It was near the end of the first set, one of three scheduled for that night, when it happened. The band launched into their next chart and we heard the unmistakable strains of Stravinsky’s Firebird, several audience members around me shouted “YES!!!,” and my wife broke into a broad grin. I looked on stage at the laptop with the Apple logo and then I thought – “What Would Jobs Do?”
It’s almost 10 years ago to the day that the Classical music industry changed and yet we barely noticed then, and there are large swathes of the industry that barely notice now. On 23 October, 2001, Apple released the iPod. The impact of that product, and everything Apple has done before or since, was on display last night at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis. Ostensibly we were there to hear Stick Men (Tony Levin, Pat Mastoletto, and Markus Reuter), the Adrian Belew Power Trio (Adrian Belew, Julie Slick, and Tobias Ralph), and then the two trios combine for a set of music from the legendary band King Crimson. In reality, we were in Steve Jobs’ universe.
The first sign came from the audience, and I am hereby glad to proclaim that I actually brought down the median age at the venue. But it was the individuals that caught my eye. We weren’t in the Cedar 30 seconds before running into more classical musicians – friends of ours, ex-students, extended colleagues, etc. When Robert Fripp reformed King Crimson in 1980 with Adrian Belew (Guitar), Bill Bruford (Drums) and Tony Levin (Stick/Bass) the result was three of the most inventive albums in music history – Discipline, Beat, and Three of a Perfect Pair. Sound, rhythm, and lyrics all light years beyond what most bands were doing, and they caught the ear of many classical musicians going through conservatory at that time. I counted 9 classical musicians within 3 rows of us at this show.
I first met Tony 16 years ago when King Crimson reformed in a double trio format that included Trey Gunn (Weir guitar) and Pat Mastelotto (drums). After following them for 3 straight nights I found myself in line at the coffee shop across from Orchestra Hall in Minnesota trying desperately to find the energy to go in and conduct a rehearsal. I turned around and there was Tony. After picking my jaw off the floor I introduced myself and he invited himself to breakfast. After all we had at least two things in common – we both play Stick and we both went to Eastman.
In the green room before the show I immediately noticed all the Apple products. Laptops, iPhones, etc., they were everywhere. No surprise, since even in the darkest days musicians made up Apple’s most loyal constituency. There were iPhones (and imitators) throughout the audience as well, and that’s where it really hit me. In one random conversation with a guy wearing a Jerry Garcia t-shirt he mentioned that although he was an avid deadhead he didn’t have any of the Dead on his iPhone. The reason was he tended to listen to entire shows rather than skip around.
And that’s where Steve Jobs really comes into play. The iPod changed how we stored music, but much more importantly it changed how we listen to music. It happened with the introduction of shuffle. The introduction of this function was pure genius and it fundamentally changed how an entire generation of people approached music. Genres were suddenly irrelevant. Skipping around became hip. Albums, and by extension longer pieces of music, were ripped out of context. Classical, Jazz, Rock, Punk, World….. who cares? Suddenly the only parameter that was really important was – does this music turn me on?
In Classical music though, many people still aren’t ready for this change. Fortunately, some people are ready for this. Some orchestras continue to experiment with new program formats – Behind the Score, Casual Classics, Late Night, whatever you want to call it. Creative programming, whether it’s the music of Frank Zappa or Chris O’Riley’s forays into Radiohead, these reach out to the 95% who don’t regularly call themselves Classical music people. Of course it also goes the other way. Bjork continues to smash what few boundaries she has left untouched (new album AND APPS out today!), and on the way out of the Cedar my new friend Markus gave me a CD of his work Todmorden 513, an extended hour long piece for orchestra. This from a guy who just took and extended ride on Larks Tongues in Aspic.
The question is – how far should we go to change what we do? That we have to change would seem blatantly obvious, though I’m sure there will be much gnashing of teeth about it. But how far should we go? What Would Jobs Do? It’s time for someone to hit shuffle.
Apple has radically changed the way the the world works, and the way it connects with music, largely by envisioning what people would figure they couldn’t do without, once it became available. Most of that has simply been inspired stuff that really makes the world a better place. The Iphone is the most perfect invention ever, even if Dick Tracy maybe thought of it first.
That’s all very cool, visionary, disruptive tech, transformative design, engineering, marketing, etc., but there’s something about the way Apple interfaces with (and fails to interface with) classical music that is a mixture of missing the boat, and of crassly and commercially telling people what they want and how they want it, to the detriment of the music and the people it could reach if they had a half-way reasonable way to find it, buy it, and store it on Itunes.
Itunes and the Itunes store basically tells us classical music is irrelevant, back of the store stuff, and since it’s not their main revenue producer, it languishes behind complicated, hit-or-miss searches of an incredibly narrow slice of the un-reviewed performances that are available, often packaged in “100 greatest classical themes to listen to on a rainy Sunday afternoon with Riesling” format, or representing vanity releases of obscure orchestras. Prices are pretty random, and often you can’t get individual movements without buying the whole album, so even if you did want to shuffle together Belas Fleck and Bartok, you can’t always count on finding a way to squeeze the classical “choice” into the mix. I have a wider selection of alternative performances of dozens of works in my small, antique CD collection than I can get in any individual online source, including some amazing performances that are virtually impossible to find online.
Maybe the big labels with the huge back catalogs great performances are partly to blame for hiding and hoarding lost and buried treasures, but I really believe if classical music was available in the marketplace in an attractive, intelligent form, it could and would be a vital part of the general mix. Apple knows how to make shopping for a premium product an inviting, user-friendly experience. So far, they choose not to do it for classical music.
oh, what the hell does this guy know? he’s a bass player.