CULS20015 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Chord Progression, Culture Industry, Industrial Revolution
15 Jun 2018
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Lecture 2: cultural value of popular music
Marxist economics 10
• A commodity has two different types of value
o Use value - functionality
o Exchange value - market value, $$
• Capitalist economy - exchange value > use value
• Popular music part of capitalist economy ->
• Record labels interested in exchange value > use value
Adorno
• The culture industry enlightenment as mass deception
o SUMMARY: Popular culture is akin to a factory producing standardized goods that produce a
false sense of contentment and the illusion of choice, but in reality, these cultural goods just
encourage passivity and reinforce the ethic of consumption
o Industrial revolution -> shift to mass production -> same in culture -> mass production of
culture -> if it’s a oodity, it a e ought ad sold -> homogenous bc it is predictable
Standardization
• Key distinguishing factor betw popular music and serious music
• There are people writing the songs - standardisation not related to the production of popular
music -> people see something that works and replicates it -> 'standards' -> to be commercially
successful
• Pseudo individualization
o How standardization masks itself by offering the appearance of choice
o Products that appear to be different things even though they are very similar
o What they listen to is "pre digested"
o Jazz seems spontaneous and individual but conform to normalized framework
o What seems spontaneous has a predefined limit to what people are going to do
o Works through marketing in contemporary popular music
o Artist sold as a brand to mask standardization
Pop music and leisure time
• Marxist: Time at work necessary to be better at work
• Leisure time spent improving self and doing challenging things
• We are listening to music in our spare time without LISTENING to music
• Want to escape but do’t at to put i the effot
• Leisure time colonized by culture industry and ultimately the logic of capitalism when we listen to
popular music in our leisure time
• Pop music and culture become ideologies of culture -> work to maintain the status quo
Popular music
Serious music
• Popular music formulaic - type of songs
(creation of genre), themes in lyrics, song
structure (chord progression, vocal effects)
• repetition of forms and schemas
• Standardized theses
o Serious music - not interchangeable, each part
of a sog has a eaig that’s depedet o
other parts of the score
o Serious music encourages critical thought and
engagement
o Encourages critical thinking
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Industrial revolution -> shift to mass production -> same in culture -> mass production of culture -> if it"s a (cid:272)o(cid:373)(cid:373)odity, it (cid:272)a(cid:374) (cid:271)e (cid:271)ought a(cid:374)d sold -> homogenous bc it is predictable. Leisure time colonized by culture industry and ultimately the logic of capitalism when we listen to popular music in our leisure time: pop music and culture become ideologies of culture -> work to maintain the status quo. Serious music: popular music formulaic - type of songs (creation of genre), themes in lyrics, song structure (chord progression, vocal effects) repetition of forms and schemas. Standardized theses: serious music - not interchangeable, each part of a so(cid:374)g has a (cid:373)ea(cid:374)i(cid:374)g that"s depe(cid:374)de(cid:374)t o(cid:374) other parts of the score, serious music encourages critical thought and engagement, encourages critical thinking. Critiques of adorno: elitist, classically trained musician, his arguments a lil sussed, condescending, a bit of a snob, a(cid:396)gu(cid:373)e(cid:374)t does(cid:374)"t take i(cid:374)to (cid:272)o(cid:374)side(cid:396)atio(cid:374) (cid:449)hat (cid:449)e do (cid:449)ith (cid:373)usi(cid:272)
