Popular Culture: Adorno and Hebdige theory

Popular Culture: Adorno and Hebdige theory.

The idea of popular culture originated from 'The Frankfurt School' who were a collection of Marxist Philosophers based in Germany in mid- 20th century. Among their many writings, they were concerned with the role of popular culture in exploiting the masses and maintaining the power of bourgeoisie. Their work represents the first attempt to write about popular music.

Theodor Adorno (1903- 69) was a German sociologist, philosopher, musicologist and critique of society who was a leading member of the 'Frankfurt School of Critical Theory.' He was known for his views of society. He believed there were two kinds of people in society, those who liked classical music and those who liked popular music. He refereed to classical music as 'true art'. He believed that those who listened to 'true art' were educated and cultured and that most of these people were middle and upper class. He believed that everyone else who listened to popular music were easily influenced and absorbed by it, that they were lower class which he looked dow at and he also felt that popular music was all the same and repetitive which is why people listened to it.

Dick Hebdige is a British media theorist who has a more modern take on Adorno's theory and he believes that it is too negative. Hebdige's theory contradicts Adorno's theory on popular music. Adorno believed that the mass audience listen to popular music and consume it without thinking. Hebdige believed that mass audience can choose from different genre of musics of what they want to consume. He believed that a mass audience isn't easily manipulated as Adorno makes them out to be.






An example of this in today's society would be iTunes. iTunes is a popular website and app that people can use to see what's in the charts, they're most likely to download/ buy the popular music that's on the charts. This supports Adorno's theory however it can be argued that people can choose what they want to consume, they have a mind of their own and are not manipulated easily. This supports Hebdige's theory.