T658
Interpretive
Turns


September
16,
2008

Ohriner/Michaelsen/Williams


Adorno’s
“Theory
About
the
Listener”,
from
Essays
on
Music,
Richard
Leppert,

trans.

Berkeley:
UC
Press,
2002.

(pp.
452­457).


• “Popular”
music
gains
acceptance
through
rote
repetition,
not
through
its

“musical
sense.”

• “Musical
sense”
is
built
up
by
combining
known
elements
(topos,
affects
of

harmony,
melodic
formulae,
etc.)
with
novel
elements.

In
popular
music,

there
are
no
novel
elements.

“The
Scheme
of
Recognition”

1. “Vague
remembrance”

In
popular
music,
Adorno
believes
that
the
content
of
each
song
can
elicit
a

remembrance
of
“practically
every
son,
since
each
tune
is
reminiscent
of
the

general
pattern
and
of
every
other.”

What
could
give
Adorno
this

impression?



2. “Actual
identification”

This
takes
a
while:
“it
is
probably
very
difficult
to
recognize
most
song
hits
by

the
first
two
or
three
notes
of
their
choruses;
at
least
the
first
motif
must
have

been
played.”



3. “Subsumption
by
label”

“The
moment
the
listener
recornizes
the
hit
as
the
so
and
so…he
feels
safety
in

numbers
and
follows
the
crowd
of
all
those
who
have
heard
the
song
before.”



4. “Self‐reflection
on
the
act
of
recognition”

We
enjoy
the
control
we
have
over
tunes
that
we
know,
calling
them
up
at
will,

changing
them
if
we
wish.



5. “Psychological
transfer
of
recognition‐authority
to
the
object”

“The
listener
feels
flattered
because
he,
too,
owns
what
everyone
owns.

By

owning
an
appreciated
and
marketed
hit,
one
gets
the
illusion
of
value.”


Questions
for
discussion:

1. What
kind
of
music
fits
Adorno’s
description
of
popular
music?

2. What
aspects
of
“popular
music”
define
it
as
such?

Could
Beethoven
be

popular
music?