Hits are gaining popularity in science | NDR.de – Culture

By joshka brings

A huge hit on social media: Arranger and university lecturer Simon Mack places the lyrics of Ballermann’s songs such as Ingo Oni Flamingo’s “Saufen” as classical pieces.

An unusual bridge, as the so-called high culture in universities has often distanced itself from party songs. For example, Theodor Adorno poisoned Schlager:

“They depend on minors, those who cannot express their feelings and experiences, whether they lack the ability to express themselves at all, or whether they are handicapped by cultural taboos. They provide power to those caught between the operation of labor power and its reproduction. “Replacing the feelings in general that the contemporary revised ego model tells them they should have.”
From Theodor W. Adorno, “Introduction to the Sociology of Music”

Researchers are becoming more open to this finding

But in recent years there has been a change of course in universities. This is what musicologist Dr. said. Felix Christian Thiessen, among others, at the University of Music and Theater in Rostock. “Researchers have become more open-minded when it comes to supposed trivia,” he says. “When one deals specifically with these genres, which were perhaps using a disreputable approach, there is now a lot of openness. There are also more publications, but the further the music moves away from our concept of art music, the less research is done and it usually is as well “

Clearly there is still a lot of work to be done

Last year, a scholarly anthology entitled “Exploring Schlager” was published. It’s about the political, economic and media aspects of the genre – and it’s comprehensive. Clearly, there is still a lot of work to be done on this success from a scientific perspective. “I would like to see a less critical look at the historical sources of the strike,” Thiessen says. “The music psychologist, who is actually very open-minded, has come up with beliefs like: ‘Pop music listeners turn to the form of their music because they are unable to understand Bach’s polyphony.’” said a very famous music psychologist: Klaus Ernst Behne – 30 Years ago, 40 years ago.”

Stroke preference has nothing to do with intelligence

Because it has long been clear: stroke preference has nothing to do with intelligence. doctor. Felix Christian Thiessen spoke with communications scientist Dr. Holger Schramm conducted a study: What benefits and rewards do people get from their music consumption? At the same time, they also recorded personality traits. “Pop music listeners are no more stupid, no more emotional, and no more inclined to resort to other truths than listeners of other musical genres,” Thiessen points out. “This is something that is often assumed – which is not the case. I think this is why research into hit song has such a strong justification. Because of course it is also about subjecting biases to closer examination, which have been floating around in musicology for decades.”

Thus identifying a form of listening to music that touches, delights, or allows a large percentage of the population to escape from everyday life. This also creates a basis for further discussions: for example, about sexual texts or that alcohol is sometimes glorified in parts of this genre – because even high cultural adaptation cannot hide this.