Quoting C. Wright Mills

One key thing about American mass culture ... is that it is not an "escape" from the strains of routine, but another routine, which in its murky formulations and pre-fabricated moods ... deprive the individual of his own fantasy life. ... And I would of course impute the leveling and the frenzy effects of mass culture in this country not to "democracy" but to capitalist commercialism which manipulates people into standardized tastes and then exploits these tastes and "personal touches" as marketable brands. -C. Wright Mills ('Our Country and Our Culture', Partisan Review [1952]: 446-7)