Popular music

Theodor W. Adorno.

Poular music is standardised, and often neglects the rules of "serious music", such as number of bars in the chorus, octave amongst others.  Adorno goes on to further suggest that listeners of popular music often react to part of the songs more sore than the whole nature of the song. He believes that popular music  is pre given and pre-accepted which means the listener knows what to expect even before the music start, in order words suggests that this type of music is predictable.
Using Beethoven as an example, Adorno suggests that unlike popular music, the meaning of songs can be drerived through the context and only through the whole music does the listener acuire lyrical and expressive quality which means they will have to engage with the whole song, before feeling and understanding the lyrics behind the whole song.
Adorno goes on to further explain that the difference between popular music and serious music cannot be distinguished by simply terming them as "high-brow, or low-brow" . Adorno suggests that popular music is subject to standardisation by its promoters to fit the idea of a liberal and individual society where people have access to what they want.
Adorno believes that popular music is already pre-planned , and does not require the audience to fully engage with what they hear, however if this is done with serious music, the listener often find that the music is not "understood"
Popular music can be seen as industrial in the way that it is mass distributed, and ways in which the success of old songs are imitated.

Pseudo Individualisation.
Adorno draws on the concept of pseudo-individualization, a concept which means adopting the process of mass production under the disguise of  free choice or open market. Adorno believes that the standardisation of songs keeps the listener in line and helps them forget that the songs they hear are already pre-digested.Understanding popular music means obeying commands for listening, as popular music commands its own listening habits.

Theory about the listener.
This type of music works because the listeners are distracted from the demands of reality by entertainment which does not demand their attention. Listeners often want to have fun, and they listen to the type of music that will help them forget about the war, unemployment. This type of music provides them with the relief that they are seeking as it is patterened and pre-digested. On the other hand the stimuli provided permits an escape from the boredom of the mechanized labour.

The Social Cement.
Adorno believes that listeners of popular music do not understand music as a language in itself, otherwise they wouldnt tolerate the largely unifferentiated material. He believes that that music of this type is often shared by the youth, as they are more receptive and signals their willingness to obey.