“In general they are intoxicated by the fame of mass culture, a fame which the latter knows how to manipulate; they could just as well get together in clubs for worshipping film stars or for collecting autographs. What is important to them is the sense of belonging as such, identification, without paying particular attention to its content.”

Their applause, cued in by a light-signal, is transmitted directly on the popular radio programmes they are permitted to attend. They call themselves 'jitter-bugs', bugs which carry out reflex movements, performers of their own ecstasy. Merely to be carried away by anything at all, to have something of their own, compensates for their impoverished and barren existence. The gesture of adolescence, which raves for this or that on one day with the ever-present possibility of damning it as idiocy on the next, is now socialized.
Perennial fashion — Jazz, as quoted in The Sociology of Rock (1978) by Simon Frith, ISBN 0094602204

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 2, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In general they are intoxicated by the fame of mass culture, a fame which the latter knows how to manipulate; they coul…" by Theodor W. Adorno?
Theodor W. Adorno photo
Theodor W. Adorno 90
German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for … 1903–1969

Related quotes

Theodor W. Adorno photo
River Phoenix photo
Lupe Fiasco photo

“Posthumous fame, book fame, nerd fame is not like the good kind of fame. It might last for centuries and let antique egg heads torture the young from the grave, but it just doesn't pay the bills.”

Laura Penny (1975) Canadian journalist

Source: More Money than Brains (2010), Chapter Seven, If You're So Smart, Why Ain't You Rich?, p. 206 (See also: Henry David Thoreau, Karl Marx, James Joyce, Herman Mellville...)

Cuauhtémoc Blanco photo
Cyril Connolly photo

“… art is made by the alone for the alone… The reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication…”

Cyril Connolly (1903–1974) British author

Source: The Unquiet Grave: A Word Cycle by Palinurus

Blaise Pascal photo
Jeremy Irons photo
David Bowie photo

“Fame, (fame) makes a man take things over
Fame, (fame) lets him loose, hard to swallow
Fame, (fame) puts you there where things are hollow
Fame (fame)Fame, it's not your brain, it's just the flame
That burns your change to keep you insane”

David Bowie (1947–2016) British musician, actor, record producer and arranger

sane
Fame, written with Carlos Alomar and John Lennon
Song lyrics, Young Americans (1975)

Naum Gabo photo

Related topics