CMNS 321 Lecture 4: L4
2 Nov 2017
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Document Summary
Theorizing popular music: a critique of mass culture. Adorno ws born in frankfurt germany: he was an only child and played piano. After getting his phdin philosophy at age 21, he devoted himself to composing classical music, writing concert and opera reviews, and lecturing and writing on philosophy. Being both a marxist and half-jewish, he felt unsafe in germany, so he ed rst to. Great britain, then eventually he ended up in the us. What he saw in the us both shocked and frightened him: The american consumer culture he witnessed had a similar adoration for mass culture and authoritarian spectacle that characterized the nazi regime. In 1930s america, adorno heard the silencing power of music: for him, modern life was unmusical. Music had become institutionalized, restaged, and was on museum like display in places where either admission was charged or consumer goods were exchanged.
