TWO DIVERGENT VISIONS ABOUT MASS CULTURE

Abstract

This article proposes a reflection on creation and reception of mass culture in music, from two contrasting essays. The first one, “About Popular Music” (1941), from Theodor Adorno (1903-1969), is a classic of Musicology. The second text, “The Production of Success: an antimusicology of Pop Song” (1983), authored by Antoine Hennion (1952 -), comes to pop music in terms of musical production. Both texts address aspects of musical creation, transmission and reception. The authors identified, each in his own manner, the interests of agencies, the strategies for promotion and the fundamental characteristics of the listener of popular music. The authors, in turn, have radically different ways to relate to this music, and that difference is reflected in the texts in question. This difference shows, in addition, a substantial transformation in musicological studies throughout the twentieth century.
Keywords: Mass Culture; Adorno; Hennion.