commentary

Bungling Bernstein

I recently bought an album of Aaron Copland music conducted by Leonard Bernstein with the New York Philharmonic. It’s the one with the “beef… it’s what’s for dinner” song, which is already making me hungry.

Anyway, when I bought this album, iTunes suggested I might also like Handel’s “Messiah” and Bizet’s “Carmen.” Both of which, to be fair, I do/would. But every other musical genre on the internet has the benefit of an almost painfully specific taxonomy… ”Oh, do you like Sufjan Stevens? Well here’s half a dozen other single-male-singer, acoustic, piano-and-guitar-led artists you might ALSO like.” And classical is all, “We think you’d like this, too… it’s also old.”

Classical music is so under-represented on the internets. Which is odd, because it’s not a popular form of music, and the internet is an amazing place for niche interests to flourish. Yet classical music has not, and I wonder why. Perhaps it’s because many in the classical music community are self-proclaimed, even proud Luddites. Perhaps there’s a thriving classical music community online and I’m just unaware of. But somebody should get on that. Because one day I’m going to listen to something classical and a completely unrelated selection will be suggested that’ll be crappy. And that will make me feel insecure.