Horkheimer, Adorno, and the Pinnacle of Capitalism

Let's take popular music as our example of capitalism.  Obvious.  Let's take a look at how in it, "all our mass culture is," as Horkheimer and Adorno put it, become "identical,"and how "the lines of its artificial framework begin to show through." Capitalism, which has for so long been telling us it creates products based on consumer need, is having to make such claims less and less.  Soon, we will be sold rubbish, even though we know it's rubbish, even though it will cost us. Why?  Because, they told us we wanted it, that's why.  

And this was all written in 1947.  Couple this idea with the idea of progress so ubiquitous in the discussion of capitalism, and add in the acceleration of change in the last few decades, and it seems to me we should be at about critical mass.  By now, we should have an example of rubbish we don't need or want but buy anyway.  We should have the perfect product of capitalism.

So here's my theory: it's Ke$ha. KE-Dollarsign-HA.  And I realize that people have said this about popular music in every genre and every decade since Horkheimer and Adorno, but I think Ke$ha has brought it into a new level. And here's why:

1) The recycled beats.  Not only are the backgrounds to Kesha's songs cliche copies of other songs in her genre, some are acknowledged as being almost exactly the same. This has happened more than once. Music producers lose no money on creating new tracks, and fans eat it up. It's an old song that happens a lot in the music world, but Kesha's tracks are unapologetic.

2) The auto-tune.  The Machine need not find an artist with vocal talent when it can easily find one that it can auto-tune into a top-selling timbre.

3) The look. She's known for her over-the-top costumes and makeup. What this does two things. a) It draws attention away from what Kesha actually looks like, and b) it draws attention to the products she uses. She could be conventionally pretty, but she no longer needs to be in order to sell. The Machine is therefore saved the trouble of finding a talented, attractive, creative starlet to exploit.  It now only needs to find someone to auto-sing over pre-created tracks and wear the body paint and fake eyelashes that the label intends to sell.  Kesha is made into less of an individual and more of a character that anyone willing to wear the costume could play.

4) The lyrics.  Most are familiar with Kesha's "brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack," or her "the party don't stop till I walk in."  Her songs are about living large and partying hard, and there always seems to be an abundance of brand-name alcohol and body glitter (Did I mention Kesha has her own line of body glitter?) in these parties. The moral of the story: More products=better party.  And they lived happily ever after, children.

So, we've done it, folks. We've created the perfect sell-able formula for capitalism: recycled tracks + auto-tune + face-hiding makeup = a "human" product (music) without any need for a specific human. People become commodities, and twelve-year-olds buy more glitter.

Do you buy it?  Is the pinnacle of capitalism someone/thing else? Am I even asking the right questions?