[Nereffid]

In the past I've made various remarks here about the dangers of elitism, the need for greater diversity, the importance of audience engagement, the perils of being stuck in the past...

... but that Vox article is really, really, stupid.

Classical music continues to become more and more accessible. Anyone with an Internet connection can listen to whatever music they like, whenever they want. Of course there have always been issues about cultural gatekeeping, but the Vox article isn't so much a call for an end to gatekeeping as a sort of mirror-universe version. I'm sure there's a proper term for it, but it's something along the lines of OH MY GOD THAT SMALL GATE WHICH IS KEEPING ME FROM STUFF I'M NOT ESPECIALLY INTERESTED IN AND WHICH I COULD ACTUALLY CHOOSE TO GO AROUND IS SO OPPRESSIVE, WE NEED TO DESTROY THE TINY GATE AND AGGRESSIVELY RESHAPE EVERYTHING THAT'S BEHIND IT UNTIL IT'S UNRECOGNISABLE AND BY SHEER COINCIDENCE MATCHES THE STUFF I LIKE, AND ANYONE WHO DISAGREES IS A FASCIST.

 

[Nereffid]

Google has been throwing this article in my face all day, so I clicked on it. . . I'm sorry I did.

https://slate.com/culture/2020/10/fullname-famous-composers-racism-sexism.html

Seriously, why are there so many of these recently? Who comes up with these stupid articles? People must have too much time on their hands because of covid. This stuff kills brain cells.

Just noticed the author called Beethoven "Ludwig Beethoven" at the end. For real...

This article seems to follow standard operating procedure:
- Notice a fact (some composers are referred to only by a single name, some aren't)
- Fail to spot something obvious (we do this all the time, everywhere, and it's nothing to do with racism or sexism)
- Bring racism into it
- Might as well bring sexism into it too, just to look like we're not just obsessed with race
- Hey presto! It's now problematic
- Come up with an asinine solution