Week 7 Questions (Alvarez)

 

• In "What is this ‘black’ in black popular culture?" Hall calls for a larger diversity of Black subjects in popular media, stemming from the idea that a subject being Black no longer stands for a significant code for a type of progressive politics/view of history. I wonder how we can expand this line of thinking to current Black subjects in popular culture, which have increased in diversity since this article. An example that came to mind was that of Zendaya's character Rue from Max's Euphoria, a Black female protagonist whose race has little to do with the actual plot. Is there anything to decode in Rue's role in this cultural artifact?
• In "Culture industry" Adorno and Horkheimer argue that "style" in movies and music is corruptive to the form, and that alternative styles, by their opposition, validate the ideas of style in the first place. This article was written in the 1930s, and since then we have seen multiple instances of cultural bureaucracies (movie + music industries) adapt to alternative styles that arise from lower/subjugated classes, which then advanced the artform. How can we analyze the rise and adoption of these alternative styles? Are we in a similar moment now?