Quickly read Adorno's (1941) article 'On Popular Music' (links below). In no more than a few paragraphs, summarise his ideas on pop music, concentrating on highlighting key points such as 'standardisation' 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.
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Theodor W. Adorno theorised that popular music of the time was subjected to standardization, and thus a particular deviation from what he calls 'serious' (Classical) music - “The whole structure of popular music is standardized, even where the attempt is made to circumvent standardization”. The idea was that popular music recycled the basic structures of previous popular songs and reapplied them so that they were 'familiar' to audiences, even when seemingly differential.
Adorno argues that standardization adds nothing creative and fundamentally new to music. Instead the masses are subdued to slight variations of novelty, comic and love songs, which are relative to the current fashions, commodities and social themes (such as male dominance). These attributes of standardised music allow a listener to familiarise and enjoy popular music, whilst pseudo-individualism causes an overlook of the same basic commercial song structures and melodies.
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Ne Yo - One in a Million
- Typical standardized song structure of R&B love songs; Prominent 'clap beat', chorus-verse-chorus structure, song tempo and vocal notes are apparent in all songs of this type. The song hooks and individual melodies overlap this song structure, an example of pseudo-individualism.
- R&B is popular on commercial radio and as dance music for targeting familiar audiences, and like most R&B, this song plays on the sexual chemistry of males and females.
- Simple narrative to the video as the males are entertaining the mute, objectified pretty females and then Ne Yo himself goes lengths to impress a female, including inciting jealousy as he dances with other females.
- High class fashion and an admirable looking male and female cast are examples of capitalist ideologies and commodities.
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