Mike Leghorn wrote:

>Don Satz asks:
>
>>I was thinking that a prime-time tv contest among Gil Shaham, Maxim
>>Vengerov, Hillary Hahn, and a few other violinists might have a big
>>impact on record sales.  Any opinions?
>
>Absolutely not!  The violinists that Don mentioned are musicians.

So, if I understand this correctly, because they are musicians they can't
be on TV?  Or is that they can't compete in a contest (which each has
done extensively throughout the early part of their careers, BTW)?  In
my opinion, a prime time special for these performers, regardless of
what they wore, would be a very, very good thing.


>The appeal of American Idol has little to do with quality musicianship, and
>everything to do with sex appeal.

Really?  I can't imagine a poorer example of sex selling music than
citing American Idol's Ruben Studdard (the most recent winner) and Clay
Aiken (the runner up).  Ruben is at least 350 pounds and wore nothing
but football jerseys, and Clay is a thin, pasty fellow.  Ruben's CD isn't
out yet, and it probably won't do as well as Clay's, but I'll bet it
sells at least half a million copies the first week of release.  If these
guys couldn't sing pop music, they wouldn't have made it past their
initial 45-second audition.  I hate to break it to you, but their success
came because they are impressive pop singers who have a major impact on
their audience when they perform.  Imagine that.  Better yet try to
imagine a classical performer having that sort of connection with a
similarly sized audience without having to resort to skimpy clothing.

For what it's worth, I don't care one whit about American Idol or
the outcome, but I am concerned that classical music lovers expressing
opinions about popular music often seem no better informed than your
average teenaged, purple-haired, multiply-pierced punk rocker discoursing
on the merits of Bach.  It certainly does little for the credibility of
classical music lovers as arbiters of good musical taste.

Music is and should be sexy.  Opera lovers certainly know this.  Music
not only affects us viscerally, but connects with the deepest parts of
our intellect, and the brain is the most powerful sex organ there is.

Dave