass culture, Routledge, London.
You explain what you understand by the term 'Californication' in a simple way.
ReplyDeletePlease give a source for Adorno, as outlined at the start of the lesson. Guidance on the link to University of Exeter Harvard reference system
ReplyDeleteLook at the class blog post on Adorno and see if you can improve the detail here to raise your level as requested on 08.11.13:
ReplyDeletehttp://a2mediaclaremont.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/theodor-adorno-adorno-1903-69-argued.html