Can you get everyone to like classical music?

[Wombat]

Just enjoy what you like and don't get sensitive or preachy. Simple, huh.

 

[Dimitri]

I think it is more the recording tech with much less options than today. I have tons of older albums incl. The Who, Pretenders, Stones, U2, Wishbone Ash, but today they sound all like boring to me, despite the fact all were/are great artists. Will definitely try the new The Who.

In real life and later the same practice copied blatantly by the movie industry* , music although sometimes is enjoyed by itself for its own sake, it also accompanies life events. Whether it's singing in the caves , or the fields, or playing spoons by the fire , a celebration or just driving a new car along PCH with a new girlfriend , (or both).

Our lives start aquiring a soundtrack*.

But it doesn't happen to everyone.
Then music is viewed, felt and listened to like another commodity that serves a temporary purpose like shoelaces, toilet paper ,popcorn , the newspaper used to line the bottom of the bird cage, or car tires.

Then" newtitis" settles in. Old is old , done, used up, obsolete, gone. Need/must have new to replenish. Works great for the items mentioned above. No one ever got attached to a set of tires because these are the tires they used to drive to their first job on the first day.

I don't know if there is cure or if it's reversible. And if all of the above is some sort of delusion, it seems to work for me.

You don't appreciate the "Girl from Ipanema" (elevator music version") Unless you've been in said elevator with a 6 ft blonde, with heels taller longer than her skirt was long.

So yeah...music! It's not just what you think it is

 

[Sal1950]

Have you heard the video of the great Kanye West "singing" "Bohemian Rhapsody"? His voice is out of tune and a pitifully poor range but with lots of electronic studio aids he has got popular, rich and famous with the music he produces.

My goodness Frank, now you stooping into the gutter quoting anything that Kanye West has to say. LOL

When I moved in 2010 to a different country I destroyed around 500 vinyls, some retained my wife (incl. an old Thorens!), around 500 went into the trashcan. Shame on me!!!

All that money down the drain, enough to make you cry isn't it.
Today I think about if I had held on to my vinyl collection 5 more years or so I could have tripled the amount I got for it when I sold it all.

 

[Frank Dernie]

My goodness Frank, now you stooping into the gutter quoting anything that Kanye West has to say. LOL

Ha-ha, he didn't say anything just somebody videoed him singing (or not being able to sing, to be precise) Bohemian Rhapsody live. It was pathetic.
It did spawn one of my favourite ever jokes:-

If somebody sends you a link for Kanye West singing "Bohemian Rhapsody" - DON'T OPEN IT!
It IS Kanye West singing Bohemian Rhapsody.

My favourite singer of all time is Kathleen Ferrier. I don't like all the songs she sang but a unique voice and she comes from the same region as me

 

[Sal1950]

My favourite singer of all time is Kathleen Ferrier.

My fav will forever be Linda Ronstadt, what a shame illness stole her voice.
I also have her to thank for my first introduction to The Eagles. Sometime around 1972 I went to see her in concert at Sportsmans Park race track in Chicago. She had this opening band that played for about 45 minutes that blew me away and later turned out to be her backing band that day, She introduced them as The Eagles and I've been thanking her ever since.

 

[Robin L]

I find your opinion of me more confused than enlightened.

You don't want to like more music or food, be at it. I am just sharing my life story and how I am better for it at the end.

When I was in your fine state I ate alligator meat. Was I supposed to throw up at the thought of it?

The world has a lot to offer us. I am happy that I have access to a lot more of it than I used to. That should not be a cause of pain for you.

 

[Robin L]

I think some music is more complex than others.

And I think some pigs are more equal than others.
I'll listen to anything once. After that, the music has to convince me that it's worth the effort. If I'm really offended by it, I know I'm on to something.

Edit: Something to offend everyone, harsh punk with more than a little Sprechstimme/Rap in the mix:

 

[Robin L]

My favourite singer of all time is Kathleen Ferrier. I don't like all the songs she sang but a unique voice and she comes from the same region as me

I don't know if she is my all time favorite, her instrument was beautiful but limited. Still, she has a powerful emotional affect and effect.

 

[JJB70]

I love another Kathleen, Kathleen Battle. I know she had....ahem....issues but she had a wonderful voice and a formidable gift for interpreting the roles and songs she sung. Her premature retirement from opera was a great loss to music.

 

[Sal1950]

My second wife was named Kathleen, but she couldn't sing at all.

 

[Robin L]

My second wife was named Kathleen, but she couldn't sing at all.

My second wife is named Shira [שירה - means song]. She can sing!

 

[TLEDDY]

Centeral FL where? I have a double wide winter escape place in Leesburg, I think at times it is nearer to Hades than here in Boston.

Winter Park... Summer in Central Florida is not pleasant.

 

[gene_stl]

Try this. If you don't like this you will never like classical music:

The song of the Nightingale.

 

[Tim Link]

I have a large classical (streaming) collection, but it features no Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, Brahms, Liszt, etc.

Reading down the list it has: Vaughan Williams, Purcell, Bax, Faure, Prokofiev, Britten, Gabrieli, Shostakovich, Saints-Saens, Debussy, Mahler...

This I love:

This just leaves me cold (it can be any Mozart - I just typed in a random number):

I could probably tell you what it is I like about the Vaughan Williams. The Mozart just seems to be "going through the motions"; 'showing off'. I feel *nothing* when listening to it, except "When is this going to stop?".

And now for a very belated response. I had to listen to that Mozart to see how bad it was. I too experience a zero inspiration response to some music. This piece, for whatever reason, is working for me. It comes across as a joyous mood lifter, and I can easily listen to it while I concentrate on other tasks. I went for years being uninspired by Mozart. A friend of mine was frequently commenting on his delight with Mozart so I decided to pay it a bit more attention. I still don't listen to much of Mozart but now when I do I genuinely enjoy it. I think I've learned what to expect from it so now I know how to "use" it. I don't try to make it do something for me it's not meant to do. It's much lighter in spirit compared to the Vaughan Williams piece (which I also love), but no less inspirational.

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

I got exposed to classical music when I was a toddler. My mom alternated between the local classical station and pop music stations. She said I sometimes cried when pieces in a minor mode were on. In the high school chorus I got hooked. We sang choruses from "Messiah" and pieces by Bach and Mozart. My favorite music is probably pre-WWII blues although I have a lot of classical on my NAS. I'm old school about music. I prefer classical from before 1825. Bach is my favorite. I listen to jazz, blues, classical, occasional show tunes, pre-WWII pop and country. I stopped listening to mainstream pop music a little after 1970. I don't expect other people to like what I like. I know I'm an outlier on the music listener distribution. I don't feel superior. I like what I like and don't expect others to agree with me. I drive my granddaughters around and let them pick the radio station. The pop music they like is, like pop music has always been, mostly bad. I know that the '50s and '60s stuff I liked when I was a kid wasn't quite as good as I thought it was then. l told my granddaughters about Sturgeon's Law, "90% of everything is crap," when we were talking about the music on the radio. They liked Sturgeon's Law.

 

[Tim Link]

One of the biggest mistakes people make in regards to classical music is feeling that they must accept all classical music. It's as if someone told them, "If you like Beethoven, you must also like Haydn and Mahler. And if you like Mozart's symphonies, you must like his chamber music."

That's horse crap! We pick and choose which jazz we like, don't we? We adulate some rock songs and hate others, don't we? It's the same with classical. Some we like and some we don't.

On one hand, don't let other people tell you what to like. On the other hand, don't dislike certain music just because you know someone who listens to it and they are an idiot.

Be secure in yourself. Walk your own path.

Jim

Yup. But I'd also say it may be possible to acquire a taste. It's not necessary to do so, but I find it rewarding when I am able. If music has stood the test of time and continues to be played and recorded, that makes me interested to try to find out what the fuss is all about. If someone I know and hang out with is taking interest in it, that will add to my motive to give it a try. Right now I'm trying to understand U2. My friend is re-discovering one of the bands he and his girlfriend loved the most back in the previous century. I never heard anything of interest in it back then, and continue to struggle to understand it now. I don't hate it, but it just seems totally unremarkable to me. I'm not trying to make myself like it, but would like to have a better understanding of why so many people do.

 

[jp4573]

A nice way to start...

 

[Robin L]

And now for a very belated response. I had to listen to that Mozart to see how bad it was. I too experience a zero inspiration response to some music. This piece, for whatever reason, is working for me. It comes across as a joyous mood lifter, and I can easily listen to it while I concentrate on other tasks. I went for years being uninspired by Mozart. A friend of mine was frequently commenting on his delight with Mozart so I decided to pay it a bit more attention. I still don't listen to much of Mozart but now when I do I genuinely enjoy it. I think I've learned what to expect from it so now I know how to "use" it. I don't try to make it do something for me it's not meant to do. It's much lighter in spirit compared to the Vaughan Williams piece (which I also love), but no less inspirational.

For whatever reason, when Ingmar Bergman's Swedish language version of The Magic Flute (Trollflöjten) came out in a theater, I had to watch it over and over. I still have the Criterion DVD of the film, bought at least a decade ago. The cinematography of Sven Nvykvist is just gorgeous, with the production staged as in a Baroque theater. This excerpt demonstrates the wit of Mozart (and of Bergman) and explains in a nutshell why I love Mozart's music: