New Conservative London Mayor: High Culture for the Young instead of HipHop
Sometimes you stumble over articles where you need to rub your eyes slap your hand against your head take a couple of deep deep breath and try to wave the little birdie coming out of your screen goodbye. Today was such a day again. The newly appointed London mayor - the first conservative London mayor since generations - has said that media companies should stop "underestimating" young people and stop "target" them with "cheap" hiphop and instead educate them to "higher" art like classical music and operas.
No I am absolutely not kidding. He wants to spent money so parents can send their kids to learn classical instruments.
Now - nothing against funding of letting people learn classical instruments - but who the fuck does he think to suggest hiphop or any other youth culture is "cheap art" and why does he think he can define what "high culture" is?
In a report outlining his strategy, his chief of arts and culture strategy, Munira Mirza, argues that too much emphasis has been placed on making events "user-friendly".
ugh? make parties user unfriendly so nobody goes to them anymore? See classical concert halls are empty for a fucking reason and that is that young people are BORED TO DEATH hearing songs that have been written 200 years ago and have not evolved since then. It might be an artform where rich kids are pressed into and then can behave as if they are something special - but the innovation in musical art comes from the street the dark warehouses the garages all over the world not some on multimillion dollar live support hanging concert houses that are playing Beethoven the 9th for the 2 millions' time. You rich conservative mummies you need to get out more - especially when you are the mayor of a city that used to be trendsetting when it comes to music.
Give Young People High Culture Not HipHop - Johnson. The Guardian
Comments
Don't be a moron. Boris and Munira Mirza are bang on the money here.
Classical music is a cultural treasure trove of unbelievable riches. People like you who slag it off are closing yourselves off to some very special experiences.
Listen to this and then tell me you are not moved:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=swkT07TP-mo
Posted by: Skream | 24.11.08 9:45
No I am not moved - I am bored to death - but tastes vary. Then again I was not ridiculing classical music per se (it probably has a niche place in the future - a good friend of mine got really into it after going to end of world techno parties her whole life so I can see that people do like it if they are not forced into it) - but praising one art - one that you might like - by belittling another is something I deeply detest - especially since this coming from people who have proven time and time again that they are incapable of supporting anything that they deem not to be art - and they want to be the judges. And the proposals coming out if you dig deeper are clearly aiming at taking resources away from advanced form of music and dumping multiple times as much into dead music.
I do see concern here.
Also you have not really answered the question why are youngsters going to warehouse clubs getting full on futuristic sounds that about any classic composer of the past century would have probably not even recognized as music instead of concert halls if they are given the choice? Why do need concert houses be on live support when there is a thriving club scene that actually came out of nothing - especially not the mass media (that the mass media is exploiting it now is not the reason they got big in the first place) and they are fine and well doing their own thing without getting multimillion grands (now imagine they actually would get those grands - how they could further culture instead of always looking back to the "grand old times where the riches ruled").
Posted by: fALk
|
24.11.08 11:04