Arri Bachrach wrote:

>> So why should NPR concentrate on classical music when most who listen
>> are not musically inclined??

Steve Schwartz replied:

>The only answer to this is several more questions, among which is why
>should I donate to public radio?

Perhaps you shouldn't.  Maybe if everyone who listens to public radio
for the classical music stopped donating for a certain period of time--say,
a quarter or half the fiscal year--and explained why, the stations would
get the message and start programming more classical again.  Or maybe
they'd find they can get by just fine without classical.

>The reason *I'm* upset is because if you have no experience with the
>first-rate, you have no idea what second-, third-, or even fourth-rate is.
>
>It's not as though serious art exists for my benefit alone, however.  I
>see all around me people who simply cannot enjoy themselves or occupy
>themselves unless they're spending money.  Serious art and serious
>considerations of ideas allow one the pleasures of re-looking, re-listening,
>re-reading, and continual thought.  You get a lot of bang for your buck
>out of Beethoven's Fifth and Stravinsky's Pulcinella.  Furthermore, if
>you've heard Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Joan Morris, or Mildred
>Bailey, why would you bother to listen to Britney Spears or the Simpsons
>(J&A) more than once?

Those same arguments were made about some of those same artists fifty
years ago--if you knew Caruso, why would you listen to Holiday and
Fitzgerald?  Am I suggesting that Britney Spears is the equivalent of
those giants?  I most certainly am not.  I am suggesting that I find it
extremely unlikely that most of the people on this list have ever sat
down and listened to a Britney Spears album all the way through even
once, much less repeatedly, in an honest attempt to see what might attract
so many millions of fans.  (For the record, I never have either.)

>If you've heard Ellington, Parker, or Basie, what would be the attraction of
>rap?  Knowing the first-rate tends to clear out a lot of tripe.

Without meaning any disrespect to Steve, who has proven in the past
that he most certainly has an excellent knowledge of these artists, I'd
submit that Miles Davis, who likely knew the oeuvre of those artists
even better, having played extensively with Parker and recording a tribute
to Ellington, as well as being a brilliant and learned artist himself,
obviously, thought rap a valid enough genre to have recorded a rap album.
If I recall correctly, Steve, you have little patience for those who
dismiss dodecaphonic without ever really having given it a chance. I'd
argue the same goes for any genre.

In another post on the subject, Steve said (quote taken somewhat out of
context):

>Believe me, if I weren't entertained, I wouldn't stick around.

Oop.  I think we just discovered why people listen to what they do after
all.

Best,

Scott Peterson
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