Two news items found on Andante.com seem to cancel each other out.
Apperently, Billy Joel has been sprinkling cash among music schools on the East Coast. He’s giving Syracuse University $320,000 to fund four “Billy Joel Scholarships” for composition students. Thanks, Billy! I always thought you were a mensch.
But then we have this UPI-generated headline: Sony BMG to ‘Manufacture’ a ‘Classical Crossover Band’. Really, now. Must we? This article doesn’t say much about what a “Classical Crossover Band” would do, but it would consist of 10-14-year-olds. I don’t get it. It strikes me there are plenty of 10-14-year-old classical non-crossover musicians that could be recruited. Putting aside my objections to “crossover” for the moment, I would like to remind Sony BMG that manufactured bands in the pop world are awful, and this too will be awful.
I would like to see more of the Billy Joel type of crossover activity, and less of the artificial nonsense I can only assume is in store for us now from Sony BMG.
Categories:4 Responses to “Good News and Bad News”
How about a mashup instead?
I’m thinking Beyonce and Bach?
Wow. I just looked at that site, and can honestly say I have no idea what’s going on there. Am I that old?
What’s a mashup?
I can’t be the only one who looks forward to the day when mega-music corporations go the way of the dodo.
Thanks, Hucbald. Didn’t realize you’d posted until now, a day later. I agree with you, although I see no sign of that happening in the foreseeable future.
