“To be sure, exchange-value exerts its power in a special way in the realm of cultural goods. For in the world of commodities this realm appears to be exempted from the power of exchange, to be in an immediate relationship with the goods, and it is this appearance in turn which alone gives cultural goods their exchange-value. But they nevertheless simultaneously fall completely into the world of commodities, are produced for the market, and are aimed at the market.”

—  Theodor W. Adorno

Source: On the Fetish Character in Music and the Regression of Listening (1938), p. 279

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Theodor W. Adorno 90
German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for … 1903–1969

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