Page "Theodor W. Adorno" Paragraph 42

Adorno's analysis allowed for a critique of mass culture from the left which balanced the critique of popular culture from the right.

From both perspectives – left and right – the nature of cultural production was felt to be at the root of social and moral problems resulting from the consumption of culture.

However, while the critique from the right emphasized moral degeneracy ascribed to sexual and racial influences within popular culture, Adorno located the problem not with the content, but with the objective realities of the production of mass culture and its effects, e. g. as a form of reverse psychology.

Thinkers influenced by Adorno believe that today's society has evolved in a direction foreseen by him, especially in regard to the past ( Auschwitz ), morals or the Culture Industry.

The latter has become a particularly productive, yet highly contested term in cultural studies.

Many of Adorno's reflections on aesthetics and music have only just begun to be debated, as a collection of essays on the subject, many of which had not previously been translated into English, has only recently been collected and published as Essays on Music.