Abstract

The essay begins by addressing the analytic frame that Adorno opens up for a critical theory of music, to then focus on a hermeneutic-pragmatic account of music as aesthetic agency, followed by a reconstruction of the uniquely transgressive potentials that this account of musical experience entails for popular music. The new account is motivated by the impasse created by Adorno’s own philosophy of music to provide a grounding for the cognitive capacities necessary to understand autonomous music. The hermeneutic-pragmatic reconstruction of aesthetic features of music as structurally similar to experiential dimensions of agency overcomes Adorno’s dilemma by allowing us to see music as a socializing medium that enables reflexive experiences. The musical dimensions of rhythm, harmony, and melody are reconstructed as exemplifying features of situated agency. Against this background, popular music is shown to enable experiences of bodily transgression, cultural transcendence, as well as individualized attentiveness, thus continuing Adorno’s project of reconstructing the critical cognitive value of music.