Phanatical said:
It's different for you than it is for a professional musician. For me, it's a reminder that the music industry is full of shit, and will reward mediocre and painful performances over true talent. This is, for better or worse, the industry that all musicians reside in, and it's stupid that Art musicians linger in obscurity while mediocre can't-sing "performers" get so much publicity that you can't avoid it whatever you do.
And it's not just the pop-versus-art thing either. I've watched quite a bit of the National Karaoke Challenge - this show is putting out acts of a far superior quality to anything on Australian Idol. Think anybody cares? Nope, because the media has told them that they're not important. If the media told everybody that the music of Andriessen was "fully sick", you'd find 15 year olds going out to find the latest Andriessen recordings. That's not what music should be about.
I don't agree. Hmmm. Personally our music, Phanatical isn't particularly aimed at stupid naive 15 year olds. So I don't particularly mind if those 15 year olds feed on poor crappy music.
It's like you measure the
success and value of music by
public recognition and wealth? I don't deny that people who make it to the big time (eg Ashlee Simpson who is CRAP), are richer than any classical musician, but if one is really concerned about money determining success, than classical music isn't for them. And I think you know that. Otherwise you'd stray from classical music, or at least dabble in some other music field.
You make it as though no one appreciates classical music, that it has little value, that it's a "minority". Hardly. It is incredibly valued. You'd find that many would surround your piano (if you play the piano, whatever instrument), even if you play classical, that your audience would be in total awe.
The thing about POP music and all that crap is that it engages the audience in a baser level: eg: sing along with it, have lyrics to relate or understand so they don't have to use their imagination etc. You must admit to doing that at some stage. It doesn't take much intelligence to suddenly feel good about a song that has articulated something you've felt but couldn't explain it. It takes a TAD more intelligence to sit there and TRULY experience classical music, not saying that those who love pop music are not intelligent. I'm sure ALL classical musicians/fans also love some form of "mainstream" music.
I think I sung along to savage garden in year 6, "Truly Madly Deeply" and it only uses four chords. I appreciated this because it was easy to sing for me, engaged me as an audience, and easy enough to sit at the piano and figure it out.
Music isn't about talent. It can be. It should be. Especially if it's music for personal reasons. But if you are concerned about Australia's public, music is then about something else. Music THEN needs two groups.
The Musician, and the Audience. Music is about expressing yourself, and sharing it with an audience to appreciate this music, especially to interpret it in their own way.
If the majority of Australia's audience cannot easily relate to classical music, but mainstream music, then it is not THEIR fault that they have chosen so. It is OUR fault as musicians, hence why we try to think of bigger and better things, such as mixing genres, and being experimental. And we DO "succeed" every now and then if you mean "success" as in "recognition", "fame" and "fortune".
Bond, Hans Zimmer, John Williams.
I'm not attacking you or anyone in particular. Just stating that personally, I think its tacky for a classical musician to be pissed off for not being recognised by the majority of Australia....