John Mean-er

Last night, I was lucky enough to go to the John Mayer concert for free. While watching this massive audience in Madison Square Garden surrounding the stage, I was able to see Marx and Adorno in action. He actually pointed at the area I was sitting and said, “You people are in the cheap seats….” He then pointed to the floor seats in front of him and said, “Now these people are the ones who bought the real tickets, these people wanted to be close to me.” I never knew John Mayer was such a jerk. He even admitted he never thought he would be applauded for being an asshole.

People saved up for those tickets to surprise their girlfriends on Valentine’s Day for a good amount of time. Those tickets were probably close to $300 dollars a pop if mine were $150 originally (side stage). If Adorno is right, and all pop music is all standardized, why is John Mayer’s more expensive. Is it because, as Emile Durkheim would say, the collective sentiments and collective conscious of the masses determine the norm and rules of society? The society chose John Mayer as high art, worthy of high prices, worthy of playing at the Madison Square Garden. Was being there, seeing John Mayer live enough to make one forget about the fact that whoever bought those tickets had to spend $600 for them? Maybe go with out something for two weeks, so his girlfriend could be happy on Valentine’s Day?

Then I realized, although he is an asshole, his songs were still catchy. I found myself singing to the repetitive songs I knew and bouncing away to the ones I did not. The friend I was with actually did not know any of the songs, but you could still see her swaying to the music. Some people knew every single word to every single song. They could be Adorno’s emotional type of listener. They were completely oblivious to the real conditions of existence; they did not care at all how much they spent to see him live, to see his standardized songs. I suppose Kera and I were the rhythmically obedient, dancing in distraction to the rhythm of our own exploitation and oppression. I was distracted until he made that terrible comment, then I was just confused as to why I liked him so much. I was so thankful I had not paid for the concert.

Meanwhile, as I was there my media networking was in full force. I was taking pictures on my camera, which when I brought home because of media modalities I was able to connect it to my computer to upload the pictures. Once I realized my camera was going to die, I was able to start taking photos on my blackberry, which I then MMS-ed to my friends, sent a voicenote to my boyfriend, and if I really wanted to I could have uploaded the pictures and videos directly to my facebook from my phone. I even actively gave in to consumerism for a man I think is a jerk because I like his popular music. I am not really sure what that says about me, other than I am an active member of mass society, who passively listens, and is a consumer.