Can popular music be anything other than standardised and pseudo-individualized?

“The Frankfurt school is the name given to a group of German intellectuals associated with the institute for social research at the university of Frankfurt. The institutes’ work on popular culture is mostly associated with the writing of Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, Leo Lowenthal and Herbert Marcuse. In 1944 Mark Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno (1979) coined the term ‘cultural industry’ to designate the products and processes of mass culture” (John Storey, 2006, p65)
According to Adorno and Horkheimer, “pseudo-individuality is the way that the culture industry assembled products that made claims to originality but which when examined more critically, they exhibit little more than superficial differences. A movie or novel book usually starts with a character, meets someone, falls in love. That any part of an orchestra symphony can be plucked out, changed the key, and fitted perfectly into another” (http://social-theories.blogspot.com/2005/03/pseudo-individuality.html). "The defiant reserve or elegant appearance of the individual on show is mass-produced like Yale-locks, whose only difference can be measured in fractions of millimeters" (Adorno and Horkheimer, 1979, p40-42). Adorno also quoted “an equation is predetermined and added alongside blue notes/dirty notes to create a unique ‘individualness’ to the song (Theodor W. Adorno, 2002, p438)
Music became available to the masses at an increasingly accelerated rate. ‘The first phonograph created in 1877’ (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph) by Thomas Edison allowed recorded sound to be played back to a listener. This was a huge step in technological advancement. Before then one would have to attend a concert or a dance hall type event to listen to their music of choice. As the phonograph was so expensive and such a new development, the trend of attending dance halls continued to increase. “From the earliest years of the twentieth century until the early 1960s, the dance hall was the popular forerunner of the discothèque or nightclub” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_hall).
The mass public, soon obsessed with music, began purchasing instruments and sheet music in order to reproduce the sounds they liked and to play along with their newly found idols. In 1870 one in 1,540 Americans bought a piano but by 1910 one in 250 Americans had a piano. Sheet music was also on the increase in popularity. Between 1900 and 1910 well over a hundred popular songs sold over a million copies of sheet music making the music more available to the ‘average Joe’. In addition to this it brought the listener closer to the performer and created a connection between the two.
Despite the dramatic rise in interest of music no single company had yet decided to take advantage or use this interest toward their advantage. The music industry remained without direction and was largely disorganised until the 1890’s. It was around 1892 that pop music started to become standardized, commercially orientated, highly organized and effectively marketed. Popular music publishing became industrialized in the early years of the twentieth century.
It was not long before music’s power was harnessed and used as a tool to influence the public.

“The convergence of profit, morality and good order is assisted by an interventionist state via the localised input of the licensing system. In this schema music hall not only manufactures entertainment but a particular ideology, which further assimilates its public to capitalism. Music hall fulfils a crucial role… by enfolding… workers in a ‘culture of consolation’, which while far from soporific, is none the less socially conservative, aggressively patriotic and politically disabling. This is then, hardly a success story for popular culture; it is a culture for the people not of the people”.(Mundy John, 2006, p132).

This quote sums up the cultural situation and the reason why pop music suddenly became so popular to the mass public. It explains a sort of brainwashing, and as a result of the publics ability to identify with each other through the music they became enthralled and blinded by the dictatorship they had entered into. They were not able to listen to music they had personally chosen, instead given large amounts of music to listen to. This idea lends itself to the concept of the music being pre conceived. It’s like a censorship disregarding any music that would not be seen as easy to listen to and as a result not easy to sell. However this filtering of music was hidden and listeners just accepted what was placed in front of them and accepted it as the only type of music. This is capitalism dictating the culture. It is not a culture of the people but for the people. It was also realised that music could be a powerful way to influence people and this was later taken further to create comradery, patriotism and a tool for keeping the people under control through consolation of enjoying it and feeling apart of something many others were.
“In 1927 Americans purchased over 104 million 78 r.p.m. records as well as all the equipment to play them on. The impetus for this consumption was clearly related to the technical developments in electrical recording, which had been carried out by, amongst others, the bell telephone laboratories between 1919 and 1924. The striking improvements in the quality of sound reproduction on record, expanding the frequency range by some 2 ½ octaves, stimulated a vast range of both classical and popular music recording” (Mundy John, 2006, p35). As a result music became available to anyone and soon enough played a part in everyone’s daily life. Throughout its development, pop music absorbed influences from most other genres of popular music. “Early pop music drew on the sentimental ballad for its form, gained its use of vocal harmonies from gospel and soul music, instrumentation from jazz, country, and rock music, orchestration from classical music, tempo from dance music, backing from electronic music, rhythmic elements from hip-hop music. Different types of music created different groups of followers who started to gain identity through their favourite genre” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_music).
In the 1940s improved microphone design allowed a more intimate singing style and ten or twenty years later inexpensive and more durable 45 r.p.m. records for singles "revolutionized the manner in which pop has been disseminated and helped to move pop music to ‘a record/radio/film star system” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_music). Another technological change was the widespread availability of television in the 1950s; with televised performances, "pop stars had to have a visual presence"(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_music). In the 1960s, the introduction of inexpensive, portable transistor radios meant that teenagers could listen to music outside of the home.
By the early 1980s, the promotion of pop music had been greatly affected by the rise of Music Television channels like MTV, which favoured those artists such as Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Prince who had a strong visual appeal. Suddenly it was no longer just about music. It was about the performance and the showmanship of the pop artist. It seemed there was a switch in importance of music to the importance of ones image. This can be demonstrated with the popularity of Maddona during the 1980s.

“While Maddonas music is a sign of her investment and the vehicle of her success, it is neither the sign nor the vehicle of her popularity. It is clear that both the success and the commercial popularity of Madonna in the late 1980s were as much dependant on the exploitation of herself as a visual commodity through music video as on the records themselves. Arguably, a point was reached where it became impossible to hear a new-release by Madonna without operating some interior visualisation of her as a performer, visualisation which was rapidly reinforced by the latest video which accompanied the record release, as well by a welter of carefully controlled visual images circulated in the print media. This process, perhaps inevitable as the power of television and video grew, became significant in the early 1960s. Whilst the beatles music, like Madonnas, was the vehicle of their success, its over determining significance lessened as their exposure through film and television increased, as their image assumed increased importance in defining their meaning as cultural icon and commodity” (Weisbard, E, 2004. This is pop, p78)

Music television allowed record companies to reinforce their musicians visual presence throughout the mass. It opened new doors and opportunities for creating idols that could not just be heard but seen. A real emphasis began being placed upon the performance side of music to the point where a musician was judged on their all round appearance as opposed to their voice. This allowed record companies to target our human needs, wants and desires even more so. Female singers were made ‘sexy’ to appeal to men whilst at the same time envied by women. The same could be said about the male stars. These stars became a priceless commodity for generating income and were soon used to sell products in advertisements. It was realized that the musicians had so much influence over the public that if they were seen with a particular product their entire fan base would want one. This was the point when musicians no longer stood for just music. They became lead around and sold out by their managers and their songs became more recognizably standardized. Record companies lead them to huge success but at the same time took complete control of what they said, did and how they appeared, completely exploiting them visually. Music was now about making money. Originality became a thing of the past and stars would have little if any say of anything. Being a musician is now about being famous and worshipped, you could say that the music has taken a back seat.

The blatant switch that had occurred in why people were listening to pop music was a result of record companies gaining more control. The mass became more absorbed in the pop stars themselves and idolizing them. Pop stars became newfound heroes and idols of the age with millions of fans. However real control came from the reins of the record companies. Like puppets they are able to use their portfolio of pop stars to generate huge amounts of money with little regard to anything else.
Record companies then decided to ensure future success and increase their total profit by scheming and planning ways in which would secure every song and every artist, promising popularity with the masses. Our society/culture lent itself willingly to record companies taking full advantage of the way our lives are structured. The mass population follows almost symmetrical day-to-day lives. We wake up, go to work, return home in the evening, ‘relax’ and then go to bed. Record companies targeted the specific time we return from work, a time when we’re tired, uninspired and looking for an escape. After work we don’t want to have to concentrate, think or question anything. This means that programmed somewhat dull pop music appears more interesting as we can sit and listen to it without feeling, guilt and without having to think. In fact the extreme similarity between each pop song becomes something we learn to love. We know where the song is going as it follows other songs we already love.
This relationship however is very cleverly hidden due to the fact the stars appear unique, their music appears unique and in addition the song follows an equation that is sure to make it a winner with the mass population. This presented, the public needn’t question anything as it is already tailored to their preferences.
“The main medium of pop music is the song, often between two and a half and three and a half minutes in length, generally marked by a consistent and noticeable rhythmic element, a mainstream style and a simple traditional structure. Common variants include the verse-chorus form and the thirty-two-bar form, with a focus on melodies and catchy hooks, and a chorus that contrasts melodically, rhythmically and harmonically with the verse. The beat and the melodies tend to be simple, with limited harmonic accompaniment. The lyrics of modern pop songs typically focus on simple themes – often love and romantic relationships – although there are notable exceptions” (S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, p95-96).
With this incite and evidence into how the rise of pop music developed it is easy to point out the sameness and familiarity each pop song now has. In addition one can see exactly how and why this way of manufacturing songs is so important to ensure success. What one must ask themselves is whether that matters to them or not. The nature of pop music production cannot be denied but can it be accepted as ‘good’ music?
One reason it’s so difficult to break the habits of value judgement in pop is that ordinary music lovers express their own experiences in those terms. “First, it is clear that we need concepts of good and bad music even if we know full well that we wont be able to agree on how the labels should be applied” (Frith Simon, 1998, p54) In Firths view, such judgements are emotional and moral as well as aesthetic. The distinctions made by critics and average people alike reflect the listener’s standards of originality, appropriateness, authenticity, and intelligence.
To conclude Pop music is another way large companies have programmed us into wanting more of their product/service. Its typical of our dictated capitalist culture and can be seen across all media. Our needs and wants are programmed into us to the point where our existence is often mistaken with what possessions we own not who we are as individuals. They have applied clever techniques like standardization understanding that this would make any new songs accepted before its even heard. This sly standardization is hidden (pseudo-individualization), really a brainwashing technique to ensure their future profit. People are not idiots for enjoying pop music just rats coaxed by a pied piper. I don’t believe that pop music shouldn’t be listened to but instead understand we listen to what we enjoy as Frith quoted. However instead of naively following the crowd, one might gain more from questioning why it is pop music is liked. This way a decision can be made and our fate isn’t left with profit hungry production companies.



































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