While living as an immigrant in 1940s Los Angeles, Theodor Adorno, the German philosopher and critical theorist, turned his attention to American popular music. Never has there been a more dramatic clash between our homegrown popular culture and a highbrow middle-European sensibility.

With a tinge of snobbery befitting his German heritage, Adorno pointed out that one of the characteristics of popular American music is that it has a “pre-heard” quality – the music is built on recognizable structures so that it can be easily assimilated into busy and distracted lives. We enjoy the novelty of a new hit song almost instantly because its larger musical framework falls into expected and understood patterns.

It is wise to remember Adorno’s observation if you want to do great brand work because brand, expertly done, has precisely the same quality:  when you hear a great brand concept for the first time, it should strike you as novel and exciting at the same time that it slips into your consciousness as something that you have always known and already heard. It should immediately camp out a place in your consciousness. It should not come across as arbitrary, silly, irrelevant or flip. It should not be a mere tag line but a subtle reframing of reality. Once you have heard a great brand concept you should never forget it. Just like a great hit song.

The archtype of such work in popular music is the country and western song. Here for example is Ryan Adams running a great variation on a classic trope:

Well excuse me if I break my own heart
It was mine from the finish, I guess,
It was mine from the start.

The situation just don’t seem so goddamn smart
The situation is tearing me apart
So, you’ll have to excuse me if I break my own heart

Here is the core concept in the brand strategy for Colgate University:

Colgate University: small college with big school spirit

The major difference between pop music and brand work is that pop music arrives at its hits through something akin to a Darwinian process. Songwriters produce a surplus of songs and the market chooses which conform best to its needs and desires.

With brand work we don’t have the option of in-market testing: running multiple brand concepts past the public to see which one sticks. Instead we use research to ensure that the brand concept will get the reception of a great pop song. But the underlying dynamic is the same. A great brand should be “pre-heard,” just as with a great pop hit.