Writing Songs After Auschwitz: Rethinking Adorno’s Concept of Commitment and Aesthetics of Popular Music

This article starts with an analysis of the meaning and significance of the Auschwitz "event" for the whole philosophy of Theodor W. Adorno and especially for his aesthetics and the idea that it is not possible anymore to write poetry after Auschwitz. After discussing this idea and providing an interpretation of what Adorno really meant, I analyze his theory of the culture industry and popular music, emphasizing some critical points with regard to the important concept of commitment in art and the way Adorno understands it. Finally, I provide an alternative reading of the way in which it is possibile, contrary to Adorno, to write songs after Auschwitz: that is, works of popular music that deal with the delicate question of genocide without for this reason being illegitimate from an aesthetic and ethical-political point of view as Adorno would probably argue.