What Is Bloom's Argument In The Closing Of The American Mind

In Allan Bloom’s book, The Closing of the American Mind, claims that the popular

music of 1987 was harmful to the development of the new generation of students. In his

book, Bloom makes two types of appeals; a logical and an ethical appeal. As a “logical”

defense of his views on music Bloom makes references to philosophers such

as; Plato, Rousseau, and Nietzsche, as a form of evidence. When Bloom is not quoting

popular philosophers to make his point, he is using his own personal knowledge and

experience he has gained from his life. Bloom’s use of anecdotal shows he is under a

conservative mindset that usually believes the only truth can be found in tradition. This

mindset seems to be the downfall of Bloom’s argument, because

This may seem

obvious to some but to Bloom he clearly overlooked this fact when he wrote “ Nothing is

more singular about this generation than its addiction to music.” (p.68). People who

uphold conservative ideals also tend to overlook the fact that the middle and lower class

are unable to consume luxuries like the upper class. Bloom seems to be terribly out of

date with the tastes of the youth and is also lacking general knowledge of the history of

music. He claims that “Classical music is dead among the young.” (p.69). Although,

technically his claim is not wrong, but it could be argued that he is unaware of how long

classical music has been dead to the young. There have been many genres of music

between the time of classical and rock music, such as; jazz, folk, country and blues. Not

to mention the fact that rock music was not just created in the eighties, but has been

evolving since the late 1940s and early 1950s.

In Bloom’s writings he generalize popular rock music as something that

“dissolves the beliefs and morals…” (p.78), he also mentions how “Rock music

encourages passions and provides models that have no relation to any life the