Adorno believed that popular music should be left out of the arts bracket, as he deemed it to be repetitive (or standardised) and a mass-produced commodity.
Whether popular music can be considered as 'art' also is dependent on the factor of creativity. Art, after all, is based on creativity and so this should be reflected in what is considered 'art'. Some popular music of today is definitely money-making commodities, especially anything which comes out of a Simon Cowell talent show and later becomes his puppet, (ironically shown by JLS, hanging from the ceiling from strings during a perfectly over-choreographed routine at the Brits.) However, popular music can be shown to be inspired, with artists such as Florence and The Machine, who are proving to be very popular at the moment, and are clearly passionate about what they do; it's their art.
Certainly it is fair to make a distinction between these different types of artists but Adorno would no doubt point to the fact that, even though their inclination may be different, the basic structure of their music is very similar.
ReplyDelete