Sound Directions

Did you watch Super Bowl XLIV this past Sunday? Did you see this Jay-Z/Rhianna/Rutgers Symphony Orchestra collab?

Like me, you might have thought, “Yeah, whatever, Jay-Z in front of an orchestra. What’s the big deal? I’m not gonna go get all musically significant over this.” And seriously, I wasn’t gonna go and get all significant over it until Molly did and I read this article from MyCentralJersey.com about the Rutgers Symphony/Jay-Z partnership. Here’s the money quote, via the bubble inhabited by Maestro Kynan Johns, the orchestra’s conductor:

“Johns said he knew little about Jay-Z prior to the performance and went to Wikipedia to get an idea of the rapper’s accomplishments.”

So, um, yeah, wait a second… [scratches head.] You’re telling me that in the year 2k10 a musician—and a youngish-looking one, at that—can be more or less completely unaware of who Jay-Z is? I’m not saying that everyone should know that Jigga went from bricks to Billboards and from grams to Grammy’s, but he’s become such a modern cultural icon that you’d kind of have to have been living under a rock, had your head in the sand, or holed up in a practice room for 12 hours a day, to not have noticed Jay-Z’s contributions to contemporary society (not to mention MUSIC).

All throughout the land, people are bemoaning the death of classical music, the death of opera, etc. WE R ALL GOING 2 DIE! However, if indeed the future is so grim, maybe it’s because classical music has too many ostrich musicians. Please don’t misinterpret me here. I’m not saying that hip-hop needs to be included on the listening list for the 20th century unit in history of Western music courses. (But why not?) Nor am I saying that orchestras need to engage big time rappers-cum-orchestral soloists to sell tickets. (Though wouldn’t that be something?) But in the current age in which we find ourselves living, where things are becoming more—not less—connected, I’m saying that interfacing with all aspects of cultural relevance should be part of any musician’s diet. And since pop music is music, let’s just say that that’s a pretty logical place to start.

Sure, you could argue that pop music is centered on marketing, that the level of talent and brilliant musicianship among most pop stars pales in comparison to that of top-notch classical musicians. It’s not all about marketing though. The product still has to be decent. (Well, that’s also up for debate. I listen to enough pop radio to know that some pretty bad music gets ordained as “good.” And for the record, I am not talking about Lady Gaga, who happens to be brilliant.) It’s certainly easier to sell a good product, but it’s not impossible to sell a bad product (see previous parenthetical aside). Really, though, we should focus on the product. Right, Stringer?

Hey, maybe that’s it. Maybe people should stop whining and being all “nobody cares about classical/new music” and start focusing on putting out some better products? Is that the problem?

**

N.B. Though Jay-Z with orchestra was cool, my “Best Use of Orchestra in Pop Music Tune” award goes to Peter Fox’s “Alles Neu” (The Beatles “The End” notwithstanding):