In so many cases, what we consider high art, or high culture today was the rap and American Idol of its time. Puccini was the common man’s composer, but now he’s irrelevant. I love him, but what has Puccini to say, in 21st century America, that no one else can say? What do we think an exposure to opera or other “classical” music (terrible misnomer, but easier than being more specific) is really an exposure to? I’ve heard people call the opera stories “universal.” But not only is that impossible, if they are truly universal, then what new insight can they bring?
If we listen to classical music, we’re simply hearing the music that was in fashion at some other time. Yes, we can claim that we are expanding our horizons, but very little about musicality has been abandoned. Music simply changes, evolves (if you want to use that loaded term). If we lived in a music-less society, we could reasonably be afraid that our children were going to grow up a bit stunted in their imaginations, and in that outlet for creativity. But we live in a world awash in music. We have dozens, hundreds of sources. We can’t avoid music even if we would like to (and I’d like to avoid all the noise, noise, noise, noise at times).
We can’t avoid having a culture. Somewhere in this thread someone feared not having a culture because of not supporting “the arts.” But the arts are all around us. There are few restrictions on how we can experience them, on how anyone can experience them, if they choose. Going to the opera? Surely that isn’t all there is to experiencing opera! There’s opera on the radio, and opera cds, and opera videos, and opera filesharing. I can collect versions of “La Traviata” (because Puccini was a hack, but Verdi was a god!). I can listen whenever I choose, no waiting on anyone else’s whim–governmental or otherwise. I can listen in my pajamas. I can listen ten times in a row. I can absorb, internalize, the music to a degree that few other cultures in history could have afforded to do.
And when I get tired of the angst, I can do the same thing with Barenaked Ladies.
Culture isn’t something that’s separate. It isn’t something we could actually not have. Art seems to be as close to a universal thing as there is–if we didn’t have it premade for us, we’d have to create it from scratch, because that’s just how we are.
Exposure to foreign (not in the sense of from another country, but in the sense of being distinct from one’s personal culture) arts serves to give a wider perspective of art. But when it comes right down to it, any exposure to art opens the door to creativity. In my involvement with poetry, one of the mantras when dealing with newcomers to poetry is “read more poetry.” But my mantra was always “just read something. Anything.” Because reading allows you to understand how the language is put together, and then you can learn how to duplicate certain effects. A novel teaches you just as certainly as a poem does. Barry Manilow teaches you just as certainly as Beethoven–if you choose to learn.
