Popular Culture

Theodor Adorno believed that big institutions keep creating false needs for people, in which people believe they need without really thinking. What Adorno said is true for some genre such as rap where rappers portray their rich lifestyle and force people to believing it is easy to do which then makes a lot of young people feel as if they need to have that lifestyle.

However Dick Hebdige believe that audience have the choice to buy what they want and change want they feel isn’t working and that it isn’t the institution. Hebidige thought that major companies will inveitably attempt to assimilate this resistance by attempting to provide products which these audience of subculture will consume.


Reflecting from both theories I believe that both theories are correct however they both apply to different music video genres. Hip-hop genres tend to go with Adorno theory as they are more controlled by the institute where as other genres like POP music are more based on the audiences opinion and feedback.