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The other pieces weren’t as friendly to nonprofessionals. Art critic Alan Artner writes: “Everybody has opinions on movies, television and popular music, and anyone long could feel free to express them; hesitancy was shown mainly in regard to more difficult areas such as the visual arts or classical music. But the world of radio, blogs and podcasts has dissolved any such restraint, making commentary on things artistic plentiful.”
It’s worth noting that the idea of critics being their own professional class is a very 20th century one. More important, the idea that the rest of us are purely consumers — of the artistic works of one very small professional class and the critical works of another — is also very recent. So it was refreshing, even moving, to see the Trib‘s classical music critic point out that a “couple of centuries ago, to call a classical musician an amateur was to pay him or her a compliment.”
I for one welcome the proliferation of new voices. It’s a cacophony, sure, but that’s because the technology’s so new that people are just starting to figure out what to do with it. As with all markets, it will stabilize. And if the critics don’t want to help me sort through it, I’m sure I can find a few enlightened amateurs to turn me on to the good stuff.
