Poptimism’s leveling of art and commerce destroyed art’s autonomy

Evidence

Poptimists demanded equal respect for art and kitsch, which was only a short leap from equal respect to the artist and the businessperson. This inevitably crowded out the romantic ideal of making art for art’s sake. But as scholar Natasha Degen warns, art without autonomy is indistinguishable from any other commodity. We may be already there. “If [Theodor] Adorno were to look upon the cultural landscape of the twenty-first century,” music critic Alex Ross writes, “he might take grim satisfaction in seeing his fondest fears realized. The pop hegemony is all but complete, its superstars dominating the media and wielding the economic might of tycoons.” — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 844

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes Adorno/Horkheimer culture-industry arguments from prior reading (The Frankfurt School). This is a mechanism claim central to Marx’s thesis. — connects to: Capitalist realism absorbed art’s militancy through creative industries synergies. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1564; Popism’s levelling of culture turned into a nihilism that debases high art — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1211
• SEED: Essay angle for the counter-case: what falls out of view when we treat Adorno’s prediction as self-evidently fulfilled?