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The classism/elitism problem is much more an image problem foisted/reinforced by pop culture than it is a real, inherent issue. When all you hear of classical m
by dcsommer 3y ago
The classism/elitism problem is much more an image problem foisted/reinforced by pop culture than it is a real, inherent issue. When all you hear of classical music is on TV shows where it represents "the rich, elitist villain" or on ads for luxury goods, people reverse the association arrow.
How many people who perceive classical music as elitist actually have a personal experience of someone on the "inside" acting elitist and shunning them as "outsiders"?
- zozbot234 3y agoHistorically, literate music has always been confined to elite settings. The common people played folk tunes transmitted orally, and later "popular" songs and dances when mass publishing of sheet music became a possibility. (There's actually no reason nowadays why this published "popular" music shouldn't become a part of the literate canon that's researched academically etc. But that only adds to a very long list of individual composers and entire musical traditions that end up being broadly neglected by standard academic POV's. It's also a general problem wrt. the study of human art and culture.)
- dcsommer 3y agohttps://www.quora.com/What-is-the-history-of-poor-peoples-access-to-classical-music https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-history-of-poor-peoples-ac... Sacred classical music was accessible to poor people in big cities. Secular classical music was less accessible though.
- grotted 3y agoAs someone who has spent a lot of time in the NYC classical/art music scene: I have many, many of those personal experiences.
- dcsommer 3y agoI don't doubt it. However my point is that the scene is so small that direct interactions with the community hardly moves the needle when it comes to the broader cultural perception.