Critical Response Riesman
Critical Response: Listening to Popular music
David Riesman
During the 1950s a sociologist by the name of David Riesman published a study on the listening habits of teenagers. In the study itself he addresses Adorno’s assumptions about the power of the music industry over consumers. After completing interviews with approximately 150 youths, Riesman found that a minority group’s critical attitude toward mainstream popular music led them to make alternative choices for themselves. According to Riesman, the minority group was seen to be characterized by firmness on difficult standards of behavior such as judgment and taste in a dependent culture, also by a fondness for the uncommercialized, non-advertised knish bands rather than the name bands that most have heard of (Riesman, 326). This became a youth …show more content…
Riesman’s study suggests many important key elements in regards to a consumer’s behavior in a capitalistic society. First, the inclination for uncommercialized music is said to have space in which popular music, whether it be through a sound recording studio or a live performance in front of a crowd, was said to be exchanged outside mainstream outlets. In relation to Riesman’s argument, popularized music in and around our society doesn’t necessarily mean its being played and broadcasted over different media outlets. More people are seen to gravitate more towards music that isn’t overplayed and abused by radio stations. Riesman’s observation is still a key theme viewed in today’s culture, there are common outlets in the 20th
David Riesman
During the 1950s a sociologist by the name of David Riesman published a study on the listening habits of teenagers. In the study itself he addresses Adorno’s assumptions about the power of the music industry over consumers. After completing interviews with approximately 150 youths, Riesman found that a minority group’s critical attitude toward mainstream popular music led them to make alternative choices for themselves. According to Riesman, the minority group was seen to be characterized by firmness on difficult standards of behavior such as judgment and taste in a dependent culture, also by a fondness for the uncommercialized, non-advertised knish bands rather than the name bands that most have heard of (Riesman, 326). This became a youth …show more content…
Riesman’s study suggests many important key elements in regards to a consumer’s behavior in a capitalistic society. First, the inclination for uncommercialized music is said to have space in which popular music, whether it be through a sound recording studio or a live performance in front of a crowd, was said to be exchanged outside mainstream outlets. In relation to Riesman’s argument, popularized music in and around our society doesn’t necessarily mean its being played and broadcasted over different media outlets. More people are seen to gravitate more towards music that isn’t overplayed and abused by radio stations. Riesman’s observation is still a key theme viewed in today’s culture, there are common outlets in the 20th