On Pop Music - Theodor Adorno

Theodor Adorno's critical analysis of popular music in capitalist society. Theodor W. Adorno On Popular Music With the assistance and collaboration of George Simpson The Musical Material The Two Spheres of Music !" Popular music# which produces the stimuli we are here in$estigating# is usually characteri%ed by its difference from serious music. This difference is generally ta&en for granted and is loo&ed upon as a difference of le$els considered so well defined that most people regard the $alues within them as totally independent of one another. We deem it necessary# howe$er# first of all to translate these so'called le$els into more precise terms# musical as well as social# which not only delimit them une(ui$ocally but throw light upon the whole setting of the two musical spheres as well. )" One possible method of achie$ing this clarification would be a historical analysis of the di$ision as it occurred in music production and of the roots of the two main spheres. Since# howe$er# the present study is concerned with the actual function of popular music in its present status# it is more ad$isable to follow the line of characteri%ation of the phenomenon itself as it is gi$en today than to trace it bac& to its origins. This is the more *ustified as the di$ision into the two spheres of music too& place in +urope long before American popular music arose. American music from its inception accepted the di$ision as something pre' gi$en# and therefore the historical bac&ground of the di$ision applies to it only indirectly. ,ence we see&# first of all# an insight into the fundamental characteristics of popular music in the broadest sense. -" A clear *udgment concerning the relation of serious music to popular music can be arri$ed at only by strict attention to the fundamental characteristic of popular music. standardi%ation./!0 The whole structure of popular music is standardi%ed# e$en where the attempt is made to circum$ent standardi%ation. Standardi%ation e1tends from the most general features to the most specific ones. 2est &nown is the rule that the chorus consists of thirty two bars and that the range is limited to one octa$e and one note. The general types of hits are also standardi%ed. not only the dance types# the rigidity of whose pattern is understood# but also the 3characters3 such as mother songs# home songs# nonsense or 3no$elty3 songs# pseudo'nursery rhymes# laments for a lost girl. Most important of all# the harmonic cornerstones of each hit''the beginning and the end of each part''must beat out the standard scheme. This scheme emphasi%es the most primiti$e harmonic facts no matter what has harmonically inter$ened. 4omplications ha$e no conse(uences. This ine1orable de$ice guarantees that regardless of what aberrations occur# the hit will lead bac& to the same familiar e1perience# and nothing fundamentally no$el will be introduced. 5" The details themsel$es are standardi%ed no less than the form# and a whole terminology e1ists for them such as brea&# blue chords# dirty notes. Their standardi%ation# howe$er# is somewhat different from that of the framewor&. 6t is not o$ert li&e the latter but hidden behind a $eneer of indi$idual 3effects3 whose

prescriptions are handled as the e1perts' secret# howe$er open this secret may be to musicians generally. This contrasting character of the standardi%ation of the whole and part pro$ides a rough# preliminary setting for the effect upon the listener. 7" The primary effect of this relation between the framewor& and the detail is that the listener becomes prone to e$ince stronger reactions to the part than to the whole. ,is grasp of the whole does not lie in the li$ing e1perience of this one concrete piece of music he has followed. The whole is pre'gi$en and pre' accepted# e$en before the actual e1perience of the music starts. therefore# it is not li&ely to influence# to any great e1tent# the reaction to the details# e1cept to gi$e them $arying degrees of emphasis. 8etails which occupy musically strategic positions in the framewor&''the beginning of the chorus or its reentrance after the bridge''ha$e a better chance for recognition and fa$orable reception than details not so situated# for instance# middle bars of the bridge. 2ut this situational ne1us ne$er interferes with the scheme itself. To this limited situational e1tent the detail depends upon the whole. 2ut no stress is e$er placed upon the whole as a musical e$ent# nor does the structure of the whole e$er depend upon the details. 9" Serious music# for comparati$e purposes# may be thus characteri%ed. +$ery detail deri$es its musical sense from the concrete totality of the piece which# in turn# consists of the life relationship of the details and ne$er of a mere enforcement of a musical scheme. :or e1ample# in the introduction of the first mo$ement of 2eetho$en's Se$enth Symphony the second theme ;in 4'ma*or< gets its true meaning only from the conte1t. Only through the whole does it ac(uire its particular 6yrical and e1pressi$e (uality''that is# a whole built up of its $ery contrast with the cant us hrmus'li&e character of the first theme. Ta&en in isolation the second theme would be disrobed to insignihcance. Another e1ample may be found in the beginning of the recapitulation o$er the pedal point of the first mo$ement of 2eetho$en's 3Appassionata.3 2y following the preceding outburst it achie$es the utmost dramatic momentum. 2y omitting the e1position and de$elopment and starting with this repetition# all is lost. =" >othing corresponding to this can happen in popular music. 6t would not affect the musical sense if any detail were ta&en out of the conte1t? the listener can supply the 3framewor&3 automatically# since it is a mere musical automatism itself. The beginning of the chorus is replaceable by the beginning of innumerable other choruses. The interrelationship among the elements or the relationship of the elements to the whole would be unaffected. 6n 2eetho$en# position is important only in a li$ing relation between a concrete totality and its concrete parts. 6n popular music# position is absolute. +$ery detail is substitutable? it ser$es its function only as a cog in a machine. @" The mere establishment of this difference is not yet suffcient. 6t is possible to ob*ect that the far'reaching standard schemes and types of popular music are bound up with dance# and therefore are also applicable to dance deri$ati$es in serious music# for e1ample# the minuet to and scher%o of the classical Aiennese School. 6t may be maintained either that this part of serious music is also to be comprehended in terms of detail rather than of whole# or that if the whole still is percei$able in the dance types in serious music despite recurrence of the types# there is no reason why it should not be percei$able in modern popular music. B" The following consideration pro$ides an answer to both ob*ections by showing the radical differences e$en where serious music employs dance types. According to current formalistic $iews the scher%o of 2eetho$en's :ifth Symphony can be regarded as a highly styli%ed minuet to. What 2eetho$en ta&es from the traditional minuet to scheme in this scher%o is the 6dea of outspo&en contrast between a minor minuet to# a ma*or trio# and repetition of the minor minuet to? and also certain other characteristics such as the emphatic three'fourths rhythm often accentuated on the first fourth and# by and large# dance li&e symmetry in the se(uence of bars and periods. 2ut the specific form'idea of this mo$ement as a concrete totality trans$aluates the de$ices borrowed from the minuet to scheme. The whole mo$ement is concei$ed as an

introduction to the hnale in order to createtremendous tension# not only by its threatening# foreboding e1pression but e$en more by the $ery way in which its formal de$elopment is handled. !C" The classical minuet to scheme re(uired first the appearance of the main theme# then the introduction of a second part which may lead to more distant tonal regions''formalistically similar# to be sure# to the 3bridge3 of today's popular music''and finally the recurrence of the original part. All this occurs in 2eetho$en. ,e ta&es up the idea of thematic dualism within the scher%o part. 2ut he forces what was# in the con$entional minuet to# a mute and meaningless game rule to spea& with meaning. ,e achie$es complete consistency between the formal structure and its specific content# that is to say# the elaboration of its themes. The whole scher%o part of this scher%o ;that is to say# what occurs before the entrance of the deep strings in 4'ma*or that mar&s the beginning of the trio<# consists of the dualism of two themes# the creeping figure in the strings and the 3ob*ecti$e#3 stone li&e answer of the wind instruments. This dualism is not de$eloped in a schematic way so that first the phrase of the strings is elaborated# then the answer of the winds# and then the string theme is mechanically repeated. After the first occurrence of the second theme in the horns# the two essential elements are alternately interconnected in the manner of a dialogue# and the end of the scher%o part is actually mar&ed# not by the first but by the second theme# which has o$erwhelmed the first musical phrase. !!" :urthermore# the repetition of the scher%o after the trio is scored so differently that it sounds li&e a mere shadow of the scher%o and assumes that haunting character which $anishes only with the afffirmati$e entry of the :inale theme. The whole de$ice has been made dynamic. >ot only the themes# but the musical form itself ha$e been sub*ected to tension. the same tension which is already manifcst within the twofold structure of the first theme that consists# as it were# of (uestion and reply# and then e$en more manifest within the conte1t between the two main themes. The whole scheme has become sub *ect to the inherent demands of this particular mo$ement. !)" To sum up the difference. in 2eetho$en and in good serious music in general''we are not concerned here with bad serious music which may be as rigid and mechanical as popular music''the detail $irtually contains the whole and leads to the e1position of the whole# while# at the same time# it is produced out of the conception of the whole. 6n popular music the relationship is fortuitous. The detail has no bearing on a wholes# which appears as an e1traneous framewor&. Thus# the whole is ne$er altered by the indi$idual e$ent and therefore remains# as it were# aloof# imperturbable# and unnoticed throughout the piece. At the same time# the detail is mutilated by a de$ice which it can ne$er influence and alter# so that the detail remains inconse(uential. A musical detail which is not permitted to de$elop becomes a caricature of its own potentialities. Standardi%ation !-" The pre$ious discussion shows that the difference between popular and serious music can be grasped in more precise terms than those referring to musical le$els such as 3lowbrow and highbrow#3 3simple and comple1#3 3nai$e and sophisticated.3 :or e1ample# the difference between the spheres cannot be ade(uately e1pressed in terms of comple1ity and simplicity. All wor&s of the earlier Aiennese classicism are# without e1ception# rhythmically simpler than stoc& arrangements of *a%%. Melodically# the wide inter$als of a good many hits such as 38eep Purple3 or 3Sunrise Serenade3 are more diffficult to follow per se than most melodies of# for e1ample# ,aydn# which consist mainly of circumscriptions of tonic triads and second steps. ,armonically# the supply of chords of the so'called classics is in$ariably more limited than that of any current Tin Pan Alley composer who draws from 8ebussy# Da$el# and e$en later sources. Standardi%ation and non standardi%ation are the &ey contrasting terms for the difference.

!5" Structural Standardi%ation Aims at Standard Deactions. Eistening to popular music is manipulated not only by its promoters but# as it were by the inherent nature of this music itself# into a system of response mechanisms wholly antagonistic to the ideal of indi$iduality in a free# liberal society. This has nothing to do with simplicity and comple1ity. 6n serious music# each musical element# e$en the simplest one# is 3itself#3 and the more highly organi%ed the wor& is# the less possibility there is of substitution among the details. 6n hit music# howe$er# the structure underlying the piece is abstract# e1isting independent of the specific course of the music. This is basic to the illusion that certain comple1 harmonies are more easily understandable in popular music than the same harmonies in serious music. :or the complicated in popular music ne$er functions as 3itself3 but only as a disguise or embellishment behind which the scheme can always be percei$ed. 6n *a%% the amateur listener is capable of replacing complicated rhythmical or harmonic formulas by the schematic ones which they represent and which they still suggest# howe$er ad$enturous they appear. The ear deals with the diffficulties of hit music by achie$ing slight substitutions deri$ed from the &nowledge of the patterns. The listener# when faced with the complicated# actually hears only the simple which it represents and percei$es the complicated only as a parodistic distortion of the simple. !7" >o such mechanical substitution by stereotyped patterns is possible in serious music. ,ere e$en the simplest e$ent necessitates an effort to grasp it immediately instead of summari%ing it $aguely according to institutionali%ed prescriptions capable of producing only institutionali%ed effects. Otherwise the music is not 3understood.3 Popular music# howe$er# is composed 6n such a way that the process of translation of the uni(ue into the norm is already planned and# to a certain e1tent# achie$ed within the composition itself. !9" The composition hears for the listener. This is how popular music di$ests the listener of his spontaneity and promotes conditioned refle1es. >ot only does it not re(uire his effort to follow its concrete stream? it actually gi$es him models under which anything concrete still remaining may be subsumed. The schematic buildup dictates the way in which he must listen while# at the same time# it ma&es any effort in listening unnecessary. Popular music is 3pre' digested3 in a way strongly resembling the fad of 3digests3 of prmted Material. 6t is this structure of contemporary popular music which in the last analysis# accounts for those changes of listening habits which we shall later discuss. !=" So far standardi%ation of popular music has been considered in structural terms''that is# as an inherent (uality without e1plicit reference to the process of production or to the underlying causes for standardi%ation. Though all industrial mass production necessarily e$entuates in standardi%ation# the production of popular music can be called 3industrial3 only in its promotion and distribution# whereas the act of producing a song'hit still remains in a handicraft stage. The production of popular music is highly centrali%ed in its economic organi%ation# but still 3indi$idualistic3 in its social mode of production. The di$ision of labor among the composer# harmoni%er# and arranger is not industrial but rather pretends industriali%ation# in order to loo& more up'to'date# whereas it has actually adapted industrial methods for the techni(ue of its promotion. 6t would not increase the costs of production if the $arious composers of hit tunes did not follow certain standard patterns. Therefore# we must loo& for other reasons for structural standardi%ation''$ery different reasons from those which account for the standardi%ation of motor cars and brea&fast foods. !@" 6mitation offers a lead for coming to grips with the basic reasons for it. The musical standards of popular music were originally de$eloped by a competiti$e process. As one particular song scored a great success# hundreds of others sprang up imitating the successful one. The most successful hits types# and 3ratios3 between elements were imitated# and the process culminated in the crystalli%ation of standards. Fnder centrali%ed conditions such as e1ist today these standards ha$e become 3fro%en.3/)0 That is# they ha$e been ta&en o$er by carteli%ed agencies# the final results of a competiti$e process# and rigidly enforced upon material to be promoted. >oncompliance with the rules of the game became the basis for e1clusion. The original patterns that are now standardi%ed e$ol$ed in a more or less competit$e way. Earge'scale economic concentration institutionali%ed the standardi%ation# and made it imperati$e. As a result#

inno$ations by rugged indi$idualists ha$e been outlawed. The standard patterns ha$e become in$ested with the immunity of bigness''3the Ging can do no wrong.3 This also accounts for re$i$als in popular music. They do not ha$e the outworn character of standardi%ed products manufactured after a gi$en pattern. The breath of free competition is still ali$e within them. On the other hand# the famous old hits which are re$i$ed set the patterns which ha$e become standardi%ed. They are the golden age of the game rules. !B" This 3free%ing3 of standards is socially enforced upon the agencies themsel$es. Popular music must simultaneously meet two demands. One is for stimuli that pro$o&e the listener's attention. The other is for the material to fall within the category of what the musically untrained listener would call 3natural3 music. that is# the sum total of all the con$entions and material formulas in music to which he is accustomed and which he regards as the inherent# simple language of music itself# no matter how late the de$elopment might be which produced this natural language. This natural language for the American listener stems from his earliest musical e1periences# the nursery rhymes# the hymns he sings in Sunday school# the little tunes he whistles on his way home from school. All these are $astly more important in the formation of musical language than his ability to distinguish the beginning of 2rahms's Third Symphony from that of his Second. Of ficial musical culture is# to a large e1tent# a mere superstructure of this underlying musical language# namely# the ma*or and minor tonalities and all the tonal relationships they imply. 2ut these tonal relationships of the primiti$e musical language set barriers to whate$er does not conform to them. +1tra$agances are tolerated only insofar as they can be recast into this so'called natural language. )C" 6n terms of consumer demand# the standardi%ation of popular music is only the e1pression of this dual desideratum imposed upon it by the musical frame of mind of the public''that it be 3stimulatory3 by de$iating in some way from the established 3natural#3 and that it maintain the supremacy of the natural against such de$iations. The attitude of the audiences toward the natural language is reinforced by standardi%ed production# which institutionali%es desiderata which originally might ha$e come from the public. Pseudo'indi$iduali%ation )!" The parado1 in the desiderata''stimulatory and natural''accounts for the dual character of standardi%ation itself. Styli%ation of the e$er identical framewor& is only one aspect of standardi%ation. 4oncentration and control in our culture hide themsel$es in their $ery manifestation. Fnhidden they would pro$o&e resistance. Therefore the illusion and# to a certain e1tent# e$en the reality of indi$idual achie$ement must be maintained. The maintenance of it is grounded in material reality itself# for while administrati$e control o$er life processes is concentrated# ownership is still diffuse. ))" 6n the sphere of lu1ury production# to which popular music belongs and in which no necessities of life are immediately in$ol$ed# while# at the same time# the residues of indi$idualism are most ali$e there in the form of ideological categories such as taste and free choice# it is imperati$e to hide standardi%ation. The 3bac&wardness3 of musical mass production# the fact that it is still on a handicraft le$el and not literally an industrial one# conforms pcrfectly to that necessity which is essential from the $iewpoint of cultural big business. 6f the indi$idual handicraft elements of popular music were abolished altogether# a synthetic means of hiding standardi%ation would ha$e to be e$ol$ed. 6ts elements are e$en now in e1istence. )-" The necessary correlate of musical standardi%ation is pseudo' indi$iduali%ation. 2y pseudo' indi$iduali%ation we mean endowing cultural mass production with the halo of free choice or open mar&et on the basis of standardi%ation itself. Standardi%ation of song hits &eeps the customers in line by doing their listening for them# as it were. Pseudo'indi$iduali%ation# for its part# &eeps them in line by ma&ing them forget that what they listen to is already listened to for them# or 3pre'digested.3

)5" The most drastic e1ample of standardi%ation of presumably indi$iduali%ed features is to be found in so' called impro$isations. +$en though *a%% musicians still impro$ise in practice# their impro$isations ha$e become so 3normali%ed3 as to enable a whole terminology to be de$eloped to e1press the standard de$ices of indi$iduali%ation. a terminology which in turn is ballyhooed by *a%% publicity agents to foster the myth of pioneer artisanship and at the same time flatter the fans by apparently allowing them to peep behind the curtain and get the inside story. This pseudo'indi$iduali%ation is prescribed by the standardi%ation of the framewor&. The latter is so rigid that the freedom it allows for any sort of impro$isation is se$erely delimited. 6mpro$isations''passages where spontaneous action of indi$iduals is permitted ;3Swing it boys3<''are confined within the walls of the harmonic and metric schcmc'. 6n a great many cases# such as the 3brea&3 of pre'swing *a%%# the musical function of the impro$ised detail is determined completely by the scheme. the brea& can be nothing other than a disguised cadence. ,ere# $ery few possibilities for actual impro$isation remain# due to the necessity of merely melodically circumscribing the same underlying harmonic functions. Sincc thc'se possibilities were $ery (uic&ly e1hausted# stereotyping of impro$isatory details speedily occurred. Thus# standardi%ation of the norm enhances in a purely technical way standardi%ation of its own de$iation''pseudo'indi$iduali%ation. )7" This subser$ience of impro$isation to standardi%ation e1plains two main socio'psychological (ualities of popular music. One is the fact that the detail remains openly connected with the underlying scheme so that the listener always feels on safe ground. The choice in indi$idual alterations is so small that the perpetual recurrence of the same $ariations is a reassuring signpost of the identical behind them. The other is the function of 3substitution3''the impro$isatory features forbid their being grasped as musical e$ents inthemsel$es. They can be recei$ed only as embellishments. 6t is a well'&nown fact that in daring *a%% arrangements worried notes# dirty notes# in other words# false notes# play a conspicuous role. They are appercei$ed as e1citing stimuli only because they are corrected by the ear to the right note. This# howe$er# is only an e1treme instance of what happens less conspicuously in all indi$iduali%ation in popular music. Any harmonic boldness# any chord which does not fall strictly within the simplest harmonic scheme demands being appercei$ed as 3false#3 that is# as a stimulus which carries with it the unambiguous prescription to substitute for it the right detail# or rather the na&ed scheme. Fnderstanding popular music means obeying such commands for listening. Popular music commands its own listening habits. )9" There is another type of indi$iduali%ation claimed in terms of &inds of popular music and differences in name bands. The types of popular music are carefully differentiated in production. The listener is presumed to be able to choose between them. The most widely recogni%ed differentiations are those between swing and sweet and such name bands as 2enny Goodman and Guy Eombardo. The listener is (uic&ly able to distinguish the types of music and e$en the performing band# this in spite of the fundamental identity of the material and the great similarity of the presentations apart from their emphasi%ed distinguishing trademar&s. This labeling techni(ue# as regards type of music and band# is pseudo'indi$iduali%ation# but of a sociological &ind outside the realm of strict musical technology. 6t pro$ides trademar&s of identification for differentiating between the actually undifferentiated. )=" Popular music becomes a multiple'choice (uestionnaire. There are two main types and their deri$ati$es from which to choose. The listener is encouraged by the ine1orable presence of these types psychologically to cross out what he disli&es and chec& what he li&es. The limitation inherent in this choice and the clear'cut alternati$e it entails pro$o&e li&e'disli&e patterns of beha$ior. This mechanical dichotomy brea&s down indifference it is imperati$e to fd$or sweet or swing if one wishes to continue to listen to popular music. T,+ODH A2OFT T,+ E6ST+>+D Popular Music and 3Eeisure Time3

)@" 6n order to understand why this whole type of music ;i.e.# popular music in general< maintains its hold on the masses# some considerations of a general &ind may be appropriate. )B" The frame of mind to which popular music originally appealed# on which it feeds# and which it perpetually reinforces# is simultaneously one of distraction and inattention. Eisteners are distracted from the demands of reality by entertainment which does not demand attention either. -C" The notion of distraction can be properly understood only within its social setting and not in self' subsistent terms of indi$idual psychology. 8istraction is bound to the present mode of production# to the rationali%ed and mechani%ed process of labor to which# directly or indirectly# masses are sub*ect. This mode of production# which engenders fears and an1iety about unemployment# loss of income# war# has its 3nonproducti$e3 correlate in entertainment? that is# rela1ation which does not in$ol$e the effort of concentration at all. People want to ha$e fun. A fully concentrated and conscious e1perience of art is possible only to those whose li$es do not put such a strain on them that in their spare time they want relief from both boredom and effort simultaneously. The whole sphere of cheap commercial entertainment reflects this dual desire. 6t induces rela1ation because it is patterned and pre'digested. 6ts being patterned and pre' digested ser$es within the psychological household of the masses to spare them the effort of that participation ;e$en in listening or obser$ation< without which there can be no recepti$ity to art. On the other hand# the stimuli they pro$ide permit an escape from the boredom of mechani%ed labor. -!" The promoters of commerciali%ed entertainment e1onerate themsel$es by referring to the fact that they are gi$ing the masses what they want. This is an ideology appropriate to commercial purposes. the less the mass discriminates# the greater the possibility of selling cultural commodities indiscriminately. Het this ideology of $ested interest cannot be dismissed so easily. 6t is not possible completely to deny that mass consciousness can be molded by the operati$e agencies only because the masses 3want this stuff.3 -)" 2ut why do they want this stuffI 6n our present society the masses themsel$es are &neaded by the same mode of production as the arti'craft material foisted upon them. The customers of musical entertainment are themsel$es ob*ects or# indeed# products of the same mechanisms which determine the production of popular music. Their spare time ser$es only to reproduce their wor&ing capacity. 6t is a means instead of an end. The power of the process of production e1tends o$er the time inter$als which on the surface appear to be 3free.3 They want standardi%ed goods and pseudo'indi$iduali%ation# because their leisure is an escape from wor& and at the same time is molded after those psychological attitudes to which their wor&aday world e1clusi$ely habituates them. Popular music is for the masses a perpetual bus man's holiday. Thus# there is *ustihcation for spea&ing of a preestablished harmony today between production and consumption of popular music. The people clamor for what they are going to get anyhow. --" To escape boredom and a$oid effort are incompatible''hence the reproduction of the $ery attitude from which escape is sought. To be sure# the way in which they must wor& on the assembly line# in the factory# or at office machines denies people any no$elty. They see& no$elty# but the strain and boredom associated with actual wor& leads to a$oidance of effort in that leisure time which offers the only chance for really new e1perience. As a substitute# they cra$e a stimulant. Popular music comes to offer it. 6ts stimulations are met with the inability to $est effort in the e$er'identical. This means boredom again. 6t is a circle which ma&es escape impossible. The impossibility of escape causes the widespread attitude of inattention toward popular music. The moment of recognition is that of effortless sensation. The sudden attention attached to this moment burns itself out instanter and relegates the listener to a realm of inattention and distraction. On the one hand# the domain of production and plugging presupposes distraction and# on the other# produces it. -5" 6n this situation the industry faces an insoluble problem. 6t must arouse attention by means of e$er'new products# but this attention spells their doom. 6f no attention is gi$en to the song# it cannot be sold? if

attention is paid to it# there is always the possibility that people will no longer accept it# because they &now it too well. This partly accounts for the constantly renewed effort to sweep the mar&et with new products# to hound them to their gra$es? then to repeat the infanticidal maneu$er again and again. -7" On the other hand# distraction is not only a presupposition but also a product of popular music. The tunes themsel$es lull the listener to inattention. They tell him not to worry for he will not miss anything./-0 The Social 4ement -9" 6t is safe to assume that music listened to with a general inattention which is only interrupted by sudden flashes of recognition is not followed as a se(uence of e1periences that ha$e a clear'cut meaning of their own# grasped in each instant and related to all the precedent and subse(uent moments. One may go so far as to suggest that most listeners of popular music do not understand music as a language in itself. 6f they did it would be $astly difficult to e1plain how they could tolerate the incessant supply of largely undifferentiated material. What# then# does music mean to themI The answer is that the language that is music is transformed by ob*ecti$e processes into a language which they thin& is their own''into a language which ser$es as a receptacle for their institutionali%ed wants. The less music is a language s%Ji geJeris to them# the more does it become established as such a receptacle. The autonomy of music is replaced by a mere socio' psychological function. Music today is largely a social cement. And the meaning listeners attribute to a material# the inherent logic of which is inaccessible to them# is abo$e all a means by which they achie$e some psychical ad*ustment to the mechanisms of present'day life. This 3ad*ustment3 materiali%es in two different ways# corresponding to two ma*or socio' psychological types of mass beha$ior toward music in general and popular music in particular# the 3rhythmically obedient3 type and the 3emotional3 type. -=" 6ndi$iduals of the rhythmically obedient type are mainly found among the youth''the so'called radio generation. They are most susceptible to a process of masochistic ad*ustment to authoritarian collecti$ism. The type is not restricted to any one political attitude. The ad*ustment to anthropophagous collecti$ism is found as often among left'wing political groups as among right'wing groups. 6ndeed# both o$erlap. repression and crowd mindedness o$erta&e the followers of both trends. The psychologies tend to meet despite the surface distinctions in political attitudes. -@" This comes to the fore in popular music which appears to be aloof from political partisanship. 6t may be noted that a moderate leftist theater production such as Pins and >eedles uses ordinary *a%% as its musical medium# and that a communist youth organi%ation adapted the melody of 3Ale1ander's Dagtime 2and3 to its own lyrics. Those who as& for a song of social significance as& for it through a medium which depri$es it of social significance. The uses of ine1orable popular musical media is repressi$e per se. Such inconsistencies indicate that political con$iction and socio'psychological structure by no means coincide. -B" This obedient type is the rhythmical type# the word 3rhythmical3 being used in its e$eryday sense. Any musical e1perience of this type is based upon the underlying# unabating time unit of the music''its 3beat.3 To play rhythmically means# to these people# to play in such a way that e$en if pseudo' indi$iduali%ations'' counter'accents and other 3differentiations3'occur# the relation to the ground meter is preser$ed. To be musical means to them to be capable of following gi$en rhythmical patterns without being disturbed by 3indi$iduali%ing3 aberrations# and to fit e$en the syncopations into the basic time units. This is the way in which their response to music immediately e1presses their desire to obey. ,owe$er# as the standardi%ed meter of dance music and of marching suggests the coordinated battalions of a mechanical collecti$ity# obedience to this rhythm by o$ercoming the responding indi$iduals leads them to concei$e of themsel$es as agglutini%ed with the untold millions of the mee& who must be similarly o$ercome. Thus do the obedient inherit the earth.

5C" Het# if one loo&s at the serious compositions which correspond to this category of mass listening# one finds one $ery characteristic feature. that of disillusion. All these composers# among them Stra$ins&y and ,indemith# ha$e e1pressed an 3anti romantic3 feeling. They aimed at musical adaptation to reality''a reality understood by them in terms of the 3machine age.3 The renunciation of dreaming by these composers is an inde1 that listeners are ready to replace dreaming by ad*ustment to raw reality# that they reap new pleasure from their acceptance of the unpleasant. They are disillusioned about any possibility of reali%ing their own dreams in the world in which they li$e# and conse(uently adapt themsel$es to this world. They ta&e what is called a realistic attitude and attempt to har$est consolation by identifying themsel$es with the e1ternal social forces which they thin& constitute the 3machine age.3 Het the $ery disillusion upon which their coordination is based is there to mar their pleasure. The cult of the machine which is represented by unabating *a%% beats in$ol$es a self'renunciation that cannot but ta&e root in the form of a fluctuating uneasiness somewhere in the personality of the obedient. :or the machine is an end in itself only under gi$en social conditions''where men are appendages of the machines on which they wor&. The adaptation to machine music necessarily implies a renunciation of one's own human feelings and at the same time a fetishism of the machine such that its instrumental character becomes obscured thereby. 5!" As to the other# the 3emotional3 type# there is some *ustification for lin&ing it with a type of mo$ie spectator. The &inship is with the poor shop girl who deri$es gratification by identification with Ginger Dogers# who with her beautiful legs and unsullied character# marries the boss. Wish fulfillment 6S 4onsidered the guiding principle in the social psychology of mo$ing Pictures and similarly in the pleasure obtained from emotional erotic music. This e1planation# howe$er# is only superficially appropriate. 5)" ,ollywood and Tin Pan Alley may be dream factories. 2ut they do not merely supply categorical wish fulfillment for the girl behind the counter. She does not immediately identify herself with Ginger Dogers marrying. What does occur may be e1pressed as follows. when the audience at a sentimental film or sentimental music become aware of the o$erwhelming possibility of happiness# they dare to confess to themsel$es what the whole order of contemporary life ordinarily forbids them to admit# namely# that they actually ha$e no part in happiness. What is supposed to be wish fulfillment is only the scant liberation that occurs with the reali%ation that at last one need not deny oneself the happiness of &nowing that one is unhappy and that one could be happy. The e1perience of the shop girl is related to that of the old woman who weeps at the wedding ser$ices of others# blissfully becoming aware of the wretchedness of her own life. >ot e$en the most gullible indi$iduals belie$e that e$entually e$eryone will win the sweepsta&es. The actual function of sentimental music lies rather in the temporary release gi$en to the awareness that one has missed fulfillment. 5-" The emotional listener listens to e$erything in terms of late romanticism and of the musical commodities deri$ed from it which are already fashioned to fit the needs of emotional listening. They consume music in order to be allowed to weep. They are ta&en in by the musical e1pression of frustration rather than by that of happiness. The influence of the standard Sla$ic melancholy typified by Tchai&ows&y and 8$ora& is by far greater than that of the most 3fulfilled3 moments of Mo%art or of the young 2eetho$en. The so'called releasing element of music is simply the opportunity to feel something. 2ut the actual content of this emotion can only be frustration. +motional music has become the image of the mother who says# 34ome and weep# my child.3 6t is catharsis for the masses# but catharsis which &eeps them all the more firmly in line. One who weeps does not resist any more than one who marches. Music that permits its listeners the confession of their unhappiness reconciles them# by means of this 3release#3 to their social dependence. >OT+S

/!0 The basic importance of standardi%ation has not altogether escaped the attention of current literature on popular music. 3The chief difference between a popular song and a standard# or serious# song li&e 'Mandalay#' 'Syl$ia#' or 'Trees#' is that the melody and the 6yric of a popular number are constructed within a definite pattern or structural form# whereas the poem# or 6yric# of a standard number has no structural confinements# and the music is free to interpret Jhe meaning and feeling of the words without following a set pattern or form. Putting it another way# the popular song is 'custom built#' while the standard song allows the composer freer play of imagination and interpretation.3 Abner Sil$er and Dobert 2ruce# ,ow to W$ite and SelK a Song ,it ;>ew Hor&# !B-B<# p.). The authors fail# howe$er# to reali%e the e1ternally superimposed# commercial character of those patterns which aims at canali%ed reactions or# in the language of the regular announcement of one particular radio program# at 3easy listening.3 They confuse the mechanical patterns with highly organi%ed# strict art forms. 34ertainly there are few more stringent $erse forms in poetry than the sonnet# and yet the greatest poets of all time ha$e wo$en undying beauty within its small and limited frame. A composer has *ust as much opportunity for e1hibiting his talent and genius in popular songs as in more serious music3 ;pp. )'-<. Thus the standard pattern of popular music appears to them $irtually on the same le$el as the law of a fugue. 6t is this contamination which ma&es the insight into the basic standardi%ation of popular music sterile. 6t ought to be added that what Sil$er and 2ruce call a 3standard song3 is *ust the opposite of what we mean by a standardi%ed popular song. /)0 See Ma1 ,or&heimer# Leitschrift fur So%ialforschung @ ; !B-B<# p. !!7. /-0 The attitude of distraction is not a completely uni$ersal one. Particularly youngsters who in$est popular music with their own feelings are not yet completely blunted to all its effects. The whole problem of age le$els with regard to popular music# howe$er# is beyond the scope of the present study. 8emographic problems# too# must remain out of consideration.