Play this while you read yo!
In today's pop culture, genre bending collaborations are commonplace. Borrowing from rappers' penchant to feature their whole extended family on their album and the effects of globalisation, pop culture has been exploiting its unique ability to bring 2 otherwise distinct non-inclusive cultures together.
While it's creating all manner of remixed mash ups and glorious imagery spanning the spectrum from the wonderful to the downright lame, pop culture's long lost cousin classical academia is not only getting left behind but is too caught up in it's own elitist snobbishness to come out and have some fun in the sun.
While Japanese cult fashion label A Bathing Ape gets with Spongebob to do a Shiny Yellow sneaker, who in turn gets together with T-Shirt label OriginalFake, who hooks up with Porter, Porter then with Nike on a Sneaker, Nike with Kanye West, Kanye with Louis Vuitton to do more over priced sneakers, Louis Vuitton with japanese Pop Artist Takashi Murakami to bring multicolour monogrammed bags into their boutiques and Bangkok backstreets, that peddle bootleg Shiny Yellow Sneakers thus completing a cultural orgy of sorts, our classical friends are still caught up in their stuffy tuxedos and 200 year old music.
Not that 200 year old music is bad, but classical music, with its tendency towards inaccessibility and dwindling membership numbers is not doing anything to save itself. It is nice to see a handful of people stepping out of a relatively classical, rigid background to experiment and mostly have fun, but I belief there's so much more interesting blends of music out there just waiting to be discovered. Therefore I was absolutely delighted to watch Paul Dateh work it with a DJ. Although strictly speaking he's got a jazz background, I think he proves that with the right people we could see some classical magic.
Not only can mutual exploration make classical sounds alot more palatable to the mass audience, it will expose more people to classical music and ultimately work as an entry level step into its complex world.
Culture is evolving, and I think it'd be so much more refreshing to see the classical scene push to reinvent itself for a younger audience. The kids can learn the culture, only if you're willing to share.
Yo Mr. Ong! Yes, as the world evolves, it is very difficult to attract youngsters to be involved in classical music. Although it is a pity of the loss of the original classical music in the current world of the youngsters, I admire Paul Dateh who helped to bring the 2 different kinds of genre of music together which had effectively brought the youngsters together.
ReplyDeleteNo matter what, I still support the original classical music without any synthesizer, electric and digital techniques. To me, these computer-generated sounds just ruin the melodious tune of what the original classical instruments are made for.
Hey Cheng!
ReplyDeleteI really love what Paul Dateh did with his musical "mixing". His violin style is just superb. It sounds really good and certainly does appeal to the younger generation. To most people now, classical music is dry, inflexible, boring and is meant for putting people to sleep.
The "snobbish air" that surrounds classical music probably comes from the fact that studying music is very expensive. On the other hand, people still take up music lessons out of curiosity and for greater appreciation of the older musical periods. I would have to disagree with you on the part where classical music is doing nothing to save itself. There are in fact currently, many people pursuing studies and spending loads of cash in music with schools like ABRSM and Trinity.
Classical music, like William Shakespeare's works, is misunderstood in all its richness and brilliance. Yes, culture is evolving, but all in all, I think that real enjoyment of music comes down to the individual. Upbringing, education and interest play a huge role here. As a musician and one who appreciates classical music, I would say that it is not that hard to step out of classical and improvise to make something sound more "appealing" to the masses.
It's just up to others to do it. I rarely see people who are not awed by someone who played a classical piece with all its complexities. These are the times that non-musicians wish that they were musically inclined. Also, some contemporary music styles come from the classical period.
You'd be surprised =)
-audrey =)
hey what is up cheng? ceiling? nah kidding..clascal music lost in this generation/era. oh how i agree that classical music has been lost and never found in this new era. though i do not listen to classcal music as it is not my forte. but i do know modern culture has influenced kids/teenagers these days into listening to these kind of music. Even in fashion.loking at teens these days, their fashion has ben of standard and so does their taste in music. Synthesizer and auto tunes have have destroyed not only classical music but also all kinds of music destraoying te original beat and voice of an artiste. to conclude i strongly agree that i still do support not only classical but original music
ReplyDeleteHi there,
ReplyDeleteWatching the video, I do agree that by mixing classical music with current music trends, it does appeal greatly to the young generation, but at the same time, I feel that during the mixing, the music is destroyed, I could not feel the soothing strains of the music but only the beats and bass.
I know of people who starts falling asleep whenever classical musics are put on and hence the reason why they never ever listen to them. However, classical has it's own magic in its unaltered form. The complexity of the music and story behind each melody brings out different emotions in people and therefore, if the young generation wants to learn how to appreciate classical music, they have to put away all preconceptions of what music is, as Classical is a completely different dimension from other genre of music.
With regards to the "elitist snobbishness", classical music have existed since the 9th century and in the early days, it was considered opulent and hence catered for the higher class society(from wiki). Coupled with the fact that having a musical education now is expensive, therefore many people still thinks classical music are only for the rich till this day.
P.S. Thanks for your comment =)
That mix is brilliant! I am someone who do not really listen to classical music =/But i do really love the collaborations. I believe that although there are still people who truly loves classical music, but the numbers are going down. Tell me, among all the youngsters now, who can still loudly declare I LOVE CLASSICAL MUSIC and ONLY CLASSICAL MUSIC? At the generation we are in, it is probably necessary for Paul Dateh to do such mixes in order to cater to the younger crowd, and which i think he really did successfully! I do not think that the DJ sounds actually spoils the whole classical thing... In my opinion, I think it further enhances what Paul Dateh is playing.
ReplyDeleteYes, people today seldom listen to classical music anymore, especially the younger generation. Not only Paul Dateh is incoporating classical music into his songs, other artists are also doing the same thing and I think the effect is nice! At least it is something different. However, I don't think classical music will be lost. Afterall, those people who truely love music will have to learn about the great musicians from history, where classical music comes about.
ReplyDeleteI would have to kill you because of this post.
ReplyDeleteI would never agree that classical music has this certain air about it, and i dont agree that classical music is doing nothing to save itself..
firstly, it does not need to save itself..
Without classical music, will the movies be as good as they are? Classical music are the main factor to a touching movie... It makes the emotion flow, it brings out another story altogether.
Without classical music everything would be different. In fact without classcal music, modern music would never exist.
Tempo and beats, music notes and chords? All these have a direct relation to classical music.
without it, tell me how would modern music even survive?
so, modern music would have to thank classical music for its existance!
and I am not shy to say THAT I DIG CLASSICAL MUSIC!
Hey Cheng!
ReplyDeleteYou know what? I'm actually a person who do not enjoy loud music(mainly pop and techno). I find it rather painful to the ears. Well, I prefer classical music or slow romantic songs for that matter. Okay, maybe I'm just a little weird.
I don't think classical music has lost it's place in today's society. Maybe it's just that we don't hear classical music out on the streets today. However, in the dance arena, like ballet for example, classical music is always being used. Never do we see pop being used in ballet. Don't you agree with this?
Just my two cents worth!
http://commmediadiscourse.wordpress.com
=)Kai Ting
Hi cheng. collaboration or crossing over between genre of music have being taking place quite frequently recently. Take for example, Michael Buble who initially started out as a jazz singer of sort and slowly he started to incorporate pop into his music which turn out to be a huge success for him as it gave a breath of fresh air to the music industry.
ReplyDeleteWe should not incorporate different genre of music just for the sake of trying to promote it to the masses more. Some genre of music is best kept at it most natural self
I disagree with your post. Still there are many learning to play the piano classically these days. Even guitar classical ensembles seem to be gaining popularity in schools and concert halls.
ReplyDeleteWhile collaboration would help bridge some genres and something magical might happen classical music itself has too many areas to explore, and that itself will draw true vituosos to climb that endless mountain.
While western classical musicians are starting to collaborate outside of their comfort zone, Oriental musicians are doing the same, with the all lady violin groupd from china not so recently making waves around the world.
ReplyDeleteAlso to be noted, other artforms like chinese dance and visual arts like chinese painting have started to evolve and develop a more contemprary stance.
It will be interesting to see where the modern influence take these traditional artforms.
classical music has lost its relevance to the majority of the teens thanks to its lack of cohesion with the rest of popular culture today.
ReplyDeletethe music of kanye, britney and others have MTV to support their publicity stints and album coverage. furthermore, they're pretty much alive as compared to Bach & Mozart. so maybe being present physically does help in publicity? :P
isaac
http://pitstophere.wordpress.com