Audiences worship the exchange value they themselves created by buying.
Evidence
The consumer is really worshipping the money that he himself has paid for the ticket to the Toscanini concert. He has literally ‘made’ the success which he reifies and accepts as an objective criterion, without recognizing himself in it. But he has not ‘made’ it by liking the concert, but rather by buying the ticket. — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 84
Categorization
- XREF: Extends the Marx commodity-fetishism analysis grounding the whole chapter; connects to Weberian reification and to modern phenomena like concert premium-pricing tiers and ‘likes’ as manufactured value. — connects to: Artistic success is a reified reflection of the money audiences pay — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 424; Empathy with commodities is really empathy with exchange-value itself. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 448
Related
- Artistic success is a reified reflection of the money audiences pay (similarity 0.86)
- Empathy with commodities is really empathy with exchange-value itself. (similarity 0.83)
- Massive commercial success amid modest innovation reveals audiences’ diminished desire (similarity 0.79)