Theodor W. Adorno, a member of the Frankfurt School of German thinkers, wrote an essay ' On popular music' in 1941 expressing his views on popular music through a Marxist Ideology.
Adorno attempts to clarify a difference between 'serious music' and 'popular music'. He explains that there is a fundamental characteristic of popular music which one can identify in order to differ it from 'serious music' and that is standardization. This standardization is "applied to the most general feature( of the song)to the most specific ones"(Adorno.T,1941, On Popular Music, pg 73). Adorno stresses the standardized structure to popular music by giving an example of how "best know is the rule that the chorus consists of thirty-two bars and that the range us limited to one octave and one note."(p.73). He explains that all this mass culture, however different they seem they are all ultimately the same, standardized and predictable.' This inexorable device guarantees that regardless of what aberrations occur, the hit will lead back to the same familiar experience, and nothing fundamentally novel will be introduced'(p.74).
Adorno uses classical music as examples of 'serious music' to compare to the standardized popular music. He says that serious music can be characterized by the fact that ' every detail derives its musical sense from the concrete totality of the piece which, in turn, consists of the life relationship of the details and never of the mere enforcement of musical scheme'(p.74). But in popular music, the relationship of each detail in the piece is insignificant.' Every detail is substitutable; it serves its function only as a cog in a machine'( p.75) and that the listener can 'automatically' supply the framework themselves.
Adorno goes on to talk about the 'Structural Standardization Aims at Standard Reactions' which basically points out that if everything is the same then our responses would then be the same. Notice the work 'aim' rather than 'cause'. Popular music is produced in such a standardized way in order to receive the same standardized reaction. The promoters of the music and the mechanism of the music itself leads the listeners into this 'response mechanism whilly antagonistic t the ideal of individuality in a free, liberal society'. (p.76) We live in a society where each person is longing to be an individual but how can you be individual when you are conforming to the same culture.
Adorno believes that " popular music, is composed in such a way that the process of translation of the unique into the norm is already planned and, to a certain extent, achieved within the composition itself. The composition hears for the listerner' ( p.77). He is saying that this music has already been understood and thought for the listeners reducing there creativity. It is 'pre digested' and therefore the effort needed for listening is minimum.
Adorno continues by introduces the idea of 'Pseudo-individualisation ' which he believes is a by product of standardization. It is an illusion one's individuality when there is in fact none, only conformity. However, this 'Pseudo-individualisation ' is not so much an unintentional by product but one that has been created. People must believe that they are in fact individual in order for them to be controlled. Standardization should be kept secret while people still believe in choosing the music of their free choice and taste.
"Concentration and control in our culture hide themselves in their very manifestation. Unhidden they would provoke resistance. Therefore the illusion and , the a certain extent, even the reality of individual achievement must be maintained." (p.78)
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