Adorno and Horkeimer

Adorno and Horkeimer believe that the culture industry is comparable to factory processes therefore with the X factor artists are treated more like products than people, and are used to make money by selling merchandise. The process off making an artist in a machine eg X-factor which produces a product that fits into a box and will appeal to what the audience think they want.

Shows like The X-Factor are seen as capitalist institutions of which seeks to maintain the status quo. They are "omnipotent" over both the "product" and the audience, as they decide what the audience wants and give it to them through the creation of their finalized "product"; an artist moulded into a category and made to follow the conventions of that category, whilst rejecting everything about them that isn't familiar.

Adorno and Horkeimer suggested that we the audience are surrounded by things that are "mass media", such as soaps, which dilutes "real culture".

Real talent is being corrupted by the needs of what an audience "supposedly" wants.