Piano World Home Page Forums General Discussions Musicians Welcome! I Hate Classical Music

A couple of threads over in the "Pianist Corner" reminded me of a recent piece in the New Yorker titled "Listen to This: A classical kid learns to love pop—and wonders why he has to make a choice".

A few quotes:

"I hate “classical music”: not the thing but the name. It traps a tenaciously living art in a theme park of the past. It cancels out the possibility that music in the spirit of Beethoven could still be created today. It banishes into limbo the work of thousands of active composers who have to explain to otherwise well-informed people what it is they do for a living. The phrase is a masterpiece of negative publicity, a tour de force of anti-hype. I wish there were another name."

"When I tell people what I do for a living, I see the same look again and again—a flinching sideways glance, as if they were about to be reprimanded for not knowing about C-sharps. After this comes the serene declaration of ignorance. The old culture war is fought and lost before I say a word."

Check it out online Here

The thing that I really hate is how nobody even gives classical music a chance. They are all caught up in rap, which isn't even really music at all. I can remember watching a movie on tv with some friends and when it ended, he said that he had to change the channel because the credits had classical music playing which only I would be interested in.
Going back to rap, I have a feeling that many people who listen to it secretly don't even like it. They just do it fit in because rap is the current "thing". I hate rap, and don't pretend not to. I've tried to like it before, but it's never worked. The form of it is hideous, the messages that many of them put across are horrible (though that doesn't apply to all rap that I've heard), and its just plain annoying. I also hate how people just have to have their rap cranked with the bass all the way up. I just feel like taking a shotgun to the speakers of their radios. Urgh!

To add onto my post, rap is taking over much more than just classical music and oldies. Even rock is unkown to most younger people now! A few months ago I mentioned Stairway to Heaven to some of the kids that I "kid-sat" over the summer, (ranging from 11 to 14 years in age) and they looked at eachother, and then back to me, and said "what's stairway to heaven?" I then told them that it is a song by Led Zeplin. Again, they looked at eachother, and then back at me, and said "what's led zeplin?" :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Hi jgoo,

Ok, I respect your right not to like rap, but I take issue with the fact that you've basically lumped all rap into one category and made a blanket statement. If someone said, "Bach, Beethoven, it's all the same and I don't think it's music anyway," no doubt you'd find the remark offensive, not to mention oh-so-ignorant. The soaring architecture of Bach and the raw, elemental force of Beethoven are equally genius, but not the same.

Yes, there are those who praise excess and regard women as little more than objects. There are those who spew nothing but anger and violence in their lyrics, and whose music grates on the ear. You could say that last statement for rock as well as rap. But I digress.

My point is this: rap, like other genres, is much more varied than the airwaves would have you believe. For every rapper preaching guns and money, you'll find others talking about something as ponderous as the state of our society, or something as light-hearted as getting wild at a party and enjoying every minute of it.

In the end, I'm completely in agreement with the author of the article. Why should we have to pigeonhole ourselves into genres? I like Bjork as much as I like Nappy Roots, Mozart as much as Piazzolla; should their differences matter?

Sorry if this all sounds overly preachy; but I *had* to step on the soapbox. :rolleyes:

cheers,
a

ah yes a perenial topic. More when I get back home next week.

ooo, netizen! thanks for bringing this article to the attention of the forum.

i stumbled on it myself tonight, while i was reading the new yorker at the gym, and couldn't put the piece down. i really could relate to his childhood experiences of listening to his parents' recordings of bernstein's "music appreciation" series and all the great classic recordings.

his signature childhood piece was the eroica. mine was brahms' first. and my first switchover to "modern" music was at about the same age; my first "alternative" album was "the specials," a ska band from england. i was listening to pere ubu in new york and going to clubs in the late 70s early 80s where this wacky music was being played. i was nodding maniacally while on the elliptical machine while reading this.

so well written, too. a wonderful example of the personal essay. i had no idea the article was available online.

That was a great article, and Alex Ross turned some very interesting phrases.

Pique, I was also very happy when in 9th grade I was introduced to the L.Bernsteins series of music discussions. I missed some of them, (don't remember the discussion of Eroica) but was very interested in the 5th symphony study. Eroica is one of my favorites too, and I once saw a team of 11 pianists on 6 grand pianos play a transcription of it.

I've included a few of the quotes that I highlighted as I read the piece. Apologies to the band-width managers.

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The music attracts the reticent fraction of the population. It is an art of grand gestures and vast dimensions that plays to mobs of the quiet and the shy. It is a paradise for passive-aggressives, sublimation addicts, and other relics of the Freudian world. Which may explain why it has a hard time expressing itself in the time of Dr. Phil.
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My inability to finish anything, much less anything good, left me with a profound respect for this impossible mode of making a living.
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Composition at its most intense is a rebellion against reality. No one except the very young demands new music, and even when we are young the gates of inattention crash down quickly
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It is a strange American dream, this notion that music can give you a new personality, a new class, even a new race.
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At an early performance of “Parsifal,” listeners hissed an unmusical vulgarian who yelled out “Bravo!” after the Flower Maidens scene. The troublemaker had reason to feel embarrassed; he had written the opera.
The Wagnerians were taking Wagner more seriously than he took himself—an alarming development.
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I start to clap, but the man with the score glares again. One does not applaud in the midst of greatly great great music, even if the composer wants one to! Coughing, squirming, whispering, the crowd visibly suppresses its urge to express pleasure. It's like mass anal retention.
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There are more,
Bob

you missed the line about necrophilia!

It was Necrophilia? I read it as Neoconservative. I suppose there is a technical difference.

I also left out his 5-step process from gestation to indigestion, and didn't mention his mention of Wynton Marsalis.

But people can read it for themselves.

Bob


Bob

Thanks netizen. I enjoyed the article very much.

I also find it rather annoying that many of those "rap" lovers tend to immediately associate "classical music" to only belong to "music geeks", and that everyone who listens to "classical music" is obsessed with mozart.

I, myself, just tell people I listen to "Instrumental Music". Of course, being a teen, this isn't exactly great for moving up in social status except in band class.

i play in several orchestra's as well as playing piano, and a few days ago, when i mentioned about the concerts id played and such, i got told that playing a classical concert isnt a real "gig".

Im only 16, so when i mention i listen to classical (used in the widest sense) music, i instantly get branded a "freak". It doesnt bother me personally, but i fail to see how four chord punk, is musically better than orchestral classics that have survived the centuries

I'd say I'm pretty lucky, because where I attend school (Hunter College High School, in case any of you were curious) the kids who like 'classical' music aren't a minority. In fact, unlike what was stated in the New Yorker article, kids in Hunter like sometimes very contrasting genres of music, like rock and 'classical.'

Is that true in any other high school?

Ha...LOL Interesting thread!!!
Let me share my experience with you... griviences I'm afraid.

Have u ever had the experience with people treating u 'weirdly' just because u play a decent 'classical' instrument?
I hate it when people think of musicians as high and mighty, to be more respected simply because we know music and thus shun away from us. Is it because they really think that we deserve the adoration or that they are being '.......I can't put this to words.....'?
Especially when they percieve us as class conscious( whom they themselves are in the first place ), hi-life beings with no clue about life sufferings, poverty, stress etc.
They do treat us differently, and on several occassions, pushed us away from themselves, knowingly, purposely! I think.
I.e: There was this one particular incident that really piseed me off.
I hate having vivacious cabby drivers talking non-stop all way through the journey...well, anyway. He was complaining to me about how tough life is for him...How unfair God is and the government and this and that. Man! He was one big angry machine! So, as a Christian, I thought it was my duty to enlighten him. I merely suggested to him that God is a fair being. He rains on the roof of the bad, and the roof of the good. That life itself is not eternal, and only whatever investment we had in His Kingdom is eternal. And though the path to righteousness is narrow, but all those who made it through will find riches and not poverty.
Then he snapped at me! 'What is your job?' 'What? A pianist!' "What would you musicians know about life!"
I thought that his statement was really unfair. Are we musicians plain silly or just really 'fortunate' good life beings to you? That we know not about pains and sufferings and are oblivious to things around us?

And I hate it even more when people give u that strange look when u say u teach music. And they go like:" What? Music? U can make ends meet by teaching music? U should have chosen another career... It's silly, How can u survive by doing music...."and blah blah blah ...Well, what do they know anyway?

Then there's the third type, that regards musicians as sages or demi-gods. I find them the most annoying. They speak to u delicately, and try to engage u in 'mediocre' conversations.
Waitress: "What? U want beef stew? Why don't u try this air flown steak. I think you will love it...."
Waitress: "Is the music too noisy?"
Waitress: " Oh, I don't think you like Britney Spears...let me change the song for u..."
Waitress: " Do u know who's Britney Spears?"...(Come on! I merely choosed to study music...I'm not a caveman! U should have seen their 'face of ultimate horror' when I mentioned that Linkin Park is great. )
Waitress: "...Really? U watch TV?..."
Witress: " U know how I wish I was like you... You can play music...that's so clever...Unlike me...I don't even understand music..." ( Come on! Get a life! )
Waitress: Oh no, wait! I know Be-tho-van. He wrote alot of symphonies right? Must be like Hundreds of them! Wow! He's a genius!...( Yeah, right... Hundreds? He only wrote nine. )

Oh Man! Please stop treating us differently. We're not 'caged clowns'...We are perfectly normal human beings. And yes, we eat crap and talk crap and watch crap TV shows just like everyone else.
So who's the freak now? And who's the class conscious?

After reading DW_mod's post, I must say that I never viewed the world that way. But perhaps that's because I haven't experienced enough in life yet, for I am only a freshman in high school. However, from what I HAVE experienced, people at school admire my talent. Being musically talented is just like being artistic or athletic - it's another skill in life. No one would criticize you for majoring in music. I realize that other music such as rap is becoming far more popular, but I still believe that a good fraction still enjoys classical music.

The people who dislike classical music just are incapable of understanding it. I myself am 15, but i attend a performing and visual arts school, so everybody listens to classical music.

In my experience, if you want to make someone like classical music, show them a piece thats easy to understand, but sounds really nice. I personally like the Fantasy Impromptu or the third movement of the moonlight sonata to make people listen to.

My family never listened to classical music, so I didn't even know it existed for years! Now I really like it. I think it should be given more respect.

I think it's kind of like a language, with it's message encoded in sound. Anyone agree?

("rap music"=oxymoron. It's an art, not music)

"When people hear “classical,” they think “dead.” "
interesting article!

It's too bad that people view Classical music as dead because there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. This is typical of the times I guess. Many people today want instant gratification, with little work or with critical thinking. The sad part too is many schools have completely eliminated the art and music programs so no one is exposed to Classical music at an early age. Classical music takes a lot more work to absorb.

We also have to remember too that music, in general, is a reflection of the times when the composers lived. If we look back at Beethoven, and Debussy, for example, we can visualize the time in which they lived. Schubert, like his contemporaries was deep into the Classical style with the very structured and balanced approach to form. If we look at Debussy, you will see the Impressionists, and their paintings as in the works of Monet, Van Gogh and others. Rap is another style of popular music that unfortunately, to me anyway, is an easy way out. It represents the fast pace and instant gratification that many young people want today.

Just my 2-cents,

John

I tried to get a friend of mine to listen to a recording of Grieg's Concerto in A Minor the other day and he refused to listen. When i asked him why not he said because he doesn't like it. This intrigued me so i questioned him further. 'Have you actually *heard* any proper classical music?' To which he replied - 'No, i have never listened to it as i know i will hate it so whats the point'. Well, as you can imagine i got very cross at his ignorance. It really p*sses me off when people say they don't like something they have never even tried!!!

x