Lazarsfeld chose music as the safest domain for controversial radio research.

Evidence

Radio ought to be seen against the general background of American culture and society, and Lazarsfeld thought the controversial results to be expected from such an analysis would be more acceptable if they were developed on the basis of music. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 997

Categorization

• XREF: This strategic choice — embedding critique in music analysis to make it palatable — directly foreshadows Adorno’s later work on the radio and jazz within Lazarsfeld’s project, treated in later chapters. — connects to: Lazarsfeld privileged music in the radio project to soften controversial findings — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 997; Lazarsfeld deliberately carved out theory-friendly space for European critical music research. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 985