1.
Panopticism is a theory based on the prison building designed by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in 1785. This consists of the prison cells surrounding the guard tower in the middle of the cells, overseeing the whole of the building from one tower. The design is said to increase the security of the inmates by the effectiveness of surveillance from the central guard tower. However his type of design can be used for any population that needs to be kept under observation, such as: prisoners, schoolchildren, medical patients or workers. In today’s modern society, the ever-growing reliance and technological advances allow google maps and google streets to be a modern version of digital panopticism. The users can view whole areas and streets from their own station at home, work or anywhere meaning the public are observed but do not see, “He is seen but he does not see, he is the object of information, never the subject in communication.” Furthermore in reference to the prison building by backlighting the guard tower, the guards can see the inmates but they can’t see them. As Thomas, J claimed in his book 'Panopticism', “By the effect of backlighting one can observe from the tower, standing out precisely against the light.” Similar is this to the google maps/streets idea. Furthering this idea another modern version of panopticism is the “big brother” society we live in. government CCTV cameras are in operation all over the country, we are observed but we do not see the observer. Through these means society is “categorized, interpreted, judged and manipulated” through government observations. Again a similar situation to the google maps and prison guard ideas, the observer oversees and controls. They have the power in an almost autocratic notion as the populations then are seen as docile bodies. “The panoptic function as a kind of laboratory of power”. This justifies the government control and almost autocratic regime we see in today’s society.
2.
Adorno's (1941) article 'On Popular Music' summarizes music by claiming that music is standardized for the popular music. The catchy rhythms, the 32 bar chorus, the similar opening and closing vocal notes for the chorus etc. Standardization is the process of establishing a technical standard, which could be a standard specification. Adrono discusses how this can be defined by the simple and sophisticated, and naïve and complex. He believes that music produced for popular scenes are standardized in the way that musicians are conforming to the demands of the popular culture, a catchy rythem and lyrics which people listen to and make popular. In my opinion in some cases Adorno is perfectly correct. The amount of songs, which discuss falling in love or breakups, is untrue. I think around a good 75% of popular songs today are about romance in some way or the other and so is very much standardized. These are often stories based around the artists themselves or pretend one, which they seem plausible to create a fake solution to their love difficulties. Either way it seems this is a standard procedure for modern artists especially in the RnB genre. These types of songs especially reach out the younger listeners especially adolescent teenagers who are feeling all these emotions in the written songs. In some cases the songs are popular by youths who want to be similar to the others who like this music. There is a lacks of diversifying in today’s modern cultures. Id like to this that a popular but non conforming artist/dj/producer “Deadmau5” diffrers from this as his songs arnt about love and emotions, but we get songs named for example ‘Sometimes things get, whatever’ and ‘FML(fuck my life)’. The popular song im using as an example is ‘Ghosts n Stuff’, a non-conforming title about a random subject, moving away from this standardized culture. With his development of a new style of dance music coming from Canada, heavy on the melodic synths and sidechain compression, I see this artist as the most unique thing to enter the moderate “popular scene”.
