Wednesday, December 2, 2009

General unsubstantiated thoughts on Adorno's theory...

OK, so this is quite an informal post with just a few words on what I think of this theory:

Firstly, I'd like to point out the hypocracy of Adorno's arguement... he suggests the music he listens to is authentic, however classical music has it's own conformity, elements of the music produce similar automatic response from the listener. The difference is that Adorno feels he belongs to an enlightened elite group, however he, in my opinion is a victim of the same pseudo-individualism he accuses the working class of. Just as I don't listen to 'pop' music, but I am aware that bands I listen to have a similarity to other bands I listen to, just with any genre.




The similarities between The Strokes and Tokyo Police Club are quite obvious... though I love them both.

Secondly, in a modern day setting 'pop music' is at an all time high and it permeates into all sorts of genre's without any of them containing the genuine authenticity Adorno talks about. My opinion is that a modern equivelant of 'authentic' music is lo-fi acoustic music from artists such as The Mountain Goats... basic songs with simple melodies and guitar parts, he writes songs endlessly, recording them even if they're extremely rough or sketchy for the sake of making music and expressing an idea, personally, I eqaute this with the exploration of ideas and poetry, rather than listening to the music for the hooks and the aesthetics.