Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Gettin' Uppity - What's Missing in a City Made of Music

Contemporary Classical music is something near and dear to my heart. So many of us still have this outdated idea that the bourgeois is out there controlling the tastes and desires of the populace and must be stopped. In the process of fighting an imaginary battle few have bothered to look up and realize that it's long since been over, the Internet, Wikipedia, GuitarHero with songs by the Pixies and the Clash, and Top 40 charts are proof of the matter.
The reality is that small independent "rock" venues are popping up left and right without a peep from new theater houses, concert halls or venues that allow and support music as the totality of the experience. We have become convinced that a mix of intoxication, cigarettes and bumping shoulders is a necessity to have a good live experience.
Nico Muhly - It Goes Without Saying

Granted these things can be as important if not more so in making a good show great, but who really gets ahead in these places? My guess is that it's rarely either the venue or the band, I'd put my money on Philip-Morris, Pabst and Anheuser-Busch . Every new bar or venue whether it stays or goes is just another little corner convenience store for Alcohol and Tobacco. Punk rock tried to bridge the gap between performer and audience, and to some degree did so quite well, but what is the end result? Are we all living for the moment trying to be rock stars, sharing in the excessive consumption and thrashing about in a mock sense of Starlit liberation? Knowing full well that Major Corporation are capitalizing on our imaginary sense of rebellion, my question is do we really need this type of interaction to appreciate music? Is sitting and letting the music take you away no longer enough.......? In my mind the idea of a room full of hundreds of people sitting quietly,meditating without cellphones going off is what seems truly radical today.

Eluvium - Indoor Swimming at Space Station

Hauschka-Schones Mädchen


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