Task Two Part Two: Example

I thought one choice wouldn't prove the standardization of pop music that Adorno talked about, so I found a skillfully crafted pop mega mix. This mix would not have worked if the songs that have been mashed together were not fundamentally very similar. The key and tempo of the songs have been adjusted to match but even with this slight cheating it's uncanny how well this all flows together.

Task Two: Popular music vs. Theodor W. Adorno

Ardorno claimed that popular music is standardized to such an extent that there in no genuine innovation. This he claimed is different from 'serious music'. His theory is that pop music is a standard commodity, that promoters and pluggers sell to a market that wants to buy what it already has: a new record will sell well if it sounds like a previously popular record. This standardization, he claims, keeps real innovation from the consumer because records are vetted, pre-digested. He goes on to say that repeated hearing will make a record popular so pluggers (record companies) can create success for any record (as long as it meets a minimum standard) by getting it frequently played to a listener. There is an interesting paradox at the heart of these ideas: for a song to be worthy of being plugged by a record company it must be distinguished from any other, but to be digested easily by the customer it must also be fundamentally the same as all other current hits.

My feelings are these ideas do have a truth to them today, this is probably still the way the more cynical record companies would like to operate as it is an easy to follow formula for commercializing creative content. (Find a band that sounds like an already popular band, promote them until they sell lots or records.) This can and does work but it is wrong to suggest that all popular music is devoid of innovation and so strictly formulaic. I think popular music is better viewed as evolutionary, a pocket of genuine creativity can be popular and forge a new genre in music, this usually occurs away from commercial interests, but is quickly commercialized after it gains a certain level of popularity (this can be seen happening right now with the dubstep genre) Easily digestible pop music wont satisfy every consumer, a large minority will prefer to seek out fresh creative alternatives. I used to listen to John Peels radio show for example, I didn't like all his choices, but I did like the fact that I was always listening to something different, creative and new. Admittedly, driving to work the next morning I would far rather listen to plugged pop on Radio 1 as it was a far less challenging way to start the day.

Task One: An Example Of Contemporary Culture Being Panoptic.

DRAFT

The modern workplace is panoptic in many ways, When Michel Foucault talked about a "segmented space, observed at every point, in which the individuals are inserted in a fixed place, in which the slightest movement are supervised, in which all events are recorded" he was referring to the disciplinary mechanism for confining the plague, however this could equally be applied to my experience working in a large dispatch warehouse. In this job, every action is constantly monitored electronically, the speed you are working is logged and hourly targets are set. This can be accessed by a co-ordinator at any time to see how fast you have been working, this leads to constant self monitoring as Foucault explains, "the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power" He goes on to say "that the perfection of power should tend to render its actual exercise unnecessary" In my workplace this translated that the boss didn't have to walk around to bollock shirkers because it was known that you had to keep working all the time because the speed you were working could at any time be checked. "in short that the inmates should be caught up in a power situation of which they are themselves the bearers". This went further, to keep workers in their place working and not drinking cups of tea in the canteen there was a strict time clocking procedure. You have to clock in and out (fingerprint scanner watched by CCTV) not only at the beginning and end of your shift, but also anytime you go for a break, this is linked directly to payroll and used to calculate wages. This constant electrical observation again meant workers would self monitor, and self regulate their own working patterns without the need for constant supervision. The low number of co-ordinators needed in this workplace proved that a panoptic system "makes it possible to perfect the exercise of power". "it can reduce the number of those who exercise it, while increasing the numbers of those on whom it is exercised".