When he looked at music, Adorno claimed that popular music was the best example of something being repeated constantly, and that the most popular songs were almost exactly the same. He stated that popular music had certain parts that were used constantly, but they mixed up the order and the varied the style in order to make the music appear to the consumer that it was original. While the songs were growing more and more similar, people were finding them more unique and special due to their pseudo-individualism. People were finding their identities in the music they listened to, but he disputed that they were just soaking up more of the disguised products of the popular culture.

On the other hand he stated that classical music was not produced in the same way. He demonstrated that classical music follows no structure, and that the music is carefully crafted and every small detail compliments the overall piece as opposed to popular music, in which no thought goes into each individual song, and that there are huge similarities between them all.