Mass Culture and the Industry of Culture ——Critique of Cultural Theory and Standard of China’s Context

There should be no doubt that culture is an industry. The mass culture specifically refers to the cultural products produced by the industry of culture since the twentieth century, such as films, advertisements, popular music, common novels, and TV programs. The industry of culture can hardly be detached from the mass culture. So all the disadvantages of the industry of culture, the vulgar mediocre content and the curry favor with popularity, in particular, are likely to be the problems of mass culture. Though with its fundamental shortcomings, mass culture, because of the existence of its historical rationalization, can not be got rid of by force. People can only keep an attitude of cultural criticism toward the mass culture.