Adorno believes that popular music has been taken over by the capital ethos and this makes it a product of total fetishisation.As we listen to popular music such as the music Elvis produced we are distracted from the oppression which capitalist society has over us. Furthermore as we are not required to listen hard to understand popular music we become relaxed and entertained by the sound.
Bourdieu criticised Adorno's view and believed that legitimate music was also repetitive and passively consumed and that the popular music market is so highly competitive that quality must exist.
What Adorno failed to address was that the music was also appropriate for the era when young people were expecting to be able to express their feelings and enjoy the increased capital they had available to spend after WW2. They were also able to use their choice to express themselves within a distinct identity and not as Adorno thought as a mindless choice being forced on them from the bourgeois who were only interested in profit and maintaining their class position.
Finally if this was true would people be still listening to the music of Elvis today?
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