Spellbound

Abstract Theodor W. Adorno was a vocal advocate of atonal music and one of the most outspoken critics of popular music and its culture of casual, non-contemplative listening. As this chapter shows, his uncompromising stance on the issue is rooted in the musical aesthetic of the nineteenth century, particularly the writings of Eduard Hanslick. Having explored his earlier essays on musical listening and popular music, the chapter then turns to Adorno’s American exile, when he encountered sociological methods of listener research at the Princeton Radio Research Project. Critical of American musical broadcasts, such as Walter Damrosch’s NBC Music Appreciation Hour, Adorno went on to present his own musical education broadcasts, which aimed to introduce young listeners to classical music, including new music, and encouraged sustained, ‘structural’ listening. Although the series was prematurely abandoned, he continued this mission on West German radio after his return from exile. The chapter concludes with Adorno’s post-war writings, particularly his more essays on method and style, where he defends his own, famously mode of writing as intrinsic to his critical project, while also underlining the pleasurable and playful nature of intellectual engagement.