Popular culture

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

At 1:34 AM +1100 1/12/03, Catherine Driscoll wrote:
>I love to give my students the bulk of Adorno's "On Popular Music". 
>They pretty much all get into, agreeing to greater or lesser degrees 
>about how banal and unstimulating popular music is, and how 
>unrepresentative of contemporary selves in comparison to the the 
>(more genuinely popular) music of earlier decades. I have never yet 
>not found a real thrill in the moment when I reveal that Adorno was 
>talking about "jazz". Admittedly "popular jazz", but still 
>characterised by most of the criteria they establish for real rather 
>than mass-produced music. It works so well because it raises, then, 
>debates about what the so casually accepted terms "mass culture" and 
>"popular culture" actually involve, and what trashing without 
>discrimination either of the above implies. And yet, this essay by 
>Adorno continues to circumscribe most of the moves made by critiques 
>of popular culture as nothing more than "culture industries". So, 
>yes, we play "Adorno", of course. And I'm happy to accept the things 
>about Adorno's discussion that are really valuable. Including the 
>serious consideration he understands popular culture to warrant.

It is ironic that most creative branches of jazz are not "popular 
music" today.  Creative branches of jazz (more so than classical 
music) are _the_ music for intellectuals (like Justin!).  Banal 
branches of jazz at present aren't quite "popular" either.  Your 
students never got to experience the historical period when jazz was 
actually popular.
-- 
Yoshie

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