Mass Culture (Frankfurt School)

Mass culture refers to a sociological concept that informs the analyses of the culture industry, its products, and their consumption conducted by the members of the Institute of Social Research of Frankfurt am Main, Germany (often referred to as the Frankfurt school). The concept of mass culture plays a significant role in the Frankfurt school's theoretical examinations of the entertainment and leisure industry as well as in its empirically enriched studies of cultural goods—pop music, jazz, radio, cinema, television programs, advertising, popular literature—and their impact on consumers. The works of Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Leo Löwenthal, and Herbert Marcuse have been particularly influential.