“The power of the culture industry’s ideology is such that conformity has replaced consciousness.” ~ Theodor Adorno

One of the best – and yet more challenging – aspects of undertaking a thesis project is having to dismantle my preconceived ideas and consider how to reconcile disparate positions. Case in point: as an ardent consumer of popular culture, I am wading through a rather complex relationship with Adorno and company’s notion of the culture industry.

On the one hand, I’m apt to nod along in fervent agreement when reading the Frankfurt School thinkers deftly discuss how popular culture is a capitalistic tool of distraction that keeps the populace from fostering a meaning existence as contributing members of society. Then, I lift my eyes from the book to the screen and I find myself praising the genius of HBO’s ‘The Leftovers’ or the artistry of Yorgos Lanthimos’ ‘The Lobster’ as pop culture texts facilitating relevant discourse about and meaningful insight into contemporary society.

I know the heart of my issue is coming to terms with the premise of differentiating between high and low art. No easy task for the most informed thinker let alone for my wee brain-in-training. Given I choose to root myself in cultural studies and that I’m working with du Gay’s Circuit of Culture, I well know I’m prepared to reject the high/low argument altogether. That said, I am quite grateful that while cultural studies moves away from these tenets it does so being informed by them. I’d also note that at this stage of my academic training I am prepared to let my alliances be muddled. For a while yet I can forego planting a flag too firmly in any camp. Besides, while it may lack conviction, it can be irksome to choose. I’m not yet ready to be confined to this or that. I choose to be stuck in the in-between.

Anyhow, these are all very surface thoughts that serve to be more of a distraction than anything formative. Clearly there is a weak tie to my thesis project in all this meandering – the Canadian independent music scene and the entirety of the CBC are certainly a part of culture industry – but I’m not entirely sure I’ve reconciled anything in the process. I suppose in some fashion, it is simply a good sign that I am prepared to share a blurb of writing that can only be considered a work in progress. So that, in and of itself – is progress.