The popular music/culture theory is the understanding of ideas and attitudes of mainstream culture in society which has an influence upon us as an audience. They argue how the popular culture is made for the masses, and the "true art" is made for the ruling class. This is because the lower class are oblivious to real music and so listen to what ever the middle-class allows them. This suggests that the audience don't actually have a real choice although they think they do. Instead, all music produced for the popular culture are the exact same every time just different artists performing it. The theorists I will discuss are, Antonio Gramsci, The Frankfurt School, Theodor Adorno, The Birmingham School, and Dick Hebdige.
Antonio Gramsci:
Gramsci is a leading Marxist thinker who created the theory of Hegemony. Hegemony means to look down upon the predominance of someone's social class over others suggesting that there is a control from the dominant/ruling upper class over the working class. The upper class has it's own way in viewing the world and they suggest that there is a significant difference between them, and the working class. The central ideologies of the ruling class are seen as becoming most powerful when they are accepted as 'common sense'. According to Gramsci, we can judge ideology to be effective if it is able to connect with the 'common sense' of the people. This suggests that, the upper class produce mainstream music for the masses to be entertained from it showing the dominance they have in order to influence such a large society. This means that hegemony is presented through the ruling class' predominant ideologies such as the nuclear family and being dependent on each other. Therefore, hegemony is presented to us through the lyrics of songs where the masses follow these ideologies without realising. They are able to express these themes through mainstream music that the masses listen to.
Frankfurt School:
This critical theory was the earliest version of the Neo Marxist theory. They argued that the culture plays a central role in cementing it's audience to current situations and had transformed culture itself into an ideological medium of domination. They also created the 'hypodermic syringe model' which suggested that society was able to feed the audience what ever they wanted. One theorist from the Frankfurt School was Max Horkheimer who encouraged change in society. Another, was Theodor Adorno, who stated that art provided an alternative vision of reality.
Theodor Adorno:
Adorno is a critical theorist who argued the divide between the social classes and influenced by Karl Marx. He argued that there was a standardised production to manipulate mass society into passivity. He also stated that there was 'pseudo' which means individualisation and how the audience think it's different but actually it isn't. He also argued that the 'true art' was to entertain the bourgeoisie as they are the 'posh' people listening to genres such as classical or jazz, whilst the working class people get the music 'dumbed down' by the ruling class through hegemony. Furthermore, according to Adorno the type of music the masses listen to are mainstream popular culture which dominate the charts. However, listening carefully to the charts suggest a pattern in them where all the songs being voted on sound extremely similar to each other. Looking at the charts 'psuedo individualisation' was evident in it, from looking into the last couple of weeks in December shows Justin Bieber dominating it with him being number 1, five times for the whole of December. This suggests the masses listening to the same types of music over and over again and being influenced on the ruling class ideologies.
Birmingham School:
One theorist from the Birmingham School was Stuart Hall. Hall was a cultural theorist an sociologist along with Hoggart and Williams. He is credited with playing a role in expanding the scope of cultural studies to deal with race and gender in particular. Despite this, he still made some contributions to the music industry, largely by commenting on the ideas applied to the content of the music we listen to through popular forms such as the radio. He also created the Reception Theory which was the idea of Encoding and Decoding. Encoding meant that it was the process by which a text is constructed by it's producers, whilst Decoding was the process by which the audience reads, understands and interprets the text. However, different spectators will decode the text in different ways, perhaps not in the way the producer intended. This means that the audiences read and understand a particular text according to their cultural upbringing. Hall also stated that by the term 'popular' it pointed to a process whereby 'the people' erupted, made their culture known to the ruling classes in unpredictable ways, and therefore complicated the projects of the upper class.
Dick Hebdige:
Hebdige argued that although some people think subcultures appear to be different, deep down they are the same. Subcultures are just 'little' cultures as they are all doing the same thing of assistance. He argued that consumption is an active process in which different audiences read into the same cultural products. These subcultures try to resist the mainstream music, however people can resist it but will become a 'subculture' eventually, suggesting that the masses are still actually the same. Therefore, genres such as Rock would link to the subculture of 'punks' as they promote the same type of lifestyle, being violent and angry and also dressing in leather clothes etc.
Overall, from looking at the different theorists it has given me an insight in what the popular culture is and what different perspectives suggest on it. My beliefs in the popular culture mainly agree with Hebdige. This is because I still believe that although the masses are not the same and are able to resist what is given to them, they still resist in the exact same way as everyone else, which is to be apart of a subculture suggesting the similarities within the masses. I will represent my artist different to the popular culture in order to please the different subcultures and gain niche audiences. This is because the popular culture is socially constructed which is influenced by the ruling class.
Antonio Gramsci:
Gramsci is a leading Marxist thinker who created the theory of Hegemony. Hegemony means to look down upon the predominance of someone's social class over others suggesting that there is a control from the dominant/ruling upper class over the working class. The upper class has it's own way in viewing the world and they suggest that there is a significant difference between them, and the working class. The central ideologies of the ruling class are seen as becoming most powerful when they are accepted as 'common sense'. According to Gramsci, we can judge ideology to be effective if it is able to connect with the 'common sense' of the people. This suggests that, the upper class produce mainstream music for the masses to be entertained from it showing the dominance they have in order to influence such a large society. This means that hegemony is presented through the ruling class' predominant ideologies such as the nuclear family and being dependent on each other. Therefore, hegemony is presented to us through the lyrics of songs where the masses follow these ideologies without realising. They are able to express these themes through mainstream music that the masses listen to.
Frankfurt School:
This critical theory was the earliest version of the Neo Marxist theory. They argued that the culture plays a central role in cementing it's audience to current situations and had transformed culture itself into an ideological medium of domination. They also created the 'hypodermic syringe model' which suggested that society was able to feed the audience what ever they wanted. One theorist from the Frankfurt School was Max Horkheimer who encouraged change in society. Another, was Theodor Adorno, who stated that art provided an alternative vision of reality.
Theodor Adorno:
Adorno is a critical theorist who argued the divide between the social classes and influenced by Karl Marx. He argued that there was a standardised production to manipulate mass society into passivity. He also stated that there was 'pseudo' which means individualisation and how the audience think it's different but actually it isn't. He also argued that the 'true art' was to entertain the bourgeoisie as they are the 'posh' people listening to genres such as classical or jazz, whilst the working class people get the music 'dumbed down' by the ruling class through hegemony. Furthermore, according to Adorno the type of music the masses listen to are mainstream popular culture which dominate the charts. However, listening carefully to the charts suggest a pattern in them where all the songs being voted on sound extremely similar to each other. Looking at the charts 'psuedo individualisation' was evident in it, from looking into the last couple of weeks in December shows Justin Bieber dominating it with him being number 1, five times for the whole of December. This suggests the masses listening to the same types of music over and over again and being influenced on the ruling class ideologies.
Birmingham School:
One theorist from the Birmingham School was Stuart Hall. Hall was a cultural theorist an sociologist along with Hoggart and Williams. He is credited with playing a role in expanding the scope of cultural studies to deal with race and gender in particular. Despite this, he still made some contributions to the music industry, largely by commenting on the ideas applied to the content of the music we listen to through popular forms such as the radio. He also created the Reception Theory which was the idea of Encoding and Decoding. Encoding meant that it was the process by which a text is constructed by it's producers, whilst Decoding was the process by which the audience reads, understands and interprets the text. However, different spectators will decode the text in different ways, perhaps not in the way the producer intended. This means that the audiences read and understand a particular text according to their cultural upbringing. Hall also stated that by the term 'popular' it pointed to a process whereby 'the people' erupted, made their culture known to the ruling classes in unpredictable ways, and therefore complicated the projects of the upper class.
Dick Hebdige:
Hebdige argued that although some people think subcultures appear to be different, deep down they are the same. Subcultures are just 'little' cultures as they are all doing the same thing of assistance. He argued that consumption is an active process in which different audiences read into the same cultural products. These subcultures try to resist the mainstream music, however people can resist it but will become a 'subculture' eventually, suggesting that the masses are still actually the same. Therefore, genres such as Rock would link to the subculture of 'punks' as they promote the same type of lifestyle, being violent and angry and also dressing in leather clothes etc.
Overall, from looking at the different theorists it has given me an insight in what the popular culture is and what different perspectives suggest on it. My beliefs in the popular culture mainly agree with Hebdige. This is because I still believe that although the masses are not the same and are able to resist what is given to them, they still resist in the exact same way as everyone else, which is to be apart of a subculture suggesting the similarities within the masses. I will represent my artist different to the popular culture in order to please the different subcultures and gain niche audiences. This is because the popular culture is socially constructed which is influenced by the ruling class.
Proficient understanding of media theory. The different schools of thought researched into and at times applied to the music industry.
ReplyDeleteTo improve;
-in regards to Gramsci, what type of Hegemony is fed to the masses through popular music?
-what kind of music to the masses listen to according to Adorno?
-was Pseudo indivizualisation apparent in the chart list?
-link genres of music to Hebdige and sub-cultures. Why is this music associated with them?
Hi miss, I have made these changes.
ReplyDeleteExcellent understanding of music video theory now. Better understanding of what Hegemony is and how it is fed to the masses. Pseudo individualisation shown through your Justin Bieber example.
ReplyDelete