Mark Landson replies to Charles Dalmas:

>>My second point was that the vast majority of people today don't want
>>to expend the effort to try to understand either experimental pop or
>>classical.
>
>If someone created a new dish detergent, do you think it should be the
>public's responsibility to "seek out" a better dish detergent than the one
>they are happy with? No. That's why we have marketing.  New and Improved!
>and all that.  Makes your dishes sparkle!  With the symphony, though, we
>just expect people to pay 25 or 50 bucks to hear something that they may
>hate, with little chance of escaping without embarrassment.  And that it's
>their duty to the cause of art to do so.

I can't tell whether Mark is ironic here, so I'll weigh in.  To me, the
analogy reveals far more than most people want to know.  Music has become
a commodity, like dishwashing detergent, to a very large extent, and in
a consumer culture, it would be odd if it were otherwise.  So why do we
continue to talk about Art and the Vision of the Artist?

Steve Schwartz