Adorno’s Marxist musical theory avoided analyzing actual sociological ties between music and society.
Evidence
The application of this concept to the new music made it possible for Adorno to make the practice of composition serve as the vanguard, prosecutor, agent or representative of social practice, just as he wished, and to pursue a musical theory which presented itself as Marxist, although it did not attempt to analyse any concrete sociological mediations between music and society. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 368
Categorization
- XREF: This mirrors the familiar objection to Adorno generally — that his critique of mass culture abstracts away concrete empirical mediation, a charge Kracauer and later critics (including within the Frankfurt tradition) leveled repeatedly. — connects to: Adorno’s essayistic free thought was a utopia that avoided empirical engagement — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2287; Adorno’s aesthetic method skipped societal mediation by folding all social content into single artworks — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 882; Adorno rejected the immediate mapping of art content onto economic social history — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 878 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Adorno’s essayistic free thought was a utopia that avoided empirical engagement
#corroborates(0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2287 - Adorno’s aesthetic method skipped societal mediation by folding all social content into single artworks
#expands(0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 882 - Adorno rejected the immediate mapping of art content onto economic social history
#corroborates(0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 878 - Adorno’s elitist critique condemned mass-culture victims without addressing them empirically
#exemplifies(0.78) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1023 - Adorno’s Fetish-Character essay omitted Marx’s question of the specific form of socialisation.
#expands(0.75) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 452