mergers and microtones

In the March 1st edition of the Rocky Mt. News, there was an article
about a merger involving Clear Channel Communications, and SFX
Concerts...it said SFX is the "nation's biggest concert promoter," and
CCC owns "867 radio stations, 19 television stations, and 550,000
billboards..." Yow...it just got me to thinking about the very poor
state of art in America (and probably lots of other places as well).
From my listening experiences, there's not much creative, profound, or
innovative happening on the radio these days...it seems like a few very
powerful folks are deciding what gets played on an awful lot of media
outlets. What is (perversely) fascinating about the situation is this:
why do these people seem to like the worst in music and art? Why, for
instance, couldn't they just as easily like music/art with deep and
valid meaning, art that could easily change the very climate of today's
world? I don't mean to offend anyone here, but in my many years of
playing gigs, I have found that the richest people usually have the
cheapest (maybe narrow is a better word?) taste in music (art in
general?)...I would be happy to be proved wrong, but the upper crust
seems to be a rather shallow place, artistically. Wouldn't it be neat if
Clear Channel Communication decided to promote microtonal music? Why
not? Think it could happen? For that matter, I'd love it if one could
hear music from all over the world on the radio, instead of the thickly
processed and homogenized American cheese we are constantly exposed
to... I'd love to listen to an Indian raga or Turkish maqam or Norwegian
folk song or African village chant while stuck in rush hour...(and I
know I can on tape). Just why ARE things so whacked out in the arts? It
doesn't make any sense to me...Hstick

Ah, another icky merger that will further homogenize America... Neil said it...

> From my listening experiences, there's not much creative,
> profound, or innovative happening on the radio these days...

(Yeah, that's why I gave up on it!) ... and ...

> Just why ARE things so whacked out in the arts?

These are more comments on the state of the country than on art itself.
There's a great interview article with Frank Zappa from the 80s where he says
essentially the same thing -- the really innovative or profound or
intellecctual stuff just DOES NOT SELL. It is partly the fault of several
generations of "academic" composers and partly the fault of those who hold
the means of producing & disseminating "art" -- who only have tastes that are
on par with the public anyway.

In the era of the Internet, I think we have a lot more potential at least
for getting microtonal stuff available -- e.g., being able to put up MP3
files on Tuning Punks, etc. For the avant gardists and others with "no
commercial potential", we should be at the beginning of a golden age...

> it seems like a few very powerful folks are deciding what gets
> played on an awful lot of media outlets.

That has been the case in all of recorded history, so it's not new. What is
new is that producers of art who DON'T have power & money & popular
influence are now more capable than ever of at least PRODUCING their work in
a form that can be made available to the general public more easily than ever
before.

> the richest people usually have the cheapest (maybe narrow is
> a better word?) taste in music (art in general?)

This is a comment that I think is much more valid for the "nouveau riche"
than for the old monied rich. Cheap taste goes with new money; "narrow"
taste goes with money. The phenomenon I think has to do with a gneral
conservatism in all things, including art.

For middle America to discover "microtonal", it will have to be made "cool
and chic" by some charismatic big-star of the stage or screen. That's how
things work -- people (in general) are led to new hip phenomena by people who
are already thought to be hip.

Rick

Neil Haverstick wrote:

> From my listening experiences, there's not much creative, profound, or
> innovative happening on the radio these days...

In the New York area we've got it good. There's a few really
good stations - WNYC (particularly the New Sounds program)
WKCR (Columbia U.), WFMU (freeform radio) - and they're
all web casting. All three of these stations are microtonal
friendly and also have some interesting archives on
their web sites.

Also on the net is my 49/32 Radio. All Microtonal Music. All The Time.
Anybody that has material for broadcast send it on down!

49/32 Archives:

http://www.virtulink.com/immp/jux/j_index.htm#events

As for listening in the car, certainly this can be done with
today's technology. But I find it cheaper to plug in my
$80 CD player in to the dashboard than lay out the cash for
a wireless modem for my laptop. (note: I don't know what
a wireless modem costs but it sounds expensive!)

--
* D a v i d B e a r d s l e y
* xouoxno@virtulink.com
*
* 49/32 R a d i o "all microtonal, all the time"
* M E L A v i r t u a l d r e a m house monitor
*
* http://www.virtulink.com/immp/lookhere.htm

On April 4th, WNYC's New Sounds program will feature AFMM performances of
Ives's "Unanswered Question" in Pythagorean tuning, and my symphony
"Middle-earth," as well as other new works from past AFMM concerts.

It will be simulcast on the web and enter the WNYC radio archives for a
couple of weeks. John Schaefer's New Sounds is in the 11 PM time slot on the
east coast.

Johnny Reinhard
AFMM