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The point of theories of "mass culture" is not so much the "mass" as the "culture." Goods and services may be distributed to a large number of people in economies where what is called "mass culture" doesn't exist. When theorists use the phrase, they want to emphasize the fact that "cultural" products are being distributed on a mass scale. Mass culture is culture caught up in capitalism.
This doesn't just mean cheap reproductions of Rembrandts and miniature Rodins, though that's part of it. Nor is it limited to popular cultural products like movies and TV programs, though that's part of it too.
Cultural "products" include values, lifestyles, dreams, tastes, and so on. Mass culture means the distribution of these cultural realities to a large number of consumers. Thus, advertizing is one of the key engines of mass culture, insofar as it seeks not only to sell goods but to sell a particular vision of the good life on a mass scale. Advertizing promotes mass culture too in the sense that it provides many of the images, axioms, jingles, cliches that we share. When fashion moves from the upper classes to the larger population, it too becomes a part of mass culture.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, November 02, 2006 at 02:20 PM
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