the context of music, rather familiarity has replaced it (Briccetti, 2010).
Classical music now simply inhabits the background of films and adverts
and is denied attention, breaking down the ‘wholeness’ of music so that
‘the listener finds delight in the moment… instead of considering the
work as a whole’ (Adorno, 2002 p291). Adorno sees classical music as
a commodity produced solely for commerce in his present-day capitalist
society; it is now only used to prompt sales.
Through this perspective he sees the attendees of classical music
concerts, who do not like the music but instead like buying the ticket
to gain status (Strohm, 2000, p132). Similar are those who purchase
a Stradivarius, which is the ‘manifestation of impulse’ (Adorno, 2002,
p288). Classical music ‘fans’, therefore, have formed an elitist group
where they feel they are better than the rest of society; buying into the
fetishised names of composers and fancy brands which are not well liked
by everyone else, but hold status within the elite community. However,
they are just perpetuating the never-ending cycle of capitalism; the desire
to be better and different, which is acquired through the consumption of
products that represent one’s individuality. We buy to feel individual, we
feel individual by buying things. It could therefore be argued that Adorno
does not only see Mahler’s symphonies as liberating the common folk
from the bourgeois rule, but also the individual from the collective. Art is
no longer a reminder of difference, culture is produced by an industry. Art
is a commodity and subject to the same demands as any other product,
and therefore ceases to be art. This culture industry has demolished
critical autonomy, instead supporting all fetishism, regression of musical
reception, and formal standardisation of pseudo-individuality.
Adorno saw popular music in a similar way. Writing in the 1930s, popular
music consisted of jazz and Tin Pan Alley produced pop songs. Adorno
began by denying the qualities that jazz was praised for, its famed
improvisation was not expressive or spontaneous, rather banal, formulaic
and ‘fashionable’ (Poulos, 2018). Whilst he admits that the jazz songs
are syncopated, this is actually laid over a rigid beat marked by the kick
drum. The African roots jazz claims to have are far from authentic as they
have largely been removed so the music can be mass-produced (Witkin,
1998, p163). Here we can see the similarities between his views on
classical and popular: both, whilst originating from something authentic,
have become commodities – ‘its marketability permeates its production’
(Adorno, 2002, p473). Jazz too has become a product.
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