lundi 21 mars 2011
Popular music (2)
Theodor W. Adorno
Studies in Philosophy and Social Science (1941)
In Studies in Philosophy and Social Science (1941) Theodor W. Adorno analyses popular music and its impact on our society. He speaks out against this kind of music, claiming it does not bring anything new to the listeners and, even worse, has a bad impact on them. He uses specific examples for his argument, focusing very precisely on musical history, knowledge and details. For him, nothing compares to classical music. Contrary to this, popular music promotes standardization: it always uses the same principles. Creativity disappears, people remain in a mass culture where music is “pre-given, pre-accepted, pre-digested” (page 73).
According to the author, listeners of popular music cannot be different from each other. They think they are independent by choosing their own music but this music comes from the same source, the same basis. They are getting used to this standard and are not able to perceive the subtlety of complicated music anymore. They want an escape from their daily life by listening to music, but the music they listen to is based on the same cultural standards as their everyday life.
For Adorno, people want to obey, and they express this need by accepting popular music and finding an interest in it. Music has lost its autonomy, is not anymore a specific language which can be appreciated as such; it only belongs to a mass popular culture.
According to Adorno, productors of popular music are using different ways to make people appreciate it. The songs, melodies and other technical aspects of a music are diffused and repeated to the listeners, forcing them to finally like it and to consider it as the standard taste: “the plugging is the inevitable complement of standardization.” (part II, paragraph 1). Glamour is also an essential tool to attract the listeners. But glamour’s criteria are always the same, so people still appreciate similar kinds of music.
Popular music uses different human abilities to become accepted : habituation (when the listeners like something because they have heard it a lot) and recognition (because of their frequent exposure to a particular kind of music) and because these songs share the same values (the listeners can identify and appreciate these similarities).
Comments on the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyBq21FtL1s
Written by Kristian Lundin, Savan Kotecha, Julian Bunetta and RedOne in 2010, this song is sung by Alexandra Burkle who won X-Factor in 2008.
In my opinion, this music video completely epitomizes Adorno’s sentiments concerning popular music. This song consists partly of a global dancehall style mixed with some reggae, lyrics talking about girls and boys. I consider this music video to be a perfect example of what popular music is. Musically, we can easily recognize in this song the popular style made by musical instruments, rhythms and the melody itself. We listeners have the feeling of having heard something similar before; this is precisely why we quite like it. The power of repetition familiarises us with the style and make us easier to convince. The refrain’s melody remains attractive exactly because it belongs to a global style : popular music. People recognize it.
Visually, the music video uses a number of popular codes : glamour, vitality, dance, sensuality, almost-nude bodies, sparkles and make up. Everything is there to make the mass audience appreciate it, and it works perfectly.
¶ 17:08
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