{"id":101,"date":"2009-05-03T21:47:47","date_gmt":"2009-05-03T21:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp\/2009\/05\/how_perfection_killed_classica\/"},"modified":"2009-05-03T21:47:47","modified_gmt":"2009-05-03T21:47:47","slug":"how_perfection_killed_classica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/05\/how_perfection_killed_classica.html","title":{"rendered":"Is Perfection Killing Classical Music?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not literally, of course, at least not yet. The ability to edit and fix recordings has long conditioned audiences to expect that the music we hear should be perfect. Has it changed the way performers play in live concert? <\/p>\n

\"recording.jpg\"<\/span>The role of recordings in the music business has changed. Once, recordings were primarily a product, a way to make money. But classical music recordings haven’t made significant profits in
\nyears and most large recording companies have dropped their classical
\nlabels. Increasingly, recordings are a marketing tool. <\/p>\n

In the pop industry, the ability to share and freely distribute recordings has helped develop careers and propel unknown bands to stardom. So if big labels aren’t recording much classical music anymore, perhaps live recordings could help classical musicians? <\/p>\n

Take away the not-insignificant issues of union recording contracts, and among musicians there’s still resistance to the idea of routinely recording and releasing live recordings. Why? Because performers have been conditioned to believe that when they’re being recorded, the performance needs to be perfect. What if you miss that high “a” and you can’t fix it in the mixing booth? Many performers have come to believe that they have to play with a different level of caution if they are being recorded live. They won’t take as many chances in a live recorded performance.<\/p>\n

So a missed marketing opportunity. Okay.<\/p>\n

Even without live recording, perhaps the culture of perfect edited recordings has had a negative impact on concerts. From an audience perspective, listeners used to technically-perfect recordings come to performances with an expectation of every note in place. Performers who understand that the bar is set at technical perfection work with that goal in mind. Perhaps artificially-achieved perfection has become a baseline that has led to a homogenization of musical approach. <\/p>\n

Maybe that’s okay (though a fixation on technical control can erect a wall between performer and audience). <\/p>\n

But something else: most people these days encounter artists primarily through speakers or screens. I wonder if audiences aren’t getting tired of polished perfection because it’s become so corporate and commonplace with widely available cheap professional tools. Perfection is now an aesthetic choice rather than a rarity. <\/p>\n

This is an anecdotal observation, but it seems like the vast majority of hit performances on video and audio share services have a significant live raw quality to them.  The video quality can be rough; the audio can be second-rate. But the performance has to have a visceral element of risk. Performances under glass are less attractive in the way that corporate blogs and corporate video are. Not that we’re celebrating wrong notes; but maybe the essential element of a performance ought to be performance, not perfection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not literally, of course, at least not yet. The ability to edit and fix recordings has long conditioned audiences to expect that the music we hear should be perfect. Has it changed the way performers play in live concert? The role of recordings in the music business has changed. Once, recordings were primarily a product, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ePZm-1D","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2834,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2024\/05\/classical-music-has-lost-a-generation-blame-the-metadata-in-part.html","url_meta":{"origin":101,"position":0},"title":"Classical Music has Lost a Generation. Blame the Metadata (in part)","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"May 13, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Classical music has lost a generation's worth of music lovers beginning in the late-90s with the rise of file-sharing and Napster. A significant part of the reason might be: metadata. Metadata are the tags that travel with every audio recorded track. For a piece of music or a recording to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "arts & tech"","block_context":{"text":"arts & tech","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/arts-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/gasteig-empty-1.jpg?fit=817%2C468&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/gasteig-empty-1.jpg?fit=817%2C468&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/gasteig-empty-1.jpg?fit=817%2C468&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/gasteig-empty-1.jpg?fit=817%2C468&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":165,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2011\/08\/the-classical-music-critic-goes-extinct.html","url_meta":{"origin":101,"position":1},"title":"The Classical Music Critic Goes Extinct","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"August 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Seems important to note the passing of music criticism as a legitimate job in Canada. John Terauds, for six years staff classical music critic of the Toronto Star, was reassigned this week to the paper\u2019s business section. He was the last full-time classical music critic at a Canadian newspaper. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "arts journalism"","block_context":{"text":"arts journalism","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/arts-journalism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/eacae9164a65af69f68bb9fe5451.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":524,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2014\/01\/morbid-curiosity-culture-is-dead.html","url_meta":{"origin":101,"position":2},"title":"Morbid Curiosity – Culture Is Dead (Move Along…)","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"January 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"What a week. First there was the Slate piece that declared classical music dead. Then spiked decided that pop music was over.\u00a0Why is it that people keep wanting to kill off great swaths of our culture? These are only the latest in a long series of articles declaring the end\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "changing culture"","block_context":{"text":"changing culture","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/changing-culture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/ff_webrip_chart2.jpg?fit=660%2C405&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/ff_webrip_chart2.jpg?fit=660%2C405&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/ff_webrip_chart2.jpg?fit=660%2C405&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":134,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2010\/05\/the_lang_lang_experience_live.html","url_meta":{"origin":101,"position":3},"title":"The Lang Lang Experience, Live And In 3D","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"May 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Is the future of live classical music recitals to turn them into a multimedia experience that is somehow more \"familiar\" to a generation raised on video screens. Here's a report from Lang Lang's concert in London over the weekend:He is not the first classical pianist to give a solo Albert\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "arts & tech"","block_context":{"text":"arts & tech","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/arts-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":176,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2011\/12\/sharing-the-new-default.html","url_meta":{"origin":101,"position":4},"title":"Sharing, The New Default","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"December 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Build something in the physical world and the minute it's used it starts to decay - scuffs, dents, chips. Drive a car off the new car lot and it immediately loses ten percent of its value. Use something a lot and eventually it wears out. Art is different. A work\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "culture business models"","block_context":{"text":"culture business models","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/culture-business-models"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/share-this-icon-konstruktors-not-rounded-300x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1123,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2016\/09\/why-music-and-the-concert-experience-are-on-the-front-lines-of-virtual-reality.html","url_meta":{"origin":101,"position":5},"title":"Why Music And The Concert Experience Are On The Front Lines Of Virtual Reality","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"September 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Following on my post from yesterday about anticipating the kinds of experiences people will want from concerts comes\u00a0this article from Wired about virtual reality and music. Evidently creating content for virtual reality is proving to be a challenge and music is so far the best showcase for VR. Outside of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "arts & tech"","block_context":{"text":"arts & tech","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/arts-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Coachella_2014_Week_2_Day_2_-_Sahara_Tent.jpg?fit=800%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Coachella_2014_Week_2_Day_2_-_Sahara_Tent.jpg?fit=800%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Coachella_2014_Week_2_Day_2_-_Sahara_Tent.jpg?fit=800%2C360&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Coachella_2014_Week_2_Day_2_-_Sahara_Tent.jpg?fit=800%2C360&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}