Quickly read Adorno's (1941) article 'On Popular Music'. In no more than a few paragraphs, summarise his ideas on pop music, concentrating on key points such as 'standardisation', 'psuedo-individualisation' etc.
Post a link to a YouTube pop video that, in your opinion, epitomises Adorno's sentiments. Explain why, trying to emphasise the links to the wider 'culture industry' in general.
Adorno views pop music as being inferior to 'serious music' because he believes it to be standardised and predictable. He goes on to describe that 'structural standardisation aims at standard reactions, meaning that people within the pop music industry already know what the listeners' reaction will be when they are making the music, and they intend to tap in to that. This can be viewed as a form of control in what the audience is subjected to an supports financially. This idea of foreseeing reactions is partly due to genres of music and people limiting and labelling themselves to certain genres, such as Metal music. You already know what type of thing you are going to get within the genre - 'the same familiar experience." This stops any element of surprise as 'the composition hears for the listener.' This implies that your free-thinking has been taken out of the equation as the listening is being done for you. Listening to music has become a passive activity as the music is 'pre-digested'. Especially within the genre of Metal I think it’s fair to say that there’s now so many sub genres such as death, death core, core, metal core etc that it’s broken down so much, when you listen to an artist labelling themselves by that genre they will sound like others of that area.
Adorno continues by revealing that 'concentration and control in our culture hide themselves in their very manifestation. Unhidden they would provoke resistance.' By this he means that if people knew overtly that they are being manipulated and only being offered a limited, standard choice, then they would resist. Therefore, it is necessary to disguise the fact that people are having their free-thinking taken away from them. This gives people the illusion that they have free choice, but in reality we don't. Mass culture, like pop music, keeps people in their place by making them think one dimensionally, rather than rebelling. This can be seen as almost depoliticising the working class, who Adorno sees as being the main consumers of pop music.
Maiden’s song represents Adorno’s idea well. Metal within this 1980’s era was probably the most standardised music ever. Whilst metal was still rather premature within this time it seemed only a limited few were being experimental, whilst labels were more focussed on the glam/hair metal capitalistic view on the industry.
The standardisation comes from the predictable guitar pinches, mixed tempo vocals and the essential solo placed three quarters in or nearly always at the end. If you were buying metal in this period you’d most probably heard it before. Although that’s not to say that things have changed now either. As with everything, everyone takes inspiration from other bands which incorporate into this cycle. It’s easy to spot how similar music was as we pass through the eras however at the current time, do we overlook this and just take it as something we enjoy rather than analyse?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment