Concert Analysis: Theodore Adorno And Walter Benjamin

Theodore Adorno and Walter Benjamin were both theorists associated with the Frankfurt School of Social Research. They proposed the idea of mass cultural marketing in the modern era but differed on the purpose of the culture industry. Adorno believed that culture had developed into a consumer good where profit was made and Benjamin saw culture, specifically artistic creativity such as music, to play a role in political ideology. Although differing views on the function of culture separated the two theorists, both have many points that apply to modern day cultural events such as the recent concert I attended to watch the performance of new age rap artist “Lil Yachty”. The concert embodied Adornian ideas of popular musical repetition/structure, …show more content…
A fascination with the technical material of music is present which includes the voice. Adorno explains that “At its most passionate, musical fetishism takes possession of the public valuation of singing voices...Today, the material [the voice] as such, destitute of any function, is celebrated. One need not even ask about capacity for musical performance” (1978, 277). In modern day the voice is fetishized as a material part of music and if one posses this material then there is no need to question how their voice is executed in musical performance. Adorno compares this absurdity to being able to make beautiful music with a good violin, a good piano and a good voice when performed by a skilled artist(1978, 277). An artist only needs to have a high and harmonious sounding voice to be deemed good but this results in many similar sounding artists and the label of imitations is attached to newly risen stars for having a similar sound to previous artists. The fetishism of the voice as an instrument to successful music separates it from the artist, from a relationship that has given the voice meaning and attaches new meanings to the voice that don’t require a demonstration of musical performance. The possession of a well sounding voice is enough to prove …show more content…
Lil Yachty’s voice embodies a technical instrument of music, turning it into a material item. It becomes separated from him as an artist with much creative talent as a whole and becomes a single tool for the creation of music instead. The true voice of Lil Yachty lacks in sounding harmonious and in executing singing ability. It is only made to sound high pitched and melodic with the use of the autotune program, without the program no one would want to hear his music because it would lose its pleasing sound. Although his voice does sound melodic with the help of autotune it still doesn’t help with the execution of vocal skills in hitting high notes, so he avoids them in his music. The audience doesn’t care for the skill Lil Yachty posses vocally as long as he sounds