Maybe I should elaborate on, and clarify, my previous comments on the subject of serious (“classical”) music vs. popular music.

Not all classical music is serious, nor is all serious music good. For example, neither Rossini’s William Tell overture nor Johann Strauss’s Blue Danube waltz is serious, but both are classical and both are good. On the other hand, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture is both classical and serious but not very good. Popular music can also be “classical,” in the sense of a “classic,” such as Hoagy Carmichael’s Stardust, for example, which is a popular song that is not a whit inferior to a Schubert Lied. I have the greatest respect for truly good popular music. I think Louis Armstrong, Nat “King” Cole, and Hank Williams were stupendous, just as I think that Aerosmith, Eminem, and Britney Spears are garbage. It is unfortunate that the youngest generation’s exposure to popular music is currently dominated by garbage, but that can change. (All it would take is the emergence of a new really gifted group, such as the Beatles in the ’60s, and its rise to mega-success.) Serious music also went through a wrong-headed, sterile phase in the second half of the twentieth century, and now the tide seems to be turning. (more…)

Three months from now I’ll have my 80th birthday. I’ve been writing on the subject of audio for 50 years, 30 of them for The Audio Critic, and at this point I am something of a burnout. Specifically, I’ve lost all patience for the wide-eyed wonderment of reviewers over the latest and greatest audio gear. (more…)