Adorno and Horkheimer both argued the same theory that was centered around the "culture industry". That the industry were standardizing everything so that every platform of media had a standard that was stuck to, this left no room for individuality. That their is no spontaneity left within the media industry, when their is a certain standard and way expected from everyone who wants to succeed. They argued that everything had a formula they looked especially in to music and certain songs, as in the 1940's and 1950's blues and RnB songs were being copied if found successful, so that more people can join the band wagon and gain from this new success. Also that the song has to be commercial so that audiences will not forget it due to its catchy, simplistic and mainstream sound, that they were all used to by know. Adorno even compared the making of a song as a "mechanical" system.
Adorno and Horkheimer mentioned the "pseudo individuality" that they were making artists in to what they wanted and what would be commercially viable. Yet they would state their artists had some form of individuality, when in fact they were the same as many others in the mainstream music system. Thus meaning that everyone is practically the same, this can be shown in shows like the X Factor when looking at the history of the show all of the artists are similar, as they are following through with the same criteria on what mainstream artists personalities should be like. X Factor links in to their lock and key theory, which is an product that has been mass produced. In which the uniqueness can come from a few and slight changes to them. Finally overall their theory works within hegemony the idea that "mass culture" is diluting a "real culture" from being able to naturally come through.
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