Adorno "on popular music"

"Adorno's Legacy: On Critical Theory, Cultural Studies, and the Global Political Economy of Britney Spears Inc"

http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/Illumina%20Folder/adornolegacy.htm

"Adorno's Legacy: On Critical Theory, Cultural Studies, and the Global Political Economy of Britney Spears Inc"

The beginning of this essay is not very promising.

1) "The study of popular culture is divided traditionally along two main lines: a) the position that pop culture is simply not a subject worthy of serious academic consideration and b) the view that the popular is of inferior quality to the taste, intelligence, and value of high culture and the people who practice it. The very idea of writing about Britney Spears, the subject of this essay, presumably ought to be kept hidden from the orthodox academic brass."

-- This just isn't true anymore. Respected universities teach all kinds of "popular culture studies" classes, and incorporate pop culture into other subjects on a regular basis. The writer seems to be congratulating themselves for doing something they think is unorthodox, which, in addition to be wrong-headed, is annoying.

2) "My sentiments toward Britney Spears and what she represents are mixed. On one hand, I loathe the sound of her music and her manufactured appearance. Mostly I resent her monopolization of airwaves, written media, retail outlets, music stores, and ultimately my email junk folder"

--Well, already this contradicts the writer's claim that he will "abscond from both approaches ['a' and 'b']," because his statement implies that Spears's music is very much of "inferior quality" in his eyes.

"The writer seems to be congratulating themselves"

Um, "himself" rather.

aborno is more like it!

Having not read the article, from your quotes, it sounds like a first-year undergraduate essay - however, I think "The study of popular culture is divided traditionally along two main lines..." is quite accurate, until the last few decades that viewpoint was true.