> besides, maybe the are listening to the "good stuff" - - maybe we all need to
> get over ourselves. or maybe there have always been people who listen to music
> as "entertainment" and those who listen to it as "art."
Should we really draw a sharp line between music for entertainment or art?
What about music for ritual, music for self expression, for conveying
messages or just for plain fun? Can't music be all these and more without
class distinction? This list seems to me a good example of a bunch of
assorted people who share a common interest but are at the same time open
minded and non-sectarian, wouldn't everything be simpler if this attitude
was "normal"?!
** i think that some of your points fall within my points - - or could agruably do so:
self-expression/messages (depending on the message) = art
plain fun/messages (depending on the message) = entertainment
ritual, i think you have a stronger point here. however, in western society, art music grew out of ritual music to a large degree; i'm thinking masses, etc. for the church.
i think that, for the purposes of this discussion, my terms work pretty well. also, may i point to the phrase about us getting over ourselves?
stig
** the following you will have to take up with mr torn:
> others wrote:
>> I have faith that people can make their own choices.
> interesting comment, given that there're already **all** kindsa myriad
> avenues lined/caked/soaked w/'good' music (-that which is outside the
> 'mainstream'-) that folks do not seem inclined to 'seek out'.
Again, most people only want what they have been told they should want. The
whole system, particularly in the industrial west, would collapse if people
were able to make individual choices and seek what suit them best. Weather
we like it or not this is a reality and we have to find our way to live
within it and make what we can with it - or drop out completely.
> eh?
> to some degree:
> people chose milosevic. people chose hitler. people chose jim jones. people
> chose, well..... you probably follow my line (via these rather extreme
> examples) by now.
Without the extremes, most people choose to forgo their aspirations and lead
a life of duty and dissatisfaction. It takes courage to be an individual.
I am reading a fascinating book by the philosopher Elias Canetti "Crowds and
Power" on the psychology of mass behaviour. It is frightening and
illuminating at the same time to see how, all along human history, people
have repeatedly chosen the various Milosevics and Hitlers and what lies
behind these choices.