Theodore W. Adorno was a German born philosopher and sociologist who produced most of his work between the 40's and 60's before his death in 1969. He was a member of the Frankfurt School of social theory which was a school based around Marxism and was generally very anti-capitalist. Adorno is probably most renowned for his work on musicology and popular music. He obviously felt very strongly about this topic and its effects in the world as he goes into a lot of detail and a lot of his comments seem very pessimistic and verge towards some kind of apocalyptic repercussions in his extreme examples.
Personally I think that Adorno is just very old fashioned and seems to be talking about "modern" music of the time rather than "popular". Also he references Beethoven way too many times. Still, he has some really interesting points to make and deserves recognition.
Adorno very roughly said that popular music has no quality and all sounds the same, although he goes into much more detail about why it is like this and what that means. He starts this by saying that there are "two spheres" of music; Popular (or 'hit') music, and serious music (immediately demeaning the former through it's name). In essence, serious music seems to be considered by Adorno as a form of art, often referring to classical music of around the 16th century. In comparison, popular music seems to span several genres in Adorno's writing.
In fact, Adorno puts the main difference down to one word: Standardization. Adorno says that all popular music is standardised. That is effectively to say that all popular music is the same; not in terms of actual tune or lyrics but more so in structure. Adorno even seems to go as far as to say that the reactions on an emotional or experiential level are also standardised. He makes a point of saying that popular music will effect the listener in the same way as all other popular music because it is written into the structure of the song and is actually expected by the listener.
"The whole is pre-given and pre-accepted, even before the actual experience of the music starts"
In Adorno's eyes we already know what to expect when we listen to music, so in essence nothing is gained from doing so.
Adorno also says that popular music is standardized even when an attempt is made to make sure that it isn't standardized. At this point, it seems like Adorno is pretty much set on thinking that popular music isn't a good thing and that there is no way to remedy the situation.
Another aspect of popular music that Adorno references is pseudo-individualization. This is the idea that popular music gives listeners the sense of individuality when it really only creates conformity. People often use music to represent themselves and people often create a personal identity through the kind of music that they listen to. This is true for almost anywhere in the world and extends beyond the music into trends and lifestyle choices that have come to accompany a genre. In Adorno's view, if all hit music is standardized and all popular music is effectively the same, then the individuality gained from consuming a certain type of music is not individuality at all but actually mass conformity.
He even seems to go as far as to say that this is a tool of power in a capitalist world. By creating this false sense of individuality, we as citizens feel like we have free will and can choose what we listen to and shape our own identities, whereas in truth our identities are shaped for us and popular music is used to make everyone conform and crate a society that is easier to control. Without this pseudo-individuality, the public would see that we are not in control which could spark rebellion. I'm sure that Adorno also goes into more depth about how this conformity is used to further capitalism by forcing people to buy certain products or trends that fit a genre of popular music.
Jason Derulo - Whatcha Say:
This is my example of popular music that conforms to a lot of Adorno's theories and ideas quite well. It probably works so well because it is also a rubbish song.
This song works most relevantly when analysed against the term 'Standardisation'. To start with, the whole theme of the song is very reminiscent of about a billion other songs just in the R'n'B/ Pop genre alone. The general, "I should have treated you better/ I miss you/ I made a mistake/ Forgive me" song about girls is one of several very general categories that songs often fit in to, so in terms of content originality this song is definitely hugely standardised.
As for the sound of the song, this too is a trend that spans the entire popular culture scene at present. The post-recording studio editing creates the robotic-like voice effect called "auto tuning". It is a technology developed by Antares Audio Technologies which allows correction of audio pitch in vocal and instrumental recording. It can effectively assign any recorded not to another note so that it doesn't actually matter what a voice sounds like as it can be edited to whatever is needs to be. This took off in the early 2000's as a discreet way to cover up mistakes or off-tune singing but in recent years the effect has been intensified and used openly rather than discreetly to create the vocal effect as in this song. It is now featured in hundreds of popular songs that are released right now, making this song standardised even more.
The last point to look at for standardization would be the actual melody of the song itself. The verses are relatively repetitive and conform to the same conventions of most popular music of the genre, but the chorus is actually completely lifted (or "sampled") from a well known older existing song; "Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap. Sampling has also become a popular practice in creating hit music and literally involves taking parts of other songs and using them in a different song. By doing this, the songs are very literally standardised by the exact sound that they create, which by Adorno's standards mean that the same emotions and experience will be derived from each song and the song is "pre-given" and "pre-accepted" on a completely literal level as it has genuinely been heard thousands of times before.
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