There’s been a lot of discussion about Peter Maxwell Davies’ article about the state of classical music education in Britain. He appears, at least on the surface, to snobbily dismiss most forms of popular music.
Since the possibility of making megabucks out of young people by feeding them the lowest common denominator of “music” has been realised, “music” became an industry, not a profession, where, for the least possible work put in, the maximum profit is extracted for the fat cats, with “music” becoming ever more zombie-like, and the bands ruthlessly exploited.
I do think he raises some valid points, even if he lets his snobbery get the better of him at times. But he does appear to be ignorant of any forms of rock music outside the ‘mainstream’ of Radio 1 and the NME.
One of the most insightful responses comes from commenter RobertPaul
This high/low debate also leads many to consider the electric guitar not a real instrument for expression whereas the same notes played on a violin or cello are magically alchemised into gold.
Anyone that thinks that cannot have witnessed the incredibly beautiful improvisation on “Amazing Grace” from John Petrucci of Dream Theater at Shepherd’s Bush empire in 1999.
He then goes on to highlight exacly what’s wrong with the rock and pop scene in Britain.
Unfortunately the culture of rock/pop criticism leaves no space for the understanding of compositional technique, and therefore the public remains unalerted to their presence. The critics remain far more comfortable discussing lyrics and image in rock and pop oblivious to any serious musical content. This remains invisible.
That for me hits the nail on the head. Yes, popular music has been commodified by the big record companies. But the other big villain is the music press, dominated by the dreaded New Musical Express, which emphasises image and lyrics to such an extent that the acts which get attention are those that put all their efforts into those things at the expense of musical content. So we get lavish praise for poseurs like Franz Ferdinand, whose rudimentary and derivative music will probably be forgotten in five years time, while anything with any more musical depth is marginalised. Witness some of the idiot boiler-plate sneers in the comment threads of this Prog Rock post.
