John Detwiler wrote:

>>If anyone has any thoughts on how to make CM "cool," I think we could get
>>some good ideas going.  I'll add some of my own next time (if a thread
>>actually gets started.)

Chris Bonds had this FINE reply.

>Well I just skimmed this post but it started a thought in my fuddled
>brain.  That thought is:  maybe we should ask ourselves "what payoff were
>the audiences of the 18th and 19th centuries getting from the music that
>we today call "classical" that we as a society don't?"

The question as I see it has no relevance at all, Mr Bonds - comparing
18/19th century society to us is like looking at two different cultures on
different planets.  Today as a society we want more(or maybe less).....we
have gone to great extremes to make things simpler...even in terms of music
appreciation.  I haven't done much research into this,,,so it's just my
musings (with a gut feeling).....that way back then making music was a
viable career, there were plenty of courts to make music for, whether
the audience appreciated the music they were listening too, one cannot
say....read some of the old reviews and you'll find that the audience was
made up mostly of music publishers, court musicians, fellow composers -
ie people involved in music, not your everyday Joe who lays bricks for a
living.  Society was more affluent (or at least pretending to be)...and a
show of this affluence was to turn up at classical events - which still may
be the case.

I'm beginning to meander a bit...but I think you get the picture
- classical music was 'pop' then....in the 60's Garcia was GOD, in the
70's it was who's Garcia??...welcome the Bee Gees...in the 90's it's
hurrah 'crap' and boy bands, not forgetting Spice Girls. People change -
the same 'payoff' that the 18/19 century blokes got, we're getting
now....only from a different source. The song you're singing now....is
exactly the same that my boyfriend sings about 'classic rock' .

On a completely different note..How to make classical cool????

1.  Banish penguin tails on stage....get the orchestra members to come out
in jeans and T's - to look normal, just like you and me.

2.  What's this nonsense about getting dolled up for a classical
concert....last Saturday I attended a concert in KL, and was told not
to come again in jeans - so what's wrong with jeans...they were a decent
pair??? The same has happened in Singapore.  So what if an audience member
turns up with blue hair, and a leather miniskirt.....she/he probably knows
more about music appreciation than the well dressed who's who.

3.  Marketing, marketing, marketing.....look where it got Nigel
Kennedy......OK, the classical enthusiats pooh poohed his appearances on
Top of the Pops, and his weird attires, but did the man sell or what???
Even my fav grocer in London knew him - he's one of us - the good old chap
muttered.....how accessible exactly is Evgeny Kissin ???

OK - now I shut up and brace myself for the torrential load of flak I'm
going to receive...but seriously guys, it's the purveyors of CM that have
made classical music elitist and unaccessible and UNCOOL!!

cheers,
anu