Page 17 - Cultural Studies A Practical Introduction

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Policy and Industry

Culture has always been both a physical act as well as an ideational event.
It is a combination of talented concept and production mechanism.
Talented musical composers in the past depended on wealthy patrons to
sustain them while they made music. These days, a talented television artist
such as Joss Whedon depends on production and distribution companies
such as Fox to have his ideas realized in actuality, and as he discovered
when his show Firefl y was cancelled, commerce is as important as aesthetics
in determining the success of one ’ s art.

Because of the profit - driven nature of the culture industries, they aim
toward standardization of product to assure continuity of income. Con-
sidering the amount of money at stake, any departure from the standard

that is financially successful will for the same reason quickly generate copies,
and the new quickly becomes standard. Standardization is also necessary
because of the nature of the audience, both national and global. That audi-
ence is characterized by a range of educational levels and by a related range
of aptitudes for understanding audiovisual messages. The term lowest
common denominator is usually used to describe the way the “ mass ” culture
industries create products that appeal to as wide a selection of people from
the highly diverse audiences they address and seek to please. It has become
a commonplace to remark that the general audience prefers simple fare with
fairly uncomplicated characters, themes, and plot lines. Mass audiences are
said to prefer to see their vision of the world endorsed rather than chal-
lenged. This has led to a bifurcation in many forms of culture such as fi lm
and music. On one side is mainstream art, which is characterized by stand-
ard, easily recognized products that appeal to a broad audience and to a
lowest common denominator by making significant compromises to suit

audience aptitudes. On the other side is marginal art, which usually refers
to the independent sector or the avant - garde, where higher levels of formal