Task two.
Adorno is of the opinion that music can be split into two categories, based on musical and social aspects. He argues that 'serious' music almost bears no connection to popular American music. By saying that popular music is standardised he theorizes about how all popular music is essentially the same, different songs arranged around the same skeleton. 'Regardless of what aberrations occur, the hit will lead back to the same familiar experience, and nothing fundamentally novel will be introduced.' He implies that as an audience we are pre prepared for what we hear, as it is all familiar and we know little different.
Adorno is of the opinion that because of standardisation popular music feigns individualisation (in his own words 'pseudo - individualisation'). His statements are ill thought out and ultimately ignorant. Repetition is something found in almost everything in the world, especially in the arts. I do agree that in many ways that yes, popular music has become largely manufactured and monotonous but that is obviously not the case on the whole, and it is entirely naive to suggest this.
The idea of pseudo - individualisation is sadly in some ways more accurate than ever, certainly in the past century every ten to fifteen years new trends emerge and with that, new styles of music. Each listener will be thinking that this lovely new music they're listening to is really original and modern, when really it's probably got more recycled material than original. So in a sense he is right about something. It isn't something that bothers me, it's a good thing to use elements of different music to make something which sounds familiar but 'new' al the same. Essentially it's just recycling and the end product is something most people will like because most people will have heard it before, whether they realise this or not. Maybe this is in part down to the human fondness of all things familiar. Sampling songs is something that we hear a lot of now (I wonder what Mr. Adorno would think of that?) and in many cases the artists aren't pretending to be individual with it, it is used as a tool to create a new sound rather than imitating.
A good example is Mark Ronson's Stop me. It samples Diana Ross and The Supremes's You Just Keep me Hangin' On (1966) and The Smiths's Stop Me if You Think You've Heard This One Before (1987). The song relies heavily on these two samples, with not much original material woven between the samples. However this creates a sound quite different from both of the original songs and is an interesting combination of two entirely different genres.
Adorno is of the opinion that because of standardisation popular music feigns individualisation (in his own words 'pseudo - individualisation'). His statements are ill thought out and ultimately ignorant. Repetition is something found in almost everything in the world, especially in the arts. I do agree that in many ways that yes, popular music has become largely manufactured and monotonous but that is obviously not the case on the whole, and it is entirely naive to suggest this.
The idea of pseudo - individualisation is sadly in some ways more accurate than ever, certainly in the past century every ten to fifteen years new trends emerge and with that, new styles of music. Each listener will be thinking that this lovely new music they're listening to is really original and modern, when really it's probably got more recycled material than original. So in a sense he is right about something. It isn't something that bothers me, it's a good thing to use elements of different music to make something which sounds familiar but 'new' al the same. Essentially it's just recycling and the end product is something most people will like because most people will have heard it before, whether they realise this or not. Maybe this is in part down to the human fondness of all things familiar. Sampling songs is something that we hear a lot of now (I wonder what Mr. Adorno would think of that?) and in many cases the artists aren't pretending to be individual with it, it is used as a tool to create a new sound rather than imitating.
A good example is Mark Ronson's Stop me. It samples Diana Ross and The Supremes's You Just Keep me Hangin' On (1966) and The Smiths's Stop Me if You Think You've Heard This One Before (1987). The song relies heavily on these two samples, with not much original material woven between the samples. However this creates a sound quite different from both of the original songs and is an interesting combination of two entirely different genres.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6ekBbmOcKA
(Can't embed it because Mark Ronson won't let me)
Part of me agrees with Adorno, it is enormously sad that some music depends on this basic skeleton and predictable nature to get heard but at the same time music isn't something that is elitist, you don't have to know what chords and where are in a song to enjoy it. Ultimately music can be any kind of sound, different people have different tastes.
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