Sunday, 28 February 2010

Critique on distribution of popular music


According to the theorists of the Frankfurt school the production and reproduction of culture is somehow alienating and inherently bad. I would like to make an overview on the distribution of popular music in the contemporary society. This sort of music is produced to be easily memorised, which implies it has simple and repetitive lyrics. The usage of language is on a poor and basic level, so that it would be accessible to a wider audience. The 'issues' tackled in 'art productions' like these are often on a basic level of emotions, expressing sexual desires or telling stories of crime etc (e.g. Pitbull: '..I know you want me, you know I want you...' and then in Spanish: ' you have big mouth, start playing with it...', etc). There is no cultural, educational or any sort of value, neither in the lyrics nor in the acoustics. In order to be syncronised with the repetitiveness of the lyrics, the melody is also on a very low productional level. The aim of popular music (as well as most of popular 'art') is to make profit, not to educate. Productions liked by the mass aren't likely to carry any cultural significance. They are made to be simple and easy to understand. This in a sense also links to the reading "On Popular Music" we've already reviewed, and supports Theodor Adorno's theories on popular culture.

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