tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post5321542431266342511..comments2024-01-20T23:55:26.269-08:00Comments on The Detritus Review: Exciting Economic ReportUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-22952907856818520452008-02-28T08:21:00.000-08:002008-02-28T08:21:00.000-08:00@SA:I just watched the first season of "Black Adde...@SA:<BR/><BR/>I just watched the first season of "Black Adder." Ergo, Morris dancing.Aaronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16371363571092946834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-3235134222312451482008-02-27T15:05:00.000-08:002008-02-27T15:05:00.000-08:00Fuck. That. Guy.I'm so tired of the "free market...Fuck. That. Guy.<BR/><BR/>I'm so tired of the "free market will fix everything from cancer to traffic" argument. Mostly because it is bullshit, and to a lesser extent, most of the people espousing that kind of theory annoy the fuck out of me. But, mostly because it is bullshit.<BR/><BR/>The line about "audience indifference" and suggesting that composers should try to play the market game is just lame. Art can exist inside of a market structure, but that isn't the only workable model for artistic production.<BR/><BR/>And really, Gershwin is a weird one. Is he taking out revenue from non-classical streams? If not, why isn't he including other great Tin Pan Alley composers, many of whom also made some scratch?<BR/> <BR/>Where the fuck is Brezhnev when you need him?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-16918579978420354622008-02-27T14:39:00.000-08:002008-02-27T14:39:00.000-08:00Good analysis, aaron. I was confused about the po...Good analysis, aaron. I was confused about the point of the article, too. Composers...should make...money?<BR/><BR/>Also: Morris dancing? WTF?Sator Arepohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00006808744513156317noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-13705080508411256442008-02-27T12:39:00.000-08:002008-02-27T12:39:00.000-08:00Actually, looking over the list again, almost all ...Actually, looking over the list again, almost all of those guys are 19th-century composers. That's suggestive of there being some kind of structural thing about being a 19th-century European composer that was/is conducive to making a lot of money.<BR/><BR/>I'd speculate that the existence of a well-established "art music" infrastructure, limited competition from other forms of entertainment (at least from an early-21st-century perspective), the fact that Western Europe was largely peaceful and relatively prosperous in the second half of the 19th century, and the fact that these guys were all quite popular at the time when people's expectations of what Western art music should sound like (this is your point about "the canon," I guess) all played a part in making that era unusually rewarding materially for some prominent composers.<BR/><BR/>If that's true, it's not at all clear that a modern composer, without most of those structural advantages, would be well-situated to look to the marketplace for a steady income.Aaronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16371363571092946834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-62455934957858495892008-02-27T12:30:00.000-08:002008-02-27T12:30:00.000-08:00OK, so the last time I heard someone refer to clas...OK, so the last time I heard someone refer to classical music as "longhair" (or, indeed, "long-hair") music was in 1982, when my grandfather gave me a cassette of (I kid you not) "Earl Hines Plays Fats Waller" - commenting that he was giving me "something fun to go with that long-hair music." So "wastrel" isn't the only thing that seems archaic to me here. Not to mention that referring to Wagner as a "19th-century rock star" is ... weird. Very weird.<BR/><BR/>His thesis, as you point out, seems to be "If a composer tried to make a lot of money, they probably could, because some famous composers got rich." Which seems kind of obvious - that's, like, an archetypal struggle for artists: how do you make a living making art? Some find a way; most do not. It's not just composers who have a hard time - pick a kind of artistic expression (painting, sculpture, Morris dancing...) and you will almost certainly find a lot of poor people who scrape by doing other things and a handful of rich people who were smart/lucky/good enough to make a living off their work.<BR/><BR/>It would also be mildly interesting to know how big a gap there is between the Top Ten Richest Composers and the rest of, like, the Top 100 Richest Composers. Also when they lived: is the fact that Gershwin and Rachmaninoff are the most recent guys on the top of the list indicative of anything at all? Is it, in fact, harder to make a lot of money composing today (in what I think we'd have to concede is a more "profit-centered environment" than Germany in 1750 or Italy in 1680 or whatever) than it was earlier? We don't know, but if it were true that would pretty much undercut his conclusion that composers would be better off materially by eschewing (archaic!) the academy for the marketplace.<BR/><BR/>Might be interesting to find out.Aaronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16371363571092946834noreply@blogger.com