Re: [ARSCLIST] Recording rates for musicians.

[Karl Miller <lyaa071@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 4 Oct 2006, Steven Barr wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "phillip holmes" <insuranceman@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > Agreed, and most musicians (speaking of classically trained
> > instrumentalists and vocalists) have already made adjustments.  Most are
> > teachers first, professional musicians second.  This is the way it was
> > for most of recorded history anyway.  Bach didn't make a living playing
> > organ and harpsichord, and he didn't get paid union scale.  Musicians
> > had a pretty cushy deal going while there were wealthy benefactors who
> > cared, but the world's tastes have changed for the worse (IMO--not a
> > humble opinion either).  Also, I don't think that recording contracts
> > kept these orchestras going.  Most didn't have contracts.  It was local
> > community involvement, the chamber of commerce types, wealthy people
> > with time on their hand, etc.....
> >
> Interestingly, this approach seems to depend on one important social
> opinion...that, somehow, "classical" music is innately superior (at
> least in the sense of the "elite" preferring it) to other forms of
> music. This means that a community, in order to be a "respectable"
> community (in the sense of upper-class = respectability) must have
> classical musicians, classical performances, and if at all possible
> a classical ("symphony") orchestra!

This exchange is beginning to remind me of a long discussion we had on the
moderated classical list!

Yes, much of classical music has been, at different times in history, been
a part of the upper classes and has often been marketed as such...much to
its own detriment...at least from my perspective.

> It is also interesting to note an opposite development! In this
> day and age, particularly in the USA, country & western music has
> been adopted as what might be called "the official 'working class'
> musical genre!"

Yet, one might also point out that some of the most successful C & W
musicians are multimillionaires.

Karl