In preparation for our class tomorrow, these our the questions our group hopes to raise in tomorrow's discussion. We will be discussing the assigned excerpts from Love is a Mixtape--Schefield; Perfect from Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life--Sellers; and I Hate Myself and Want to Die: The 52 Most Depressing Songs You've Ever Heard--Reynolds, under the lens of Adorno's critique of popular music and its production in his essay On Popular Music. How do these two sets [Schefield et. al and Adorno (Popular Music)] of readings differ in their understanding of the production process and effect of popular music?
Adorno makes a distinction between serious music and popular music. According to Adorno, popular music is standardized both in its production and in its consumption (the listener's reaction to the music).
"It would not affect the musical sense if any detail were taken out of the context; the listener can supply the "framework" automatically, since it is a mere musical automatism itself. The beginning of the chorus is replaceable by the beginning of innumerable other choruses. The interrelationship among the elements or the relationship of the elements to the whole would be unaffected. In popular music, position is absolute. Every detail is substitutable; it serves its function only as a cog in a machine."
The Axis of Awesome, a comedy rock band from Australia recognizes Adorno’s sentiment. In this performance, they show that in the past 40 years, many if not most pop songs rely on a standardized four chord structure. This mash-up demonstrates 40 “different” songs from “different” genres within popular music that flow into each other almost seamlessly because they are based on the standard four chord structure.
A more subtle example of this "sameness" and interchangeability between popular music is seen when comparing the the theme, instrumentation, and structure of a song written by Taylor Swift as a reaction against scorned lover, John Mayer and a song by John Mayer himself. The songs prove in fact to be very similar, and therefore even if a listener chooses to take sides in this break-up by listening to one artist's music over the other--there really is no difference between the artists.
Adorno seems to pose the question: Is real creativity and self-expression possible in popular music’s system of standardization?
The supplemental readings by Schefield, Sellers, and Reynolds demonstrate that this question of creativity and self-expression does not apply only to the producers (artists, producers, record label etc.) of music. It also applies to the creativity and self-expression of the listener.
Take for example this selection from Schefield, “Maria was a door-slammer, big on stomping out and expecting me to follow. I was new at this boyfriend stuff, so I didn’t question her way of doing things. [...] But things started to wobble around the time R.E.M. put out a truly wretched album called Document, the one that made her reconsider whether she could continue to worship Michael Stipe. I blamed R.E.M. for not saving us by making a better record. That, I realize now, was unfair.” (Love is Mix Tape, p. 53-54)
Regarding the effect of popular music on the lives of people, in this particular case, the author has put personal blame on a band for ruining his relationship with his girlfriend–a relationship primarily based upon mutual love of music. Music becomes the basis upon which their entire relationship is established; therefore, the music industry seems to have taken a direct hand in manipulating his life.
What is the effect of popular music on how a listener expresses his/herself? Under the influence of popular music, how do we create new thoughts or solutions? Do emotions and behaviors also become standardized?
We will be puzzling out these questions using musical selections from the supplemental reading and comparing them to the Adorno.
From the Reynold's--"Maggie's Dream" by Don Williams
Reynold's identifies songs that are exhaustively depressing because they play on and reify coded/commodified emotional triggers and tropes. Consider this song alongside this passage from Adorno: "The hits not only appeal to a "lonely crowd" of the atomized; they reckon with the immature, with those who cannot express their emotions and experiences, who either never had the power of expression or were crippled by cultural taboos…What makes a hit a hit, aside from the manipulative energy of the moment, is its power either to absorb or to feign widespread stirrings" (Adorno 26-27).
From the Sheffield--"Love (Makes Me Do Foolish Things)" by Martha and the Vandellas
Sheffield recalls his past through the framework of mix tape playlists. Sheffield used this song to help grieve a break-up. Consider how Sheffield uses and is used by the song in terms of this passage from Adorno: "The emotional listener listens to everything in terms of late romanticism and of the musical commodities derived from it which are already fashioned to fit the needs of emotional listening. They consume music in order to be allowed to weep" (Adorno 43).
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UNpopular Music
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