Christina Aguilera - Adorno - Cusick

Adorno – Christina Aguilera’s “Come On Over (All I Want Is You)” was an instant hit,
pop song in its time, late 1990s, and it still largely resonates with its
intended audience as a song full of deep, nostalgic connections and memories.
The song is a perfect example of a hit because of the easy to identify
repeating patterns of identification, which is a technique purposefully used to
train audiences to be able to easily recognize the song and relate to the
characters discussed in the song’s content (if they cannot relate, they are
filled with longing of being able to relate). Repeating lines orient the
listeners to the song, as I have before said, it is “drummed into the listeners’
ears until they cannot help but recognize it and hence… will love it.” The
pseudo-individualization of pop music, makes listeners feel as if a song has
been specially created to relate to that specific person and their specific,
current life situation. In actuality, the lyrics are made just generic enough
to fit to almost any person dealing with almost any personal problem. On the
rare occasion that an audience member does not directly relate to a song, that
person still gets fulfillment in joining a subcultural group of fandom for the
singer, song, and general genre of music. In this song, the issues being addressed
range from (but are not limited to) domestic violence, a long distance love affair,
a song of seduction, a break-up song, a reconciliation song, a song of worship,
a song of faith, and lastly, to a love song All aspects considered, this is the
exact product of a hit pop song for our America, western culture.

Cusick - This is a frequently used song to torture for all of the reasons you have just mentioned, Adorno. There is standardization, multiple meanings that can be understood, and most importantly, repetition of many forms. Not only could this tune drive a person mad while being played at extremely high tempos, or with a Long Range Acoustic Device; but also, just at normal volumes, this song is known to
greatly upset and disturb a large portion of our American population, fueling
hate, violence, and extremely mild degrees of mental instability. What is
happening to detainees of war, and has been going on for decades now, is being
stuck in a “black room” chained in a stress position, with deafeningly loud
music being blasted. What scares me is that I have found conversations on the
public Internet, through blogs, either boasting about what might be the perfect
playlist – this song and artist in general being frequently suggested – or
refusing to believe that songs like these could be seen as tortuous in any way.
These people are, disturbingly, being gleefully delighted by the idea that
prisoners of war are being subjected to “the same” experiences they have had to
endure as citizens in our society. Others, cannot understand how physically and
mentally destructive the ”black room” scenario can be, and comment on how
sexually arousing it would be to experience such “no touch torture” techniques.
It says something serious about our culture when these are the two responses to pop music being used as torture, Adorno.