Classical Music "News"

[Jeff Dutton]

Who makes up the "headlines" for the articles listed under Classical Music News? If you are going to editorialize about an item, then do it. Don't just make up your own headlines to suit the spin you want to put on an article.

To respond to the question "Will Walmart Decide What You Read Or Listen To"? The answer is no. If they don't carry what I want I am free to go elsewhere. By the same token, they are free to NOT SELL anything they they want. And that is as important a right as the right of Eminem, Sheryl Crow and the others to produce their own work. By the way - that is exactly what their right is - to produce the work they want to produce. They don't have any right to force others to display, sell, buy or listen to that same work.

Despite the misguided opinions of liberal organizations, this is not censorship. Walmart is not preventing others from selling the products Walmart chooses not to sell. Nor are they preventing the producers of those items from producing them.

If someone wants to buy Eminem, Curt Cobain, Sheryl Crow, "Maxim" or "Stuff", what is preventing them from buying it? Is Walmart the only store in town? I don't think so.

Jeff

<small>[ 05-19-2003, 03:49 PM: Message edited by: Jeff Dutton ]</small>

[Nicole Marie]

The article was not written by Beethoven.com it was written by the NY Times. And the headlines are direct from the article. I pick the headlines every Monday and post them on the page. I pick headlines that are current and deal in some way with music. I also pick headlines that will get a reaction out of people since we encourage people to post points of view about the headlines on the BBB. I guess it worked.

<small>[ 05-19-2003, 03:56 PM: Message edited by: Nicole Marie ]</small>

[Jeff Dutton]

Who said the article was written by Beethoven.com? I asked who wrote the headline on the beethoven.com page.

I have re-read the headline in the NY times piece and searched the article and never found the words "Will Walmart Decide What You Read Or Listen To" or anything similar. Did your headline come directly out of a different version of the article than that which is available now? If not, then you made it up, as I said.

You did not just pick an article to get a reaction, you spun it with your own headline to, I would assume, make a point. As I said, if you or Beethoven.com has a point to make, come right out and state your point up front. My reaction isn't only to the article. It is also to your use of the article.

Jeff

<small>[ 05-19-2003, 04:22 PM: Message edited by: Jeff Dutton ]</small>

[Nicole Marie]

I did not make up that headline! Here's the process that I use to get the headlines every Monday morning. I log on the my computer!! I go to www.artsjournal.com and click on the music section of the site. They are a great site that collects music and arts articles, it's an easy one stop place instead of going all over the internet to find aritcles. I saw this article and thought it was interesting and good material for the board. I did a quick copy and paste of the headline and the link and posted it to the site. End of Story. And that's the headline that was posted.

[Jeff Dutton]

Ok. I understand that you did not make up the headline. It came from a 3rd source. Thanks for clearing that up.

Jeff

[PatriciaSelf]

So, I read the article. Wal-Mart places itself in areas where it will get the most business. I don't know what "sells" in the upper tier of this country, but in Alabama (where I've lived for more than 20 years), a ballooning area of sales is anything that smacks of religion, specifically Christianity.

Their "music" selection is largest in the Country & Western area, with "Christian" making up a huge proportion of the rest. Anything with a classical bent is either nobody you ever heard of as a conductor or "The Best of ..."

From the article, this was a salient paragraph:

In another worrisome trend for the entertainment business, the discount chains' narrow selection is increasing the industry's dependence on hit books, albums and videos, making it harder to call attention to new work and sell older work.

And here's why I think it is so important: teenagers shop there. Children are taken to Wal-Mart while in infant seats and grow up thinking this is THE place to shop. Personally, I boycott the place because I'm infuriated by their [excellent, by the way] practice of putting groceries at one end of the store and the pharmaceuticals at the other end. For people like me, who shop with a huge grocery list, this means I wander through the rest of the store, marketing interesting stuff I don't need, to get to the toothpaste on my list.

So, just as my sons were taken in their infant seats (and throughout their lives) to the library where we sat in the little chairs and I read to them ... and we checked out books so they'd understand the process...and to this day the library is a familiar place to them, Wal-Mart will become the place they know best to millions of little kids who grow into dollar-spending teenagers. What a sweet deal for Wal-Mart.

[lliam]

Bach 'lowers blood pressure' in coma victims.
============================================= Musicians playing Bach to comatose patients may help lower their blood pressure.
Results from hospital trials have been encouraging with nursing staff claiming that music has lowered the blood pressure of coma victims and eased anxiety in others being weaned off ventilators.
The experiment is part of a project by the Centre for the Arts and Humanities in Health and Medicine (CAHHM) at Durham University which compares the effects of live music, piped music and no music on the wellbeing of patients.