Adorno and Standardisation Essay

Adorno argues that popular culture offers the ‘freedom to choose what is always the same’. Interrogate this statement by analysing 2 or 3 relevant media examples

Pop music is defined as music that is accessible to a general public (Frith et al., 2001, p.94) and that has wide appeal (Collins English Dictionary, n.d.). Boy bands and girl groups are two very good examples that have been popular over different generations and when applied, there are many similarities. Theodor Adorno has previously applied the theory of standardization to popular music and shows that it can be applied not only towards the construction of the songs, but the consumers of the songs also.

Adorno was a German philosopher who was a member of the Frankfurt School. He published widely on music and aesthetics. His main philosophical works were Dialect of Enlightenment (1947 with Max Horkheimer); Minima Moralia (1951); and Negative Dialectics (1966). (G. W. Brown et al., 2018). Theodor and Horkheimer were known for being critical to the idea of the “culture industry”, referring to the capitalist industry based on creative expression. He believed that the capitalist nature of society encouraged people to invest in “false needs”. Much of Adorno’s work was written about the standardization of popular music and forms that discussed pseudo-individualisation. Adorno’s theories were hugely inspired by his belief in neo-Marxism and, through studying popular music, Adorno formed his own theory on the culture industry and the theory of standardization. Standardization theory maintains that, in capitalist society, popular culture (including popular music) is standardized, using the same appeal to the masses. (Darbyshire, D. 2011) The theory of standardization can be seen in popular music today, seen through the contents of the songs, the consumers, and also the artist/s. Two examples that I will be focusing on are boy bands compared to girl groups. Further on in the essay, I will focus on the consumers of these groups, the contents of the songs they produce, and also the similarities and differences between the artists in this music genre, applying these to different theories also.

As well as concentrating on standardization, Adorno also focused on the fact that the music industry promoted “pseudo-individualism” as a way to keep society unaware of this formulaic approach to music. Pseudo-individualism basically translates to “the illusion of choice” (Darbyshire, D. 2011). Adorno explained his theory;

“by pseudo-individualisation we mean endowing cultural mass production with the halo of free choice or open market on the basis of standardization itself. Standardization of song hits keeps the customers in line doing their thinking for them, as it were. Pseudo-individualisation, for its part keeps them in line by making them forget that what they listen to is wholly intended for them or pre-digested.” (Adorno et al., 2006, p.73)

Adorno believed that all popular music is contained by a verse, a chorus and a bridge, and that these elements were interchangeable without damaging the song. (Darbyshire, D. 2011) Pseudo-individualisation, for its part, keeps them in line by making them forget that what they listen to is already listened to for them, or “pre-digested”.’ (Adorno and Leppert, 2002, p.445). It shows that listeners to these songs keep listening because they like and are attracted to the content because the structure is always the same. Sometimes, these listeners don’t even realise that the structure is the same because the songs in this genre are too standardised.

Adorno also discussed the culture industry and how films, musical records, television programmes, film stars and celebrities have assembly line characteristics and are subject to the same ‘rationalised organisational procedures; that befalls the production of washing machines and automobiles. These cultural forms are standardized products, mass-produced, and therefore work as the ‘lowest common denominator’ so that the widest number of people can consume them. (Redmond, 2018, n.p.) Keith Negus (1997) also discussed that mass culture in which cultural production had become a routine, standardized repetitive operation that produced undemanding cultural commodities in which turn resulted in a type of consumption that was also standardized, distracted and passive. When applying my example to this quote by Negus and Adorno’s theory of the standardized assembly line, the content that girl groups and boy bands make, have turned music that is “standardized, distracted and passive” and is only produced so that the widest number of people can consume them. One girl group that can be applied to this is Little Mix and their song Shout out to my Ex that shared too many similar traits to Ugly Heart by GRL.

One band that is prominent in pop culture and popular music and that applies to Adorno’s theory of standardization are Little Mix, a girl group from the UK. They currently have two hits in the Official Singles Chart and have sold over 3 million copies of their singles and albums worldwide (as of October 2018). They have sold out many stadiums across the country and are one of the most popular girl groups from the past 10 years. When applying standardization to Little Mix, one of their best-selling records, Shout Out To My Ex, is a great example. The song has been criticised as it sounds like Ugly Heart, a song by GRL. The melody and instrumental of the chorus sound very much a like and their performance on X Factor to promote the song was also very similar to the GRL music video for the song. This shows that details from one popular song can be interchanged with details from another. (Storey, 2006, p.53) and not only does this show plagiarism, it is also a great example of standardization. Plagiarism in pop music is very common and there have been cases amongst many generations and genres of music. Huey Lewis suing Ray Parker Jr. for ‘Ghostbusters’, Marvin Gaye suing Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams for ‘Blurred Lines’ and most recently Mark Ronson was sued for ‘Uptown Funk’ by The Gap Band. This shows that Adorno’s theory of standardization and pseudo-individuation is very common in popular music, in both the 20th and 21st century. The plagiarism of this song also conforms to Adorno’s statement that once a musical and/or lyrical pattern has proved successful it is exploited to commercial exhaustion, culminating in the ‘the crystallisation of standards’ (Adorno et al., 2006, p.77)

Along with the musical content, girl groups are also standardized through the members of the groups, and the personalities of those within them. Compared to boy bands, the girl groups feature a more diverse range of members and are less standardized than boy bands but are given harder criticism within the industry. In an article with the Independent, the release of Sonic Youth bassist, Kim Gordon’s autobiography surrounded the question of “what’s it like to be a girl in a band?”. An article was published based on the question, that was the main take-away from the book, written by Bethany Cosentino, focused on the fact that many women in the music industry were objectified and scrutinised and commodified in a way that made them susceptible to abuse, both verbal and sometimes physical. Kim also stated that “I just want to be able to exist and make music without people asking me the question, ‘so what is it like to be a girl in a band?’. Since the article and the book was published many several musicians have begun campaigning to raise awareness of harassment and domestic violence, both within the music industry and more generally.

Although girl groups are very popular, boy bands have been the most popular musical artists throughout each decade, mainly since the 1960s. The graph (shown left) contains data from a list that features the top 10 boy bands and girl groups based on the amount of records they have sold. In the graph shown, it shows that the boy bands have sold lots more records than girl groups. With the boy bands gaining an average of 66.7 million sales per band, the girl groups only have an average of 49.3 million. The popularity of boy bands can be based on many factors and not only due to the personalities of the members, but the content of the songs can be a reason why they are so popular. The music is built upon recognisable musical leitmotifs, riffs, harmonies, with high tempo songs matched against slow burn romantic numbers: their songs are formula-based, and mass produced. (Redmond, 2018, n.p.).

When researching boy bands on Google, there are many similarities, and these can be linked to standardization. The bands that come up all feature members that are white and are all around the ages of 16-25. As Witkin stated, when researching standardization, there is always a lack of differentiation among products (Witkin, 2003, p.43) and you can see this here and when applying to boy bands that aren’t specifically featured at the top of the Google page. One key element of boy bands that attract young audiences is the way that each band contains members with certain characteristics and personalities. The archetypes are; The Bad Boy, The Baby Face, The Rico Suave (the resident hunk and the guy that leads the group with their good looks), The “Meet the Parents” One (the one that is suave and smooth, but still sweet and innocent enough to bring to Sunday dinners with the family) The Goofball and The… Interesting One (the oddball of the group) (Holcomb, 2013). The boy band formula can be seen in most of the top 10 selling boy bands (featured in the graph above): Donnie Wahlberg – The Bad Boy (New Kids on the Block), Justin Timberlake – The Baby Face (*NSYNC), Howie Dorough – The Rico Suave (Backstreet Boys), Liam Payne - The “Meet the Parents” One (One Direction), Joey Fatone - The Goofball (*NSYNC) and AJ McLean – The… Interesting One (Backstreet Boys).

However, sometimes these titles can be a little blurry as some members of the boy bands can qualify into multiple archetypes. As these archetypes are in most successful boy bands, it must prove that without this formula, bands can’t possibly thrive without them. Just like the content of the songs, once they prove successful, it is exploited to commercial exhaustion (Adorno et al., 2006, p.77), forming a standardized structure to the personalities. These can also be applied to girl groups, but this formula proves more successful in boy bands. One of the most popular to date boy bands with many different personality traits is BTS. The seven member South Korean boy band were solely put together because of their personality traits. Each band member went through a series of auditions and the make-up of the band went through different iterations until they combination of personality traits right. (Redmond, 2018)

Overall, there are many key factors into what makes something standardized. With Adorno arguing ‘freedom to chose what is always the same’ it proves that members of the public can choose something from popular culture that is more often than not standardized. Whether that be members of girl groups and boy bands or the songs made by them, the listeners and fans of these musical artists have the availability to choose content that is popular and similar, or content that is ‘serious’ and different.

Bibliography

Adorno, T. W., Wiesengrund, T., Wiesengrund-Adorno, T., Adorno, T. V., Adorŭno, אדורנו, ת., . . . Leppert, R. (2002). Essays on Music: Theodor W. Adorno. Berkeley, Calif: University of California Press

Brown, G. W., McLean, I., McMillan, A., & Mekleĭn, I. (2018). The concise oxford dictionary of politics and international relations (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Darbyshire, D. (2011) Culture Industries and Adorno’s Theory of Standardization. Retrieved from https://loudmimedave.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/culture-industries-and-adornos-theory-of-standardisation/

Frith, S., Straw, W., Street, J., & Straw, W. O. (2001). The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Holcomb, A. (2013). 6 Boy Band Archetypes That Actually Never Change. Retrieved from https://www.collegemagazine.com/6-boy-band-archetypes-that-actually-never-change/.

Jupp, E. (2016). Being in a 'girl band' means being objectified and abused but female musicians are speaking out. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/being-in-a-girl-band-means-being-objectified-patronised-and-physically-and-sexually-abused-but-a6897621.html

Negus. K, (1997). ‘The Production of Culture’, in P Du Gay (ed) Production of Culture/ Cultures of Production. Milton Keynes. London: Open University: Sage.

Redmond. S, (2018) Celebrity. New York: Routledge.

Storey, J. (2006) Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction. (4th ed.) Harlow: Pearson Prentice Hall

T. W. Adorno featured in Storey, J. (2006) On Popular Music. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader. (3rd ed.). Harlow: Pearson Prentice Hall

Witkin, R. W. (2003). The Culture Industry. Adorno on Popular Culture. London: Routledge.