Music as Market Commodity

By PAUL KWAK

File the following under Random Bits of Useless but Amusing Trivia: Juilliard celebrates the anniversary of its founding on the same date as this year's National Coming Out Day, October 11. Ordinarily, this would be nothing more than a humorous irony of coincidence, but this past summer, I saw a press release for Gay Pride events at Lincoln Center that fueled an ongoing thought process about the insidiously complex world of arts marketing.

Paul Kwak

The release announced a "new showcase of special events, performances, and dancing under the stars," organized in coordination with and to celebrate Gay Pride Week 2005. Featuring such luminaries as Patti LaBelle, Cyndi Lauper, Barbara Cook, Billy Porter, and Donna Murphy (all of whom may or may not be gay, but seem to like gay people), the event's organizers aimed to "bring together acclaimed literary figures, leading entertainers of pop, rock, jazz, Broadway, cabaret, dance, opera, and classical performance" to "draw together both gay and nongay members of the arts and literary communities, around the theme of celebrating the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community's rich history in, and contributions to, American performing arts."

The inner cynic saw the effort as a marketing ploy that smacked of pandering and tokenism, shuddering at the odd counterpart such a "celebration" makes to the recent politicization of sexuality as spotlighted in the national furor over gay marriage. Regardless of the organizers' intent, the event effectively commodifies gay culture; it creates a marketable product of an identity (or, to be polarizingly reductionist, of a biological predisposition), and by its association in this particular event with music, draws the notion of music as product into the morass.

Indeed, the idea that music has become a market commodity is not likely to sit well with most artists, and despite objections that since the days of Mozart, commercialism has played a critical role in the development of the arts, there persists some innate moral objection to such intensified marketing of music. In a widely discussed article published several months ago in The New York Times, music critic Anthony Tommasini assessed the intensifying pressure on opera stars to be glamorous, in addition to having beautiful voices and interpretive flair. Some have suggested that the intense commercialization of the pop music world has increased pressure on classical musicians to market themselves and compete for sales. One wonders to what extent the sexualization of pop stars has transmuted into keen scrutiny and attention to singers identified in Tommasini's article such as Nathan Gunn, Anna Netrebko, and Rodney Gilfrey.

Admittedly, the culture of celebrity that Tommasini identifies is perhaps the societal descendant of the "diva," a personage that has always flourished at the center of opera. One wonders, however, if the marketing of musical personalities as such has extended into music itself, transforming music as cultural activity into music as market product. The New York City Opera recently hosted a critically acclaimed "Opera for All" evening, and the Metropolitan Opera has been openly discussing the idea of a family-friendly 90-minute production of Die Zauberflöte. Another recent Times article by Daniel Wakin discussed new marketing strategies undertaken by orchestras, some of which combine concerts with any of the following: themed lectures about the music, alcoholic beverages, and speed-dating, in an effort to lure new target audiences (read: younger audiences) into the concert halls.

Progressives might argue that such efforts will return classical music to its historical roots where it was appreciated by all; purists might retort that such efforts amount to pandering. Where does one draw a line in this vast grey area? It is tempting to believe that marketing efforts are fundamentally aimed at drawing people into seats, where they will experience music and art, and it is perhaps difficult to see how this could be detrimental. It is worth being vigilant, however, about the ways that transforming music into a product and cultural artifact undermines its authenticity and becomes symptomatic of an insatiable societal thirst for style over substance.

Paul Kwak is a master’s student in collaborative piano.