September 8, 2006
BARBARIANS TO THE LEFT...BARBARIANS TO THE RIGHT...
Video killed more than the radio star (Father Raymond J. de Souza, National Post, September 7th, 2006)
Herewith an item from the weekend news that would normally cheer me up: "The downward spiral of the MTV Video Music Awards' TV performance continued as the ceremony's audience plunged from last year."This year marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Mozart, being celebrated worldwide. It also marks the 25th anniversary of MTV, which was marked last month. It is not supposed that the declining viewership for MTV's flagship awards program was due to people rediscovering the joys of the genius from Salzburg. Likely they just preferred to watch the parts they wanted to online, as MTV's site had its highest day of traffic ever -- some 3.9 million streaming viewers.
I am passionately opposed to MTV and all its works and pomps. Not just because of its trailblazing role in the vulgarization and pornographication of popular culture, but because of what it has done to the listening of music. Namely, does anybody just listen to music anymore?[...]
One can hear snippets of Beethoven's Fifth as ring tones for mobile phones; the preternaturally joyful opt for the final movement of the Ninth. There is something terribly banal about setting the phone to ring to the great classics. Can it even be music anymore? It certainly is not being listened to.
Few are those who sit down to listen to a piece of music today with full attention and focus, treating it as an experience to be had in its own right. I get the anecdotal sense that even the great compositions of our musical patrimony take a second place to driving, reading, cooking or whatever. The churches ought to be literal sanctuaries of great music, both ancient and modern -- as the venerable Anglican hymnal puts it -- but alas, church music is in a bad way, and usually one must be content if it is only awful, and not actually heretical.
Want to have some fun? The next time you and your fellow conservatives are gathered together and having a merry old time discussing the WOT, the decline of the family, welfare reform, etc, wait for a pause and then launch into a tirade against the execrable quality and corrupting influence of modern music. Before your very eyes you will see everyone start to squirm and strategize how to shut you up until after the next election. Their body language will scream: “Why can’t this wingnut just stick with The Rapture?†Alan Bloom succeeded in belling the cat and living to tell the tale, but almost everyone else who dares to say what we all know perfectly well is marked as a spent force who would be well and compassionately advised to just go on home quietly and die.
Nothing captures the sheer horror of the modern decline more than trying to introduce your iPod-addicted twelve year old to the classics, only to have him snap back that his taste is every bit as good as yours while his glaring mother stands by clasping the telephone number of the child protection authorities.
Posted by Peter Burnet at September 8, 2006 6:44 AMAll the more reason to follow this attempt by the New York Metropolitan Opera to put their recorded performances in movie theaters. Classical music/opera only needs a certain audience, and only needs to grow a little bit of that certain audience at a time.
Posted by: Brad S at September 8, 2006 8:21 AMRock/pop music's all just a fad Peter, don't worry.
(Yeah, I know I've already used the Bruno Kirby line this week, cut me some slack)
Posted by: Jim in Chicago at September 8, 2006 10:42 AM"his glaring mother stands by clasping the telephone number of the child protection authorities."? Looks like someone hasn't learned his place in the new modern family......
Posted by: Robert Mitchell Jr. at September 8, 2006 11:21 AMOkay, I'll bite on this particular bit of crankiness. What about classical music makes it so much better than popular music?
Posted by: Brandon at September 8, 2006 12:09 PMOn the other hand, perhaps the reason classical music is better than modern is the same reason houses from the 1700s are well-constructed; 90% were terrible, then as now, and only the quality has survived.
Posted by: Mike Earl at September 8, 2006 12:31 PMOn the MTV side of things -- isn't it superfluous for MTV to even have Video Music Awards anymore, since you have to go up to the ultraviolet band equivalent reaches of digital cable or satellite to even find an MTV channel the plays music except at 4 o'clock in the morning.
On the musical taste side -- I'm just waiting for 25-30 years from now, when today's yutes are stuck in a two-hour traffic backup on the highway on a Friday afternoon to see them pop in some of the music they bought in their younger years and turn it on to bide their time and soothe their nerves on the way home. Road rage-a-palooza coming up around 2030 or so.
Posted by: John at September 8, 2006 2:02 PMClassical music survived the agonizing renditions of steam caliopes, organ grinders and music boxes in the 19th and early 20th century. Ring tones are harmonic bliss in comparison.
Posted by: David Rothman at September 8, 2006 2:20 PMAnd of course in their day hot jazz, Elvis, and the Beatles were considered vile examples of musical degradation by some, and now they're safe enough to be enjoyed by conservative fogies and even played at Disneyland. It's hard for me to imagine that happening with rap/hip-hop, though.
Posted by: PapayaSF at September 8, 2006 3:09 PMIs 'pornographication' a real word, or is it just made up, pornographizationalistically speaking?
Posted by: Gideon at September 8, 2006 3:10 PMBrandon:
OK, I'll be foolish enough to try an answer.
How about good music challenges and permits you to enjoy ever-expanding artistic and emotional complexities the more you listen to it, while lousy music is a drug that gets more and more boring with exposure?
Posted by: Peter B at September 8, 2006 3:28 PMGood Music = {Music I liked when I was 10-18}.
Bad Music = {Everything Else}.
Posted by: Mike Beversluis at September 8, 2006 4:02 PM...lousy music is a drug that gets more and more boring with exposure?
A good description of modern jazz.
Posted by: Gary at September 9, 2006 11:49 AMI wonder what would happen if a station began broadcasting classical videos.
Yes, they are out there. They even came first; Fantasia is a collection of seven of them. Personal favorites include
-- Fantasia 2002, seven more. The closing Firebird Suite is outstanding, fully up to the standard set by Night on Bald Mountain in the original Fantasia.
-- Dance of the Hours, from 2001, a Space Odyssey
-- Lacrymosa / Mozart Requiem, from Amadeus
Person or persons unknown put out a video for Fanfare for the Common Man, by Ralph Vaughn Williams. The pictures were taken in Iraq during the last election. I wish that I could give you a web address for it.
I'm sure that there are others. Suggestions, anyone?
Posted by: Prof. Willard at September 13, 2006 6:16 PMI found the reference:
http://michaelyon.blogspot.com/2005/12/turn-up-volume.html
Posted by: Prof. Willard at September 14, 2006 9:23 AM