Day 21: The uncreative creative industry [Part 2 of 4]

The greatest periods of classical music and the performing arts have always been when there was a reaction to a movement which resulted in a wave of creativity. Whether the movement was political, cultural, ecological, technological or any other “cal”, artists and musicians distilled their response and transported it through their art. Who can we point to today that is doing this?

Although there is definitely creativity and innovation happening in the classical music industry from various organizations, groups and individuals, on the whole we have turned to preservation.

But isn’t it important to preserve some of this incredible music?

Yes, definitely, we need to have our canon of music continuously preserved for it is the inspiration for the future – and that, is what we have forgotten. We are so religiously devoted to our past and the greats who inhabited it, that we forgot to build a future. We forgot that music must be an art which reacts and reflects the ideas and culture of our time. This is true for not only the music being written, but also and (more importantly) the presentation of this music.

Our world is more visual than it has ever been. Whether you are a city dweller and are bombarded by the gorgeous model on the poster in the subway or the country folk watching your friends version of the latest YouTube meme, we are visually immersed. Multimedia in the form of photography and video is growing at unbelievable rates and the distribution of this media is faster everyday.

If there is a rise in our visual development as a society, should music reflect that?

Looking to our distant cousins in the commercial industry, they flood their market with as much video, photography and multimedia as possible. In fact, the artist’s ‘image’ is their primary concern in their development. Apart from the making of the record, everything else that goes into it’s creation, marketing, and distribution relies on the visuals and images which are associated with it. Visual is the dominant form of media today.

JT