Culture industries are dominated by a few big corporations that prefer to keep flogging old stories instead of taking a risk on something new. Creative workers can still produce fresh ideas, but they’re snuffed out before they get a chance to breathe.
I think the phrase “culture industry” is already the point where it’s gone off the rails.
One of several parts of the Blue Man Group’s Complex Rock Tour was poking fun at the contradiction in terms that is “the music industry.” That something which is meant to be human and intangible is churned out on an assembly line like kitchen appliances.
music is measurable, can be produced by inhuman objects, and has value. Everything that meets these requirements will be produced at scale in capitalism, this is not a design flaw, it is a design feature.