W e have to have a [reduced] price that is behavior-changing.”
— Jim McCarthy, CEO, GoldStar Events.
CMT: More diverse classical music marketing matters more than ever in a crowded market filled with competing leisure activities and ever more cultural product. Because classical music doesn’t fit the demands of the construction of the culture of youth and fashion, it’s inevitably marginalized in a culture that’s obsessed with youth and fashion. So what’s a presenter to do, to sustain or improve revenue? GoldStar is clearly one good, rational answer. It’s been reasonably successful for presenters in 8 U.S. metropolitan markets for about 3 years now . . .
The feeling of danger is a fact to be reckoned with. The problem is perhaps less economic or demographic than it is cultural, less a question of the music’s survival than of its role. The days when listening to classical music could feel like an integral part of cultural life are long gone. One reason why is the loss of a credible way to maintain that people ought to listen to this music, that the music is something that should not be missed. Our growing reluctance or inability to impose prescriptive ‘shoulds’ has obscured the power of the ‘should’ that says, ‘Don’t deprive yourself of this pleasure.’ . . . There is nothing anymore that one just has to hear.”
— Lawrence Kramer, 2007.
DSM: Yes. I like your point about youth and fashion, by the way. I don’t believe anybody’s chamber music programming is overtly elitist. But, in general, it’s not fashion-generating or fashion-responsive. Most chamber music performers don’t have the financial wherewithal to be fashionistas! But, more than clothing or other surface elements, chamber music is, with the exception of Kronos and a handful of others, not transgressive enough to capture the imagination of the under-40’s. The idea of transgression, of breaking rules, is as important in classical music as it is in popular music. But in classical music, it’s essentially an inward, musical matter, while in popular music it is mostly an outward, performative, public display. Classical music infrequently shows outwardly transgressive moments. But inwardly, within the discourse of a string quartet, say, it’s frequently based on the idea of transgressing its own formal boundaries, of breaking prior conventions, of radically recasting its materials and methods. It just isn’t packaged with physical transgressions on the surface, which would be essential for pop cross-over—the daring costumes of Sophie Mütter notwithstanding.
If you [classical music presenters] want to keep your doors open in the 21st century, you’d better scrap the cultural entitlement mentality that has long dominated the marketing of the Arts in America and start trying out new business models that make sense to postmodern audiences. When it comes to the fine arts, young people want what they want when they want it—and if they can’t get it, they’ll go see a movie instead.”
— Terry Teachout, 2007.
CMT: Remember, too, that classical music is generally made as art but serves the function of entertainment. And, for many people, the discretionary spending is limited and is already committed to other activities. So classical music on the whole tries to market itself as art, but, by doing so, it becomes progressively more and more expensive and more and more elitist—inadvertently elitist; backhandedly elitist. GoldStar Events reverses this. Goldstar Events puts classical music and chamber music events back into the realm of ‘entertainment’ and prices the events at 50% or less of the full-price ticket. Transgressive or not, it suddenly becomes more affordable. And the internet-based social-networking and push-marketing enables GoldStar members to be notified of just those events that they have interest in. It’s not a panacea, but GoldStar’s “rush” tickets are one way for chamber music presenters to build audiences and market diversity. Ticket-drop and ‘buzz’! More butts in seats!
C lassical music ... is no less concerned with individuality, radical difference, and expansive energy [than popular music], but it does not restrict these qualities to the image of a merely physical youthfulness.”
— Julian Johnson, p. 45.
- GoldStar Events website
- Furchgott R. Nights Out in New York Just Got Cheaper. NY Times, 15-NOV-2006. [1MB pdf]
- Teachout T. What Young Audiences Want. Wall Street Journal, 23-JUN-2007, P16.
- DeNora T. After Adorno: Rethinking Music Sociology. Cambridge Univ, 2003.
- Johnson J. Who Needs Classical Music? : Cultural Choice and Musical Value. Oxford Univ, 2002.
- Kramer L. Why Classical Music Still Matters. Univ California, 2007.
- Saariaho K. From the Grammar of Dreams. (Ondine, 2001.)
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