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An approach to the “authenticity” in the discourse of the popular arts from the aesthetic point of view: Toward an aesthetics of the authentic in the popular arts
Journal of Popular Narrative
2010,
(23), pp.277-306
DOI : 10.18856/jpn.2010..23.010
Publisher : The Association of Popular Narrative
Research Area : Interdisciplinary Research
DOI : 10.18856/jpn.2010..23.010
Publisher : The Association of Popular Narrative
Research Area : Interdisciplinary Research
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The problem around what is a good work of popular art including popular music is after all in close connection with the consideration of the question whether a work of art is good or bad in the traditional aesthetic discourse. Especially the question of autheticity is the key area of meaning in the problem of value judgements. It is a fact that popular music has differentiated from other categories of music and constructed its own characteristic and function as a cultural sphere. However it does not mean that popular music should develop its own theory of aesthetic judgement completely different from other categories of music. What is worth emphasizing here is that we secure and enrich common aesthetics for both generic and specific area of experiences in the various categories of music by contriving as effective a system of vocabularies as possible within the proper adaptability. In this context the concept of authenticity is significant in its productivity as it embraces not only high brow art but the popular arts in general. There is a tendency that the concept of authenticity in the popular arts, especially in the pop-discourse operates as a kind of symbolic value in the process of change from the dominant way of medialization rather than on the aesthetic dimension. In other words, the main theoretical import of the concept is not the reference of the difference in real existence of authenticity but the difference in the way of medializations of the popular arts and in their sensual perception and appropriation. As a response from the aesthetic point of view to this tendency this paper is a proposal toward an aesthetics of the authentic in the popular arts by extending such traditional aesthetic discourses as ordinary self/the best self, self- manifestation of existence, naturalness, totality.
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