U-turn

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April 13, 2005

Bookstore

In the blogosphere there are many people speculating (a) why there is a crisis in classical and contemporary music and (b) what to do about it.

Some suggest people can't listen to classical and contemporary music because they're used to 3 minutes pop music and can't cope with an elaborate concentration span. An authority like Norman Lebrecht pulled the leg of this reasoning since people who evade classical and contemporary music watch long movies without hesitation.

But if we compare classical and contemporary music with literature we get a different picture.

Imagine walking into a bookstore where most of the books are pre 1900. They are published over and over again. The highest arousal to be achieved is a book by the Bronte sisters in a new typography on a new kind of paper. Wow, that would attract new readers/buyers!

In some dark corner of our imaginary bookstore we can find some books by modernists. They are experimenting with books without punctuation, writing only every third letter of every second word and as an extra the reading order changes every two pages to express the deeper intentions of the author.

Of course the latter group of authors don't sell well and they complain no one understands them. Suggestions to pay a little attention to the needs of their audience are rejected: they don't write commercial trash. In their opinion, as a good artist, you have to be independent (say: careless about) from your audience.

In the meantime a new generation of authors started writing comic books being bored by the ongoing convention. In the beginning they are laughed at. But as time evolves a new generation grows up with nasty memories about this old fashioned literature they had to read as a kid. They skip it whenever they can and in their spare time they read comic books and discuss the latest publications with their friends. Some will even try to write their own ones.

Slowly, but steadily faster, the old bookshops are experiencing harder and harder times because of dropping sales. And by laws of economics they will have to do something to prevent bankruptcy.

Back in the real world the problem isn't that classical music is bad music. The problem is that to many people it has lost it's relevance. By pretending we are still in the 19th century we aren't going to solve this.

So we (new music buffs) shouldn't blame our audience for a lack of interest, but blame ourselves for not taking our own responsibility in this matter. Only then we can make some changes for the better.

Posted by Renske at 19:21 UTC | permanent link