(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
In front of me I have two record releases. Only ten years separate them, but their very different covers say a lot about the changes the classic record industry has undergone during these years. One is a double CD from Teldec with Tchaikovsky's string quartets.
The elapsed time
It is one of the best releases ever, and it is therefore disappointing to note that it would not have sold anything special had it come out today. The reason is the cover: The performers, the fabulous Borodin quartet, are dressed in tuxedos and sit against a background consisting of a large mirror with gold-plated, ornamented frame on a wall with yellow-brown floral patterned wallpaper. The scene oozes with strong citizenship. This is one of the latest classic record releases with this type of cover.
In the early 1990s, it became clear that not everything was going so well with classical music. Those who had grown up with it were dying out. The "new adults" had grown up with rock, children of leveling and the expanded concept of culture. In addition, the cultural relativism of postmodernism became part of the main culture. The classic album covers of earlier times signaled a cultural and not least social elitism that was no longer viable. At the same time, the consumer-oriented entertainment industry and its priorities and values conquered more and more fields that were previously considered to be obviously exempt from these. Now there is only one criterion on whether something is valuable, and that is whether people find it entertaining. In such a cultural climate, classical music has a problem. Art music is not able to constantly reshape itself according to dictation from what is in – the classical because it is already there, the new because it would then be inseparable from popular music.
over Communication
In such situations, the solution of commercialism is predictable: If you can't beat them, become part of them. In a culture where products are judged by surface, the classic record industry had to do something about the surface.
However, I am not that negative of the record companies image- appropriate reorientering as I might seem. For it can only be positive that the connotations of the upper class are weakened as a result of it. This means that a semantic filter between the listener and the music has been removed, and the music can thus be valued more on its own terms. But this of course presupposes that the old filters are not replaced by new ones.
And that brings me to the second CD I have in front of me, the latest release by flutist Emmanuel Pahud at EMI, where he plays works by Aram Katsjaturian and Jacques Ibert. Pahud fills the entire cover; he is dressed in jeans and a jacket against a denim blue background, and his unshaven face is downwards. This is obviously what you are trying to convey: He is a young man who, despite his preoccupation with classical music, is an "ordinary guy"! It is also clear that the record company is trying to get buyers because of the musician's great looks. However, when I take out the CD, my semiotic processing comes to a halt; the CD itself is decorated with a denim pattern. Does the music on the CD have anything to do with this cotton fabric? If so, it is extremely indirect. No, it is of course part of the same communication that the cover contributes to. However, marketers have obviously not realized that overcommunication undermines the message.
The point is that this CD should not need such disruptive gimmicks, for both Pahud and the collaborators Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich under conductor David Zinman are excellent. They even make you stop thinking about denim for a while!
