Tracing the deconstruction of the Adornian dialectic between generic convention and particular expression—between proper and improper, and propriety and impropriety—Waltham-Smith develops a theory of use and over-use to explain the ways in which composers and listeners relate to musical material. Another look at Haydn’s playful (mis)use of cadential formulas and at processes of cadential liquidation in late 18th-century repertoires can shed light, it is argued, on listening’s imbrication in the psychotechnological capture and manipulation of affective labor under neoliberalism today.