Re: Meaning of "Klezmer"

[Velaires <Velaires...>]

In a message dated 1/3/00 12:46:18 PM, you wrote:

<<Great musicians take seriously the need toentertain the audience.>>

Some do, some don't.  I don't think Miles Davis, Igor Stravinsky, or Bill 
Monroe spent much time on their wardrobes, banter, or dance-steps.

I'm addressing the implication of categorizing something as "entertainment", 
as if to say "It is THIS".  Most audiences in Popular America don't look much 
past the labelling.  A hip hop guy looks for more hip hop, a heavy metal guy 
looks for heavy metal, and, from what I can tell from the John Zorn 
discussion group, a Radical Jewish consumer looks for Radical Jewish.  I 
don't think that the hip hop audience or the heavy metal audience are less 
discriminating than a Yiddish music audience just because they're into stuff 
that lives more visibly in American Pop Culture.  

Consumers who like a certain general style of something -- clothes, music, 
films -- are often enough not into dealing with things on a big research 
level. They already probably put in forty hours a week on brain-taxing stuff. 
 That's why I think that, if categories are mandated for stuff, the names you 
give the stuff should be free of any implications about art or entertainment 
so people don't see a genre as inherently stigmatized.

sh

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