'What is called music today is all too often only a disguise for the monologue of power. However, and this is the supreme irony of it all, never before have musicians tried so hard to communicate with their audience, and never before has that communication been so deceiving. Music now seems hardly more than a somewhat clumsy excuse for the self-glorification of musicians and the growth of a new industrial sector.' Quoted in Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music, ISBN 0028645812.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Modern music often serves power and industry rather than genuine communication.
- In plain terms
- Music today hides control instead of truly connecting people.
- What can you take from it?
- True art should serve listeners not ego.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Does art serve people or profit?
- How to tell fake from real?
Another view
It overlooks genuine artists still working.
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