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The Crisis of Classical Music 4

  Tobias

Really, we shouldn’t even be talking about whether Classical Music is still relevant today – if it weren’t, we’d all be doing something else instead of writing or reading this article, wouldn’t we?. “Relevance” is a hairy subject anyway, since it intellectualises what to most people is a purely emotional experience: If a Stockhausen piece saves one man’s life, can it be irrelevant? If a performance by a baroque ensemble enlightens a whole concert hall, can it be “out of time”? Yet the way many record companies are presenting their music makes one feel as though it all didn’t matter anymore.

What do I mean by this? Well, let me start by proclaiming a paradox: Classical Music is not “out of time”, it is in many ways exactly the music of this time! Consider this: While the 60s, 70s and 80s produced somewhat unified mainstream youth cultures and counter-cultures, things started to splinter in the 90s. Three main scenes established themselves as leading the pack: Techno, HipHop and the “Independent Mouvement” (encompassing guitar-based music ranging from Metal to Rock and Guitar-Pop). It seems to be a common denominator in public debate that these three scenes are best suited to catering to young people’s needs and to speaking their language. As always, it’s a lot of hocus pocus and as always, it has a lot to do with the media. Because, in fact, the biggest stars have nothing to do with the mentioned peer-groups and most records are still sold by those that defy these categories. Mariah Carey, Dido, Robbie Williams, Coldplay – these are the names of the world’s biggest acts and they are as distant from Techno, HipHop or Rock as one could possibly be. And then there’s huge segments that sell records in the bucket loads but are simply not cool enough to be featured in the magazines, Classical Music being one of them. What the media write about and what is happening in the real world are two entirely different things – in 2004, Classical Music was the only genre on the German music market that actually grew in volume! Think about it: In a world many consider shallow and hectic, there is always a real opportunity for a music that offers inner peace and content. And this, dear sceptics, is not idealism, but merely a matter of experience – it’s the same sentiment that once carried Jazz into the spotlight and made “The Köln Concert” a million-seller.

That’s why it is so sad to see that most record companies are either not aware of these encouraging signs or simply unable to react to them. They are holding one of the most modern products in their hands but they are still selling it like it was the 19th century: Old paintings, old pictures of composers, people in old clothes holding their instrument – these are the motives found on the covers and they’re just not cutting the cake. While these images are historically linked to the music, they fail to emotionally connect with the potential customer. And for most people, deciding on which CD to buy is a purely emotional affair. Robbie Williams doesn’t need a microphone in his hands to convince his audience and in the campagin for the current “X & Y”-album, Coldplay band members were comfortably placed on the floor, none of them holding an instrument – how can Classical musicians win this fight, when they are all presented alike?

To be fair, they can’t. Mozart will not be selling enough to enter the charts for at least a few years. But that doesn’t defend the defeatism many record companies in the Classical sector are displaying. While we live in the age of individualism, they are treating us to a standardised package. Surely, that can’t be right.

 "The Crisis of Classical Music" by Tobias Fischer