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Abstract
Speaking about popular culture in relation to the critical and aesthetical thought of Theodor W. Adorno, means dealing to the vast debate that concerning the meaning of the cultural industry, fundamental concept for Dialectic of the Enlightenment. This essay is not a philological reconstructing of this theme; it wants to highlight how, beyond the famed severity of Adorno for pop culture, it is possible using Aesthetic Theory’s categories to investigate some characteristic elements of the contemporary popular culture, from “dissonance” to shock and kitsch. In this regard, the essay intends to relate Adorno’s aesthetic thought with the work of authors such as Gilles Lipovetsky and Jean Serroy who have recently developed the idea of “aesthetic capitalism”.