Adorno And The Music Industry : Kant And Marx

George Orwell, in an essay from Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays titled “Politics and the English Language” (1950), argues that the English language, through a cyclical process of sloven language and foolish thought, has become “ugly and inaccurate.” He supports his argument by using expert opinion, metaphors, and historical context. Orwell’s purpose is to demonstrate the debasement of the English language in order to prompt writers to make a conscious change in their writing . He adopts an informal tone (“Look back throughout this essay, and for certain you will find that I have again and again committed the very faults I am protesting against”) for writers in a time of political turnover and rising superpowers.

With the proposed concepts, such as branding in commercialism, High Culture/Low Culture, and the false promises made in uniform products, one is granted to see today’s society as hovering closely to a capitalistic system set up to facilitate the vast desires of the masses. As Adorno and Horkheimer bluntly put it, “personality scarcely signifies anything more than shining white teeth and freedom from body odor and emotions” (71). We can only think of ourselves as just another gear in the American machine, churning away endlessly and waiting to be fed with the uniformity of culture, the greed, manipulation, and

Born in 1903, Theodore Adorno is one of the most prominent figures in the Frankfurt school of communications, a school of social theory and philosophy which studied the effects and structure of the media. In 1945, Adorno published one of his most famous articles, “A Social Critique of Radio Music”. In his somehow controversial essay, Adorno claims that the music played on the radio reflects broader social behavior patterns, that benefits the power elite and numbs the masses. Adorno goes on and state four axioms he believed to be true regarding the existing capitalist society, including how we live in a society of commodities. The main problem he dissects in his article, is that now music is being treated as a commodity as well. Further,

In his work, Dialectic of Enlightenment, Theodor Adorno analyzes the nature of the culture industry. People everywhere are constantly being consumed by the culture industry, which is a term for the mass production of cultural goods such as films, magazines, and music. Adorno is concerned that the government uses the cultural industry as a way to deceive the masses and manipulate them into passivity. This idea remains true in today’s society. Young men and women are more interested in the release of the newest Taylor Swift or Adele song than political issues. People have become less intellectual as they are being consumed by the culture industry. It is much easier for a person to let himself be consumed by mass media and to let the media

In “When the King Saved God,” by Christopher Hitchens, language has been the main metamorphose throughout the reading. Language became an important aspect in people’s life. Words in the bible were translated for a better understanding to people in a society. However, have we ever questioned ourselves about how language brought success to certain translators by translating words? Political power plays a huge role in this situation when we see this in a translator’s point of view. Translators used the advantage they had in words to gain advantage. Nonetheless, the same circumstances can be seen in “Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell, where politicians used language to make their points clear and to prove to be honest in their language when is being delivered, which is also called political language. By analyzing how people used language to achieve something, I argue that people have the power to be dominant in language because language is malleable. It can be manipulated easily and at the same time change the perspective of people on its definition.

Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer are known as two great critical theorists who are primarily known for their work The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception. Adorno and Horkheimer originally were members of the Frankfurt School, which was a group of scholars that were a part of the revival of Marxist thought. Adorno and Horkheimer were third wave scholars of Marxist thought which meant that they were concerned about the occurrence of the communist revolution. However, the revolution never took off instead the spread of fascism and Hitler’s regime occurred. Adorno and Horkheimer, both of Jewish descent, were forced to flee to New York. The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as

Throughout history, music has been seen as a medium in which different people all over the world can relate. Adorno criticizes, however, that songs that have the most “hits” on the top music charts or are most listened to, otherwise known as popular music, are being produced for and consumed by the masses as a commodity. He identifies popular music as being a part of a culture used for capitalism, and that we as listeners, are falling into a trap in which we believe songs have individuality and that we have the freedom to choose what we listen to. He argues that in reality these popular songs are all standardized and made to seem different through various elements that are added. In this paper, I will display how Adorno’s critique of popular music being used for capitalism applies to the song,1-800-273-8255, by hip-hop and rap artist Logic, through its standardized elements in both its content and marketing; however, I will argue that although it contains these elements, the audience is actively listening and responding to the song as it brings awareness to mental health and suicide prevention that is changing and saving lives all around us.

It is said by critics that the political content of Beethoven's works after this only shows a negative relationship to the outer world. Theodor Adorno, one of those critics, interpreted Beethoven's withdrawal from the affirmative manner of his heroic style as a negation of false promises of the Enlightenment and Revolution:

Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) was a member of the Frankfurt School at the University of Frankfurt in 1923 (Longhurst, 1995:4). Adorno was notably influenced by Marx’s critique of capitalism, Freud’s psychological repression studies and Weber’s theory of rationalism (Goodwin, 1990). Adorno develops a critique of popular music from a critical theory derived from Marx and adopts this

When musicians produce albums, they want people to listen to the albums. There is not one specific way for a band or single musician to gain an audience and promote their music. Musicians use many different kinds of media to promote their music. They use visual media as well as strictly listening media. The radio, television, and the internet are all different types of media musicians use to promote their music.

Adorno and Horkheimer's obscure and nihilistic text Dialectic of Enlightenment (DoE) is an attempt to answer the question 'why mankind, instead of entering a truly human condition, is sinking into a new kind of barbarism' (DoE, p.xi). The result is a totalising critique of modernity; a diagnosis of why the Enlightenment project failed with no attempt to prescribe a cure. This is achieved by a historical-philosophical study of the mythic world-view of animism and anthropomorphism and the Enlightenment attempt to dissolve myth through objectification and instrumental reason.

In the totalitarian world, which Orwell describes, language is the most significant and effective approach to maintain the rule. From Orwell’s perspective, everything including language, which is particularly powerful, belongs to political measure. In fact, language is the fundamental motivation of creating a nation or a tribe. It is also the foundation of thought because Human’s thought must rely on the language expressing. Then it could be deduced by analogy that controlling human’s language equal controlling human’s thought. Except expressing, it has the ability to build facts. The Party controls citizens’ thinking through controlling the language so that the Party applies euphemistic words to mislead public and prettify its policy. It is unimaginable that language contributes to the rule. The totalitarian utilize every language method to hold the dominant position.

Franz Fanon, in his seminal work The Wretched of the Earth, argues that decolonisation alias restoring nationhood is always a ‘violent phenomenon’: “To tell the truth, the proof of success lies in a whole social structure being changed from the bottom up…. If we wish to describe it precisely, we might find it in the well-known words: "The last shall be first and the first last." Decolonization is the putting into practice of this sentence.”

The evolution of the music industry follows the familiar pattern of digitization. Innovation began with the introduction of the vinyl record, transitioned from the cassette tape to the compact disc and landed us in an era of digital downloads. The emergence of music streaming services like Spotify has progressed the industry even further, giving consumers the ability to access music on demand using download-free online platforms. Spotify faces criticism from artists as a result of the overlap of creativity and commerce. They argue that business activities corrupt creativity, transforming it into a tool for profitability rather than an outlet for expression. Artists insist that Spotify deters album sales, favors established artists and fails to support them financially. However, Spotify was created for consumers. It delivers an accessible alternative to purchasing and downloading music. The interplay between creativity and commerce is changing the nature of the music industry. Spotify has adapted to this change, providing a platform that supports both artists and consumers. Through analysis of the market, artist’s revenue, record labels and consumers, I will argue that artists should accept the evolution of the industry and support Spotify.

"Aristocraticism, liberalism, progress, principles – think of it, what a lot of foreign words ... and useless words!" (123).