Stephen E. Bacher:

>>I do agree.  I think we have to blame several trends and people.  The
>>first is the educational system, which cut music programs as "frills"
>>but kept the football team and the marching band.  Consequently, you
>>have people with expensive educations who are nevertheless cultural
>>ignorami.
>
>Similar to the way Latin is rarely taught in schools anymore, leading
>to folks believing that the plural of "ignoramus" is "ignorami".:-)

You mean, IT'S NOT?  I had Latin in public school through Cicero, but I
admit I could have forgotten something.  Is it one of those "-us"/"-us"
nouns?  Is it actually a first person plural present verb?

>>You hear more about what a genius Beck is than about what a genius
>>Brahms is.
>
>That could just as well be due to the fact that one is alive and the
>other is not.  A fairer comparison might be Beck vs.  Philip Glass, or
>John Williams vs.  Stephen Foster, say.  I'd wager that you hear at least
>as much - if not more - in the media about the "genius" of Glass or
>Williams than either Beck or Foster (brewskies excepted).

I strongly doubt it, although like you I haven't actually counted.  And
it has nothing to do with the life or death of the figure in question,
but more about whomever music corporations are aggressively marketing.
Like professional sports (now a part of "news"), music news has increasingly
become one long advertisement.

Steve Schwartz