Theodor Adorno said that popular music is not an art form and that its structure has been standardized for mass consumption. Nonetheless, a popular definition of art is that it is a creative expression of a person’s thoughts that can provoke thoughts or emotions in others, and what is music of not this?
I think music always starts as an art form, but gets turned in to a commodity through the selling and advertising process. Music gets changed in order for it to appeal to the highest number of people, and that it where it can lose its ‘Art’. An example of this was the 2009 X-Factor winner’s (Joe McElderry) final performance. Taking the recent song ‘The Climb’ by Miley Cyrus, McElderry’s own version was his début single. The song, originally a very powerful story, was overly commodified in the X-Factors re-make of it and lost some of its impact.
This argument supports Adorno’s point about popular music not being an art form, and in this case he would be right. However, a lot a popular music still holds onto its story and its power and relays influential emotions to its audience, making it ‘Art’.
While I admire your optimism about the artistic nature of ALL popular music I would say that your Xfactor example rather contradicts it.
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