Towards a South African sociology of music: Preliminary questionsresituation and prospects of music in a consumer society (II)

Abstract

An exposition is offered of the specific aims which a hypothetical educational reorientation will have to realize in defined areas of socio-musical dysfunction. These areas include the historicizing art-music culture, the pop culture, and the music-educational establishment in South Africa. It is demonstrated that some of the major problems, such as the rejection reflexes vis-á-vis contemporary Western or traditional African music and the awareness deficiency in respect of music as a social and philosophical issue, can be traced back to narrow educational planning, conceptual as well as organizational. This leads to a discussion of West- and East-European attitudes towards music, and an examination of the implications of a politicization of aesthetics, such as is currently advocated by Marxist sociology in South Africa. Attention is drawn to the extent to which Marxist, Christian, and humanistic views of the consumer society run parallel, and to the points from which their differing concepts of the root causes of alienation preclude consensus in the field of aesthetics. S. Afr. J. Sociol. 1986, 17(1): 22–38