Cultural goods derive exchange-value from production, not from any special appearance of immediacy

Evidence

Here, a tentativeness in Adorno’s approach to commodity-analysis reveals itself. When he remarks that the exchange-value of cultural goods ‘exerts its power in a special way’ because these goods take on ‘the appearance of immediacy’, he fails to recognise that it is precisely this appearance which Marx attempts to capture with his concept of the commodity’s fetish-character. By Marx’s definition, every commodity has a corresponding fetish-character, not simply those to which an immediacy is ascribed externally and possibly for cultural reasons – such as music. Once music has become a commodity, it has the same immediacy as any other profane commodity: namely, an immediacy in appearance only. Therefore, it is not the appearance of immediacy ‘which alone gives cultural goods their exchange-value’; this appearance is the result of the commodity-form of cultural goods, that is, is logically proceeded by their exchange-value. Rather, once again: as is the case with every commodity, cultural goods gain their exchange-value from the way in which they are produced. The insight that economic value, and hence also exchange-value, is not imposed on a commodity by ideology, but rather emerges objectively in the production of commodities, is the core of the Marxian labour theory of value. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 444

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to the core Marxian labour theory of value and to the fetish-character of commodities in Capital — a key link between Adorno scholarship and political economy. — connects to: Production budgets signal value independent of any real meaning in products; Mass production really means producing the masses, not producing massively — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 227; Exchange itself, not utility or scarcity, creates economic value. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 261 (+7 more)
• DEFINE: Clarifies what ‘fetish-character’ means for Marx: an appearance of immediacy belongs to every commodity, not just cultural goods.

Broader Connections

• Exchange creates value as genuinely as production does. #contradicts (0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 228
• Exchange itself, not utility or scarcity, creates economic value. #corroborates (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 261
• Economic value emerges through the distance exchange creates between self and object #contradicts (0.70) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 250