Theodore Adorno A Social Critique Of Radio Music Analysis

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

The feel-good essence of a lot of commercial pop music has the outcome of concealing the reality of structural where a people may not be treated as equals around the world (McKay, 2000, p.2). Therefore, commercial pop music has the triple socialising effect of having listeners forget the environment that they live in, having them believe there is validity in commercial power, and of muting people by mass-producing blaring, fused type of pop music while censoring others. This is concerning since the increasing variety of media controlled by the same corporations. An argument to this is that this feel-good aspect can help consumers feel, that they have escaped the conditions they live in. (McKay, 2000,

Popular music is often one of the best lenses we have through which to view our own cultural orientation. Many of the artistic and experimental shifts in popular music have mirrored changes in our own society. For instance, the emergence of Elvis Presley as a public figure would signal the start of a sexual revolution and the growth in visibility of a rebellious youth culture. Similarly, the folk and psychedelic music of the 1960s was closely entangled with the Civil Rights, anti-war and social protest movements. In this regard, we can view popular music as an artifact through which to better understand the time and place in which it is produced. In light of this, the state of popular music today may suggest troubling things about our society.

In the text Adorno and Horkheimer primarily focuses on the issue of art such movies, radio program and etc becoming a commodity and the fusing of the market and art areas. The criticism of the culture industry stems from the fact that for Adorno and Horkheimer culture held the answer for liberation, however the mass produced culture that they found in America was instead enslaving people. Adorno and Horkheimer’s argument regarding mass culture produced products and its effects and commoditization of art remain important to contemporary society because these issues have continued to have a negative effect on contemporary society this can be observed by analyzing contemporary mass culture products such as television, movies and the internet.

I hear people complain all the time [I’m guilty as charged] about mainstream radio – who can blame us when you hear only music from 20-25 artists for the most part, and good songs played to over and over till you turn it when you hear it come on. To top it off we have comments from radio executives coming out like Gary Overton’s comment [don’t even get me started on that one right now, that’s deserves special attention] “if you’re not on the radio you don’t exist” and things like women are the tomatoes.

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:

Throughout the years, music has evolved and transformed in many ways. However, there are restrictions in today’s music, otherwise known as, censorships. A crisis has emerged concerning the issue of censorship. This argument consists of two possible stances: one, supporting the continuation of censorship, and two, eliminating the status quo of censorships in the music industry. There have been countless debates and arguments regarding the issues of censorship ever since the U.S. Congress passed the Radio Act in 1927 (The History). The time has arrived for censorship to be brought to an end. The government should release their grip on the censorship of music for the following reasons: it obstructs the public’s freedom of choice, it

When he spoke of his personal experiences, even Carl Wilson took the position that his dislike of some music was because it was different than the music he liked. Writing about Elliott Smith, he stated “Smith was a hero of mine and of the late-90s indie subculture, one of those ‘literate’ bedroom -recording songwriters” (7). Smith wrote and performed a type of music that Carl Wilson acclaimed. “As a former bullied kid,” Wilson found sustenance in Smith’s music (7). Wilson also enjoyed avant-garde music, “I championed and the kinds of unpopular-song writers I was prone to calling ‘literate” (6). Mainstream pop music sounded very different from the music that Wilson enjoyed, so he not only disliked pop music, he refused to listen to it.

This essay will evaluate Adorno’s critical attack on popular music. The essay will briefly provide some context on Adorno. Adorno claims that “listeners are made not born”, thus listening is a cultural practice, in which modernity has transformed into a profit (Adorno, 2002:248). By this, the essay will begin by focusing on the broader idea of the culture industry, in terms of commodities and popular music as not being critical. Following on, particular focus will be given to three main areas which convey Adorno’s criticism of popular music. These being, the musical form under standardisation, pseudo-individualisation and regressive listening in terms of escapism. Standardisation will be evaluated in structural terms, and critiqued by Middleton (1990) and Witkin (2003). Adorno’s critique of popular music can only be understood in relation to his analysis of serious music, therefore, the essay will focus on both types of music. Adorno’s criticisms of popular music and critics of this criticism, will enable for a conclusion to be drawn on whether or not I agree with Adorno’s claims on popular music.

Some would say that there is music all around, in commercials, in movies, in tv shows, even in grocery stores. There are many ways to listen to music, various streaming apps such as Spotify, pandora, YouTube, all of these sites allow people to stream artists music for free. It has been said before that someone has founded their favorite song in a commercial or in a bizarre place that surrounds many human lives. Although a group of the population does not agree with this tactic of publicity. In fact a few artist have taken the right of publicizing their music on streaming apps due to loss of revenue. This can leave a hole between the fan and the artist rather than communicating an interaction with them.

In this article, Peterson and Berger show how the organization of the popular music industry affects the music that America hears.

In “Music, Language, and Composition” Adorno acknowledges that music is like signifying language in many ways, from its structure to how it is formed. However, music is different from signifying language because it does not have to be created with a solid intention or meaning. In signifying language, the structure and combination of phrases to speech is, to some extent, strategic. The formation of signifying language is strategic because the goal of the formation of the phrase is to express something solid and with certainty as to what it’s meaning is. The words that are selected and the sentences that are formed from those words, were chosen and created because meaning needs to be told to others in an accurate manner, so that they’ll be able to understand that same meaning. As for music, Adorno seems to claim that, contrary to signifying language, the intent of which is to communicate a solid meaning, music does not need to have any firm goals related to meaning or solid intentions. Instead, the musician will make the music vague because in making the music ambiguous, the music will have the potential to link to multiple meanings that will vary based on the listener. In other words, the listener will be the one to decide the meaning.

The first theory discussed in the text was founded by Theodor Adorno. Adorno argued that pop culture creates

Also, consumerism has become a mean of social control, as it was mentioned about the culture. And because culture has become a commodity it is mass produced because the demand for it has increased. Adorno was a part of the thinkers, who found a connection between