Zhanteimi

OP, are you a classical composer or performer? Are you closely related to someone directly involved in classical music?

chopinisawesome

First of all, this thread was not supposed to be my annoyance at people for not appreciating classical music; it was supposed to be about my annoyance at classical advertisers and the way they advertise it.

But let's say someone dissed Lincoln and said that all the work he did for his country was stupid. Would you get annoyed? I don't know you, and I can't read your mind or anything, but if you had an appreciation for what he did, I would guess you would at least a little bit. Why? Because he did a lot of good things and people should appreciate that. Why shouldn't I get annoyed when people call the work of the great composers of the past boring?

Or maybe I see people telling me that my musical taste is dumb as an attack against me. Let's say I like watching dramas on TV. I don't, but let's go with it. Someone comes up to me and says that the movies I watch are dumb. Does that mean they see me as dumb for liking them? It's certainly possible. I have reasons for getting annoyed. When I mention that I like classical to someone, I feel like I was just categorized as the boring nerd.

grindy

Which, again, is a matter of other people having different tastes and interests.

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

chopinisawesome

No, in this case, it's more of a matter of people not trying to listen to it and instead being prejudiced against it. If someone has only listened to Moonlight Sonata and Fur Elise, they can't really say that they don't like classical. If I only listened to Justin Bieber's Baby and Boyfriend, can I really be justified in saying I think pop is stupid? No, of course not. I have to listen to different songs, because I had only just scratched the surface. I can't judge an entire genre based on two songs. It's the same with classical music. If someone has actually looked at all sorts of different periods and varieties of classical music and decided that it's not their thing, I don't have a problem with it. But if they have only listened to Moonlight Sonata and say it's boring, they aren't really justified in saying that.

RoxyRollah

Who says its relaxing? Who advertises classical really? I mean adverts in your local paper for your town symphony orchestra doesn't count.I've heard it makes you smarter.....in utero. But thats litterally the last big media sensation classical has made in my memory anyways.

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grindy

And where and how does this mysterious advertising come into play?

EDIT: Roxy beat me to it.

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

chopinisawesome

On the website for Classical MPR, I saw an advertisement trying to encourage people to support "another year of relaxing music". There are all sorts of albums of classical music that say "Relaxing Classical for Sleeping","Music for Studying", "Calm Piano Sleep Music ", etc. Maybe there aren't even that many advertisements, but the few advertisements that are there do have an effect. If that's what the supporters of classical music advertise it as, wouldn't someone assume that they must be right, and that relaxing is all it is.

Just look up "relaxing classical" on Google, iTunes, Spotify, Youtube, Amazon, etc. There will be all sorts of those albums.

RoxyRollah

Why you a slave to da man homie?

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chopinisawesome

I'm sorry, I really have no idea what you mean.

grindy

Those are people selling a product, not supporters or fans.
They sell this product as a kind of functional music. They do this because a lot of classical music works really, really well that way.
It just does, no matter how it's advertised.

To see beyond this deceptively bland, relaxing facade, people would have to pay close attention to the details of the music. Much closer than with most pop/rock etc., since those usually have a simpler, immediately catchier compositional structure and therefore require less attention to appreciate.
Wait, didn't someone already say all that somewhere in this thread?

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.