Archive
Blang Blang (March 2010) "As the huge video screens and clangorous amplification of some of his 'gigs' now attest (not to mention more and more examples of dubious musicianship), Lang Lang has become a pop star - in Sony's eyes, a 'classical Michael Jackson', perhaps."
Viewpoint: "A Spectre Is Haunting Croatia - The Spectre of Crossover", by A. Gavrilović (March 2010) "Maksim Mrvica, the world famous Croatian crossover pianist, gave a faulty performance of crossover pieces that were already too simple, too boring and too repetitive. To make matters worse, the piano sounded like a dying cat and the speakers were playing taped recordings of shallow-sounding drumming..."
Objective (February 2010) "People - bloggers - living in a neoliberal world spewing postmodernist mantras and dogmas from every business orifice tend to find themselves appalled by the mere concept of objectivity (even though they frequently, and obliviously, depend on objective assertions to attack it), because its implications draw them into sinister realms where all things are not equal and where their cultural credentials cannot glitter in the permanent sunshine and blue skies of relativism."
Faut Pas (January 2010) "Newcomers and detractors alike could be forgiven for drawing the conclusion that such nomenclature persists to exclude at worst, at best to confuse - reinforcing the prejudice that art music is primarily the domain of a cliquish band of illuminati."
B Listers (January 2010) "These pathetic lists smack above all of modern marketing - a juvenile way of packaging everything, even great composers and their music, so that it can be instantly absorbed by the great buying public."
09 Top Ten Top Ten (December 2009) "The end of every year is conspicuous by the presence of exaggerated media enthusiasm for 'Top Tens' (or 20s, 50s, 100s etc): the season when broadcasters and journalists, anxious to attract profligate punters, fill schedules and columns with the favourite pop songs/albums and films of various critics, 'celebrities' and, supposedly, the public."
Put A Stocking In It (December 2009) "Regardless of who the US, UK, Russia, Iran, China etc. are threatening this 'festive' season with their nuclear and other arsenals, peace on earth will always remain unattainable as long as every store, bar and TV/radio advert insist on belching out an endless cycle of every single pop banality ever recorded that has ever even mentioned the 'C' word."
Seedy Sales (November 2009) "And the annual Gramophone Guide, along with the media multinationals inevitably lurking in the shadows, pushing their products to the professional critics, perpetuates the idea that we consumers, music lovers secondarily, must keep on reading, keep on buying, keep on building up our precious Collections, so that we don't miss out on such and such's outstanding new interpretation of a work we all thought we already owned the most outstanding version of, because the Guide's unique diamond rating persuaded us to buy it a couple of years back."
Artful, Artless Media: A Brief Survey of Online Daily Newspapers, Part 1: USA & Canada (August 2009) "Of the 71 dailies considered: 31 (44%) had zero art music content, including the USA's two best-selling dailies (circulations over 2 million, or 10 times the survey's cut-off point), USA Today and Wall Street Journal; A further 15 had minimal art music content (defined as 1-2 items); Only 11 had substantial art music content (although never approaching levels for pop);"
Clap Them (In Irons) (July 2009) "In fact, this is an easy way to spot a cultural relativist. Clapping, to their way of thinking, signifies one of two things (and probably both): a 'Houghian' recognition that the concert-goer as paying customer should decide what goes, according to the supply-and-demand precepts of economic liberalism; or a 'Slatkinist' relaxing of stuffy 'elitist' rules."
Viewpoint: "A Call For A Return To Hierarchal Sobriety", by AC Douglas (July 2009) "In short, what I'm suggesting is a return to the hierarchal sobriety that was largely the norm in the pre-postmodern world; a frank admission of the separateness of the hierarchies of aesthetic value of the realms of high and popular culture, and an acceptance of the clear aesthetic distinction between the artifacts inhabiting each."
Dear Anne, and Tom Does a Service (July 2009) "Ironically, Midgette likens musoc.org to a kind of cultural 'Big Brother'. Ironically because the mantle of intolerance is clearly worn by even the most understated members of the massing hordes of pop 'music' fans." "Buried under the reams of bulletins and cultural musings on the great Michael Jackson, John Lennon's guitar etc, reposes the blog of The Guardian's eminent 'classical' music critic, Tom Service, who has thrown his weight behind the 'musoc.org are vicious snobs' approach to debate."
Rave New World (June 2009) "In sharp contrast to Huxley's era, today there are hundreds of millions of people - even many of those who still make distinctions between literature, fine art and art-house cinema on the one hand and pulp fiction, commercial art and Hollywood-style blockbusters on the other - who have come to believe that posturing, narcissistic media-stars warbling facile, juvenile doggerel in groaning, straining voices to an accompaniment of hackneyed, synthesised, amplified muzak, can constitute musical 'brilliance', 'artistry' or even 'genius' - let alone music."
Classic FM Countdown to the Hall of Shame (June 2009) "Classic FM is only anything more than this in that it carves up and packages the music in cynical and intensely annoying ways. At best, all it truly succeeds in doing is getting people hearing - not even really listening to - a narrow range of 'classics', embalmed in the Hall of Fame. Moreover, it buttresses the stereotype of a mummified, apolitical, anodyne, bourgeois culture with little relevance to the 21st century."