Mass communications reduce all cultural realms to the commodity form.

Evidence

If mass communications blend together harmoniously, and often unnoticeably, art, politics, religion, and philosophy with commercials, they bring these realms of culture to their common denominator—the commodity form. The music of the soul is also the music of salesmanship. Exchange value, not truth value counts. On it centers the rationality of the status quo, and all alien rationality is bent to it. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 283

Categorization

• XREF: Central link to attention economy debates: attention itself is the commodity form here; ads and content converge exactly as ads and culture converge for Marcuse. — connects to: The masses’ enthusiastic participation destroys the cultural apparatus that courted them. — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 220; Internet connectivity reduces everything and everyone to a resource for use — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 1022; Classical political economy of culture reduces all cultural phenomena to economic determination (+2 more)
• SEED: Article angle: ‘The music of the soul is the music of salesmanship’ as the origin statement for influencer culture and branded spirituality.

Broader Connections

• Classical political economy of culture reduces all cultural phenomena to economic determination #expands (0.85)
• Online platforms collapse the institutional framing that once distinguished cultural forms from capital flows. #exemplifies (0.80)
• Mass media emerged with agrarian capitalism as culture itself became a commodity. #expands (0.80)