Music and Lyrics "PoP! Goes My Heart" - Hugh Grant and Adorno

This week's readings were so real and really hit a chord with me. Ever since I was little I would have times where listening to music drastically altered my state of mind/ understanding of relationships, and listening to Adorno discuss the purposeful mind manipulation that popular music puts us through felt undeniable! The song, "Pop! Goes My Heart" from the movie Music and Lyrics, falls into the bounds of what Adorno says in many ways: First and foremost, it is a pretty tasteless song. Secondly, it is overtly repetitive, "stick[ing] to an unmercifully rigid pattern" (Adorno "Sociology of Music") and third, it is so catchy, repetitive, and senseless that becoming attached to the song (or wondering off in one's own thoughts in connection to the song) becomes something the subconscious takes control over! As Adorno puts it, "We may come to regard hits as simply 'made' by the mass media, with the listeners' taste carrying no weight at all." (Sociology of Music). The lead singers of this tune also feature "commodity character[s]" instead of deeply esthetically sound front men, gaining even more traction and connection to the audience. Not only does the entire movie, Music and Lyrics, play into all the theories Adorno talks bout in his texts, but this song is just the most prime example of the theories coming into action. Adorno talks about tastelessness and the decline of true listening for pleasure/worthy talent, and again, this song is a great example of that because there is no true musical complexity or creativity or freedom in this song.