Scott Glasgow’s Facebook posting of a GUARDIAN article with the headline “The Future of New Music Is At Risk If We Continue To Undervalue Composers” garnered 59 shares, 79 comments, and 220 emojis. It’s hard to know how many read the article, but people had strong reactions to the idea that composers, as a professional class, are in trouble.
Comments broke down along the following lines:
1. This is true, and it sucks
2. This is false, and my success is the proof
3. Even if this is true, we don’t wanna hear it
4. Quit bitching and start hustling, you ninnies
The most common sentiment seemed to be, “Hey, nobody said it was easy,” and that’s hard to debate. Musical history is far more a tale of woe than bliss. What has changed is the valuation of music itself, and that seems to be the real point of the Guardian piece. The important question is why.
While a depressing number of people were happy to troll the post with expressions like “playing the victim,” “negativity,” “failure mindset,” and my favorite, “You pout, you’re out,” none of them were willing to engage the central question raised by this and many other articles: what can we do as a professional class to make music of all kinds (but especially, music with some aspiration to artistry) more valuable to the average person? What can we do to make music more “precious,” and thereby more worth paying a good price for? How can we create a tide that raises many ships?
Anyone interested in having THIS discussion, as opposed to a Facebook flame war, is welcome to comment here, PM me, or leave a note on either my scoringthescreen website or Facebook page. There are ways to acknowledge the gravity of a situation and still be positive about its solution.
