john marshall/jmenternational
Handing out or receiving awards, or just hanging out, at the 2012 Classic Brit Awards at the The Royal Albert Hall, was ITV’s idea of a dream team – Aled Jones, Andrea Bocelli, Victoria Pendleton, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Russell Watson, Gareth Malone, Gary Barlow, Joe McEllderry, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and John Suchet. I thought I’d died and lost the remote control. And then, the Presley of proceedings, the ultimate name to explain the essential bow tied, twinkly eyed, middle England, Express delivery, Thornton’s cosiness of what was taking place - which could only happen in this country, with its complex blend of smug arrogance and self-deprecating insecurity, of Empire heritage and brittle Island defensiveness, of the plainly sensible and the slightly dotty, of polish and melancholy, of prurience and gardening - Alan Titchmarsh creeping onto the stage, making a lewd crack about the evening’s host, Myleene Klass, and being applauded as though he alone was responsible for everything ever written by Ludwig Beethoven and Agatha Christie.
Titchmarsh confirmed that this was a ceremony that had more to do with what in the 20th century was safely known as light entertainment patrolled by sweet smiling, desperately pleasant seeming, middle-of-the-road titans such as Val Doonican, Harry Secombe, Des O’Connor, Hughie Green; some more naturally soothing than others. Titchmarsh was one of many weapons used to sell to a mass-audience a polite, unthreatening idea of classical music during an evening that had as much to do with classical music as the carrots witless Titchmarsh talked about in his leering reference to the shape and general presence of Myleene, who was draped in silky, or sickly, orange and reading one of those scripts clearly written by no-one who favours words such as ‘incomparable’, ‘legendary’ and ‘stunning’.
There was an icing sugary whisper of a classical music element to the ceremony, in that the music used to form the soundtrack to this shrill ‘classic’ exhibition of celebrity gossip, daytime television perkiness, Hollywood films, TV commercials and puffed up West End musicals carried with it powdery hints and occasionally more concrete examples of the grace, beauty and drama of orchestral music. For those who have come to music through pop or rock, the way ‘classical music’ was dressed up in candelabra kitsch and shop-worn corn would not have persuaded them that there was anything here for them. This was a marshmallow hybrid of the gentlest easy listening and soft, airbrushed classical that back in the 20th century, when there were still solidly maintained and progressively idealistic critical standards, would have been viewed as at best ersatz and at worse moderately sinister. It was, for something intending to update and modernise a world viewed as over formal, antique and elitist, extremely old fashioned, with an allergic resistance to anything original, genuinely sensual and surprising.
For ITV, this is the Arts. For the sane rest of us, it is the pimped end of the pier. The ceremony was the bewildered, if sparkly love child, of the Eurovision song contest and the Last Night of the Proms, with somehow a dash of the 1970s Miss World, Brucie’s Strictly Come Dancing, and William and Kate’s wedding. The awards won by John Williams for his ferociously attractive Spielberg and Harry Potter scores, leading to a rousing medley of his melodic highlights, regurgitating romantic classical music history with groomed, hammy panache, added luxurious levels of loaded entertainment energy. To some extent, as a festival of the far-fetched and frivolous, it was not at all unentertaining. At times, especially when the male and hearty, lush haired dude of Waltz, André Rieu, went for the nerves with a style of waltz that implied it had been invented by Walt Disney, Angela Rippon and a kitten once owned by Salvador Dalí, the whole circus was like a psychedelic variety show that might have existed on the Titanic in the 1960s had it not actually sank 50 years before. Priceless indeed, as Brit sponsors Mastercard like to make clear.
The ultimate commercial contemporary brilliance of the event, a ruthless brilliance inherited from the tabloid world and Simon Cowell, intended to deflect the sort of critical perspective that might question its motives, and indeed its tenuous relationship to classical music, or to any music at all, was to position various human bodies representing the imperial, valued and cherished around the budget pomp, clichéd choreography, glossy theatrics and botoxed jolliness. As Russell Watson, with his very own brave come-back-from-personal-disaster story, heartily boomed the boom of pure Brit boom, a slow motion slurry of images played out behind him, sympathetically blending Queenly primness, emotional flag waving and Olympic heroism. Tears were intended to be jerked, and the stacked up Albert Hall audience encouraged to swell with pride, and along the way, as a bit of a bonus for those looking to capitalise on the persuasive power of pretty melodies, middlebrow classical music was saved, or at least given a patriotic purpose very useful in uncertain times.
To appear suspiciously resistant to this scheming reduction of music to a sticky, manipulative meringue would be to question the virtues and valiant efforts of the Team GB athletes and their constant Queen. Who would want to do that, to suggest that commercially mocked up middle-of-the-road melodrama and an occasional pleasing burst of bright, efficient playing was being given a fine coating of synthetic sophistication and undiluted emotional power courtesy of Royal jewels and sporting champions? Only the really churlish would suggest that a force field of protection, using an unlikely combination of Bradley Wiggins’ beloved pumping thighs and the Queen’s candy-coloured, begloved royal fingers, had been constructed to repel the feeling that what was going on was deeply unseemly.
The throwing of well-regarded even sovereign human bodies around the mediocre, the maudlin and the moistly nostalgic, a distillation of music into an under-baked pudding of sentiment, was perfected in the event’s stunning, incomparable finale. For me, and this is an entirely personal opinion that I understand is traitorous enough to see me hanged, it seemed like a burial ceremony for music itself, if only the formal putting into the ground of 50 years of popular music that began with an urgent Beatles bang and ends with limp, lifeless Gary Barlow O.B.E. Presenting their Official Jubilee anthem ‘Sing’, with all the dignity of three not particularly close friends assembling a set of Ikea shelves, cherub Malone, bland Barlow and allochthenous – honestly – Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber were surrounded by the Military Wives. The Wives formed a decorous, sacrosanct barrier around what, if positive discriminating critical values were still thriving and permitted, would be swiftly dismissed as on the deadly side of dreary.
Using the Wives, and elsewhere using Olympic medal winners and so called national treasures, and various young, attractive virtuoso players glad of the attention they receive playing an instrumental non-pop music that is not the usual recipient of publicity, is a way of establishing some sort of exemption from a critical world where mediocrity and the damned obvious is properly dismissed, in a very human way, for the wider benefit of culture and society. You cannot argue with it – the general Barlowering of musical standards – for fear of offending the courageous, the imperial, the beloved and those who are Gold, or upsetting those sold to us as above suspicion.
Those of you who possibly spotted me during the television broadcast, an accidental VIP sat amongst the great and good of the post-reality TV classical set, might have detected on my face a look of either shock or awe, which was either because I had overdosed on Titchmarsh, or because if this was a hint of the commercial future of the classical musical industry in this country, I realised that the end result was that the music and its spectacular history would be used only as a back drop to showbiz shenanigans, the baking of cup-cakes, the running of Dulux dogs, the special effect hurling of film fantasy, the knighting of Barlow, the winning of medals, the mummifying of Katherine Jenkins and the deification of Lloyd-Webber. Or, perhaps, I sensed that the Albert Hall had hit an iceberg in the shape of the fluffy gothic set used for two songs from Phantom of the Opera and was slowly sinking, with the only survivors, in a cruel twist of fate, likely to be Barlow and Lloyd Webber, who would then turn the whole tragedy into a musical. And then, as if the evening hadn’t already been enough of a trip it could be bottled and sold as a hallucinogenic, André Rieu thanked Anthony Hopkins for having written him a waltz. And Anthony Hopkins himself, wearing his best Hannibal Lecter goes to the opera clothing, stood up and waved.
Read Paul’s review on the Gramophone Awards 2012.
You can see the awards on ITV, Sunday 7th October at 10.20. Head to www.classicbrits.co.uk to see the full details of the event.
Paul Morley is a music journalist and a cultural commentator.
Great stuff! Far more debunking of what is spuriously described as ‘art’ is needed. This kind of yuk fest has no more to do with ‘Classical’ music than has a kazoo playing nursery rhymes.
How DARE you suggest that the emperor is naked!!!!
Keep up the good work!
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As soon as Ms Klass she said the words ‘that was fantastic you guys’ within the first 5 minutes, the evening was over for me.
It is a joy to read an article that 100% encapsulates my views
Excellent !
You poor sod – you went above and beyond the call of duty. Next time take a knife. You’d then have the option to ‘surgically’ remove Katherine Jenkins’ and Russell Watson’s larynxes, or slash your wrists.
Personally, I rate Harry Secombe as one of the better, genuine singers. He was not a full-time singer, but he had a jolly good voice. Helped being a Welshman, too. Perhaps that explains why his Italian was not so good (earlier on, anyway).
We missed the whole thing over here in Canada, although it doesn’t sound as if we missed much. The event sounds like a car wreck–you know you shouldn’t look, but you just can’t help yourself. Mr. Morley’s accounting of the event was spectacular–maybe ITV should give him a TV program.
Thank you for speaking up. Not that I think it will make one jot of difference, for the world seems intent on destroying all beauty and true talent – even genius, I feel so sad.
Wonderful incisive comments. Although I am in favour of Classic FM at least introducing more people to the joys of classical music, it has gone ‘Coronation Street’ sadly. I appreciate that it must include adverts to finance itself, but it cheapens the message with ‘top twenties’ or so. I thank Spotify for giving me the chance to hear PROPER classical music. I must also praise the BBC Music magazine; their monthly CD gives a voice to less well known pieces, some of which are hard on the ear, but also occasionally unearth some real gems.
Strength to your arm, Paul, but I sadly feel that few in the industry will listen.
Well said sir! I am still recovering from the self-inflicted saccharin overdose. At one point I nearly used the remote control to escape, but there was something compulsively voyeuristic about the whole event: a bit like rubber-necking at car crashes – you know you shouldn’t, but you can’t help yourself. Regrettably the celebration of mediocrity is all around us, encouraged by audiences who are unable to discriminate. But how do you challenge audiences without appearing an intellectual snob? (Arguably) football fans wouldn’t put up with ‘pub team’ footballers playing in the premier league, so why is elitism viewed with such distaste by so many Arts audiences?
Terrific review Paul, about time someone called time on the whole dreadful, tacky pile of piffle that is ‘popular classics’. Anything involving Alan Tichmarsh, Lloyd-Webber and Garry Barlow is bound to be an excruciating mash-up of kitsch that would make me want to scream, not that I’d ever watch it.
You deserve a medal for sitting through such a ghastly performance.
allochthonous and sunk…… otherwise good. B+
You beat me to it Rob but I’d still give an A!
Wonderful! After this shout across the bows, the music industry needs a shot across the bows – or preferably somewhere more painful.
The dumbing down of classical music parallels the trivialisation of folk music around the world. Readers might like to see how far Austria has fallen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMEoll6XQU0
I’ve just watched that video, and I enjoyed the Bayernmaedels, The Twinnies. This is not claiming to be classical, serious art music, evidently. And it’s very typical of national folk cultures at more dressed up events, and has been for a long time in Europe.
I was very worried, though, that, rather than a quite quaint and typical folky pop celebration, it might be the dreaded international stage of such awful cads as the “Bambini di Prague”. I once sat through one of their events, older teenagers and twenty-somethings pretending to be infants and giving the most sickly international campness fest. It was really something I still have nightmares about, and I heard some years afterwards that they’re still going – the same people who must be not too far from or just about at 30 years old by now.
It’s very refreshing to read the worlds of Paul Morley. Those poor people like Mylene Klass don’t know where they are or what they’re doing. If, somehow, a serious interpretation of Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, “Ressurection”, got lost and somehow found its way onto the stage some time at the Classical Brits, I can only guess that Mylene and Gary Barlow and the rest of the crew would start shrieking in bafflement and confusion at the audience. What could that strange monster called serious music and serious art be deciding to rear its frightening head at international waltz, choccy and pink wine fest. One could suppose Ms. Klass may easily have mixed up her evenings socialising, not realising the Classical Brit Awards was just another night around with the treacle, the 3 time tunes somehow associated with flying skirts on a ballroom and “those gents who smile at me”. Seriously you could have been watching confused people who may still not be able to tell you what exactly the event was or what it could have been in aid of.
Paul Morley, I love you. Will you be my grandson?! I thought I was alone in the wilderness because the likes of Jenkins, Lloyd bloody Weber etc. etc. make me heave. Talk about the emperor’s new clothes!
Great article, as is the one in the Telegraph by James Rhodes.
Having said that I thought good on Nicola Benedetti for making her points for music teachers and against cuts.
Afraid I switched off after that.
Thank you for commenting on such a performance? Things artistic and other activities have in Britain today diminished to the lowest common denominator. When will Britain smarten up rather than dumb down?
I am so grateful to you for writing this article. I have been infuriated for years about this travesty. So insulting to music students, teachers, performers, composers and serious audiences. It makes me really sick to see how the military, the olympics, the supposedly patriotic values, are all used to the benefit of mediocre music making. I am sure they are all laughing their way to the bank. The Occidental artistic, aesthetic and musical canons have now been enrichened thanks to the wonderful inspiration of geniuses like Mr Webber, Mr Malone and Mr Barlow….
Carlos,
I am a member of the military who you accuse of mediocre music making and I promise you I am not laughing all the way to the bank. I was in the audience at the Classic Brits and I agree that it was saccharin sweet and Cowell-esque but I also agree that Classic FM has brought classical music to an audience that otherwise would not have listened to this genre over the years.
By accusing us of mediocre music making you have insulted my 13 year career and all my ambitions of joining up from when I was a child. How about you come along to one of our concerts and watch out versatility, diversity and musicianship before you write us off!!
“By accusing us of mediocre music making you have insulted my 13 year career and all my ambitions of joining up from when I was a child.”
I wanted to say a few things for Sophia.
Your music making is your own – for you – and for those who choose to hear it and it is to be appreciated by those who in fact appreciate it. There is nothing really beyond that, it doesn’t exist objectively.
Some people will like it, some will feel they love it, some will be nonplussed, and some will hate it.
In the world of serious classical music, which the Brit Awards and so on are making representations that they have at least some stake in, it is to be expected that people are critical. For people love what they love and hate what they hate.
I wanted to say that you shouldn’t think that people set out to “insult your career .. [etc.]” in itself. People merely feel what they feel, which is not what everyone else feels as everyone is different, and it is a good thing that people have the right to express that. As someone who followed serious classical music closely in years gone by, it is a strange thing to me to find someone who is actually affronted by typical criticism to be found about classical music performance or even the music itself. Criticism used to be regarded as a natural thing one can do – to express how one feels.
I feel this is to a large degree what is wrong with the whole nice, tiptoeing, self-celebrating, category blind culture of the Classical Brits and the whole psuedo popular classical music world. Exactly as Paul Morley, and people commenting just below him have said, these people present a charged atmosphere where it seems people are not allowed just to speak their own minds, about their own basics preferences or feelings.
I guess it may just be that you’re not used to such natural expression. Someone saying “I didn’t like that”, is the most natural thing in the world. For myself, I’ve never heard the Military Wives, from what I discerned, it’s far from my kind of thing, and so I don’t know if I’d think the music great or awful. I just don’t think I’m interested.
But what’s clear is that people ought to like or love your music because that’s how they feel. I don’t think that any music should be appraised on people wishing to refrain from speaking how they feel for fear of accusations of insulting someone’s whole career, when the music just sounded awful to their ears.
Actually the Twinnies are fun. Anyway I bet Mylene Klass couldn’t fo it on roller skates!
Oh dear. Sounds like listening to Classic FM for three hours. You need to cleanse your palette with some Lachenmann.
This really is nonsense on stilts, from the grand master of the rock heritage lobby. For the record, the Best Male Artist Award went to Vasily Petrenko for his recordings of the Shostakovich symphonies, the best Female Artist to Nicola Benedetti for Italia, and the Breakthough Artist to Milos Karadaglic for Latino.
Mr Morley seems to find these awards offensive. I don’t. I would even go so far as to defend Andre Rieu, whose recordings of Strauss waltzes seem exemplary to me (of course, you have to like Struass waltzes in the first place).
And if the whole event was wrapped up in self-congratulatory goo, so what? They’re no less sickening than (say) the MOBO Awards, of which Mr Morley remains strangely uncritical.
…”like waltzes”? Johann Strauss is turning in his grave as we speak!!!
Beautiful writing as always mr Morley. Having watched the trailer for the programme your description is of exactly what I imagined.
You certainly know how to write. A little bit too Victorian perhaps, some semi-colons would help, I think.
I am very concerned about what is taking place at BBC Radio 3 at the moment; possibly, your sound observations are somehow related to unwelcome developments there.
I shall follow your blog from now on.
Thanks.
And not forgetting the (increasingly mad-looking) John Suchet coming on to present the Lifetime Achievement Award but really being given a free opportunity to sell yet another of his Beethoven books.
There are so many tragic things happening in this world that this argument seems trivial, but somehow it is not. Why are so many people loathe to do a little bit of research or homework and instead opt for instant gratification? If you listen to a symphony, an ACDC track, a Mozart quintet or Snow Patrol, why is it so hard to just enjoy and celebrate great musicianship and music-making on a visceral level and then go and do a bit of work on it? Of course, there is no doubt in my mind that Gareth Malone is not remotely musical and assistant to the assistant choir master is not going to make great music but the women are going to love him and he is great for television. So, where do you draw the line? For example, why would someone deface the Rothko in the Tate and think it was more important than what was already there? The arrogance and ignorance is astounding and frightening.
Congratulations on this superb, honest article. The Classical Brit awards are an insult to music – of any type – to performers, and to the public, who are in many cases being sold ‘defective goods’. If music had the equivalent of ‘trading standards’, a lot of these so-called ‘acts’ wouldn’t get stage or air time anywhere. To call someone an ‘opera singer’, for example, when they’ve never sung in an opera production – and are probably incapable of doing so – is a lie. Thank you for speaking out and telling the truth.
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Perhaps someone needs to delete “Classical” and split it into two new genres: “Legitimate Classical” and “Illegitimate Classical”?
I was trained in the former as a lyric soprano. My Austrian voice teacher spat on pop music and musical theater when he was teaching me. A few years later, his daughter was a music performance major, needed money, and she went to work as a singing waitress–with her father’s blessing. Moral: sometimes art must serve the singer, and sometimes the singer must serve the art. Just make sure your technique is up to both or you’ll wreck your voice.
Today, I think even Lily Pons might have had to channel Sarah Brightman if she was to continue singing professionally. And personally, if I were ever given the choice between singing in “The Consul” or “Phantom,” I wouldn’t have to think twice: Webber would win. That may be sacrilege to some, but “The Consul” isn’t much fun to perform. And Phantom is every bit as demanding as, say, “The Magic Flute” — and both Phantom and Mozart are fun to perform. As I recall, Mozart had to please the public to survive, too. We all compromise sometime or other.
What you say has merit among the purists, but it’s no longer an pure, “either/or” world out there. Some of us can and do appreciate the illegitimate as well as the illegitimate, even as we live and perform in both worlds and hope to continue surviving. Technique is everything, and some days I would rather sing opera and other days something from “Camelot.”
I’m glad not to be limited to one or the other. It’s unfortunate that the greedy producers in the industry want to blur the lines, but those of us in the industry do know the difference. We have to.
But isn’t it a misnomer? Describing it all as “classical” and setting up awards in that way? A Lloyd Weber west-end music has never accurately been known by anyone, musical fans or classical music fans, as classical music.
The truth is that most long term serious fans of classical music would not poke their head into the world of musicals. And that most long term serious fans of musicals will poke their head only a little bit, not much, into the classical musical world, mostly into pop classics. It is the latter reality that can seem to sum up the world of The Classical Brit Awards and what surrounds it.
So, I think it is quite clear why so many serious classical music fans, who perhaps equate their interest with the seriousness of serious visual art and literature, feel as they do to that world: that it is the world of musicals with steps into the world of popular classics and maybe a step or two beyond that, maybe not. When that itself is covered with a theatrical cloak and dagger of prime showbiz all over the place, and “protected” and seemingly given value by strange association with Queen, country, fighting men’s wives, Olympics and empire, it’s bewildering to the average serious classical music fan. It becomes a social, showbiz phenomenon in itself, and something very alien, artificial and catch-all for no good reason other than an excuse for a good night out in something related to the tradition of variety.
I loved reading this article, and am very much against the Classical Brits in its current format.
However, whilst Sinfini Music may indeed be ‘editorially independent’ from Universal, surely commissioning ‘proper classical music’ journalists like Paul Morley to write about this event is just a thinly-veiled attempt to cheapen rival Sony (whose artists make up the majority at the Classical Brits), and steer classical music audiences towards Universal labels??
It’s time the Classic Brits made way for the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards. They do what they say – awards for the best live music making AND they recognise the people who are doing extraordinary things in the classical music. Not on telly though. Pah!
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/michaelwhite/100063012/like-the-oscars-but-more-genuine-the-royal-philharmonic-society-awards/
Well said, although it is difficult to know what is a genuine “award” these days with even the Gramophone awards (hiterto held up as the highest accolade) up for buying through adverstising. Our whole business is in shreds and it is difficult as both a practitioner and teacher to summon up the enthusiasm any longer to tell my pupils it is an exiting career prospect. I guess we continue to gain the pleasure from collaboration with genuine colleagues who share a similar financial precariousness and marvel at the power of wht we do. One day when it is gone, we’ll look back on nights like this Classical Brits and perhaps see it.
As a musician, I enjoyed your article..of course . But what else can you expect all these companies to do ? the tv show is just a reference of what one shouldn’t listen to or play . It would probably be surprising to know what all these musicians think of the performance!!
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No-one who is interested in serious music takes any notice of the so-called Classical Brit Awards, anyway.
Let them eat cake.
I’m confused. What is the point of this blog article? SINFINI, run by Universal Music have commissioned you to write a blog to criticise the very same awards ceremony from which they profit.
What’s the point of that?
Well that means more people will watch it to see how correct he is, I have been looking up YouTube videos of it since I read this, and I hadn’t even heard of it before.
Also, ‘There is no such thing as bad publicity’
I love this review so much I want to settle down with it and start an organic farm. At least this year it’s been branded the “Classic” rather than “Classical” Brits, a small detail but I’m willing to snatch at any relief in this annual celebration of drivel. The “Pop” Brits doesn’t consist of annual performances by Black Lace, Russ Abbott and the New Seekers; why does the Classic Brits consist entirely of their equivalents.
You ask why the Classic Brit Awards consists entirely of the equivalents of Russ Abbott and the New Seekers. The answer is that it doesn’t. As I’ve previously pointed out, the Best Male Artist Award (for example) went to Vasily Petrenko’s recording of the Shostakovich symphonies. Are you seriously suggesting that within the classical canon Petrenko is the equivalent of Russ Abbott, and that Shostakovich’s music should be ranked alongside the New Seekers? With respect, this is complete nonsense.
I have to say, I couldn’t resist responding, I think that is the funniest thing I have read for some time. It is so funny:
“The “Pop” Brits doesn’t consist of annual performances by Black Lace, Russ Abbott and the New Seekers; why does the Classic Brits consist entirely of their equivalents.”
… but maybe not really fair. Still, funny.
I think this criticism of the Classic Brits is healthy. I think, if the organisers and fans got a chance to really think about it and express their opinions, they may prefer the event that’s an appreciation of what they like not to be a catch all of everything glitzy and west end and nice sounding but proper seeming. I think they’d probably prefer to respect more the distinction between musicals and serious classical music and have two types of events which distinguished. I think most people who love musicals and show music and don’t bother much at all with classic music may be likely to favour the same thing. One crossover point may be some film soundtrack music.
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It is so nice to read through the post as well as the clip. It just brought me to another world. Really fascinating.
What did he mean by “the mummifying of Katherine Jenkins”? I just don’t understand the use of that verb, is he meaning it in a bad way or a good way.. someone enlighten me please! She wasn’t even at the awards…
I really don’t wish to be naughty, and I didn’t write the phrase in the article. But it had me think of hysterical, perhaps irreverent, probably not whatsoever irrelevant thoughts of some kind of retrograde fashion meaning of a verb, including elements of folklore. Something to do with a bewildering context, the prised social loss of many categories of all types, changelings and a putative notion of so-called “social climbing” and what becomes. It did make me laugh. Just a thought!
.. While that thought itself is funny out of sheer silliness, to me. I don’t know if that absurdist kind of humour, perhaps tree-topelling, incisive humour upon being stunned by a strange situation was intended. At the end of the day, after appreciating the funny silliness, it’s not very funny. And that is because, as Mr. Morley writes, neither is the real truth of the Classical Brits, if you are someone who values the bother of analysing just what is going on, and cares, rather than someone who decides not to care
No, I feel, as Paul Morley does, that is something serious. And I admire his approach, where, if he had not produced it, I wouldn’t have bothered to bother or care or even think of the event. People are, of course, entitled to create and host such awards as The Classical Brits, if they wish, and anyone is of course entitled to watch, attend and take part, if they wish, and entitled to enjoy them, where genuine enjoyment is truly what they feel. And Mr. Morley and so on are equally entitled to their analysis of this. Such is how a mature society exists.
… I just wanted to add – I do find the phrase very serious, as well as I found it funny in part, and very worthwhile. I think I’m a bit concerned, re-reading the question by Dana-Lynn wondering if it were “good” or “bad”, it may be thought offensive and unserious. I thought it is very serious and genuine, and makes a great point, a serious point.
Though I stated it was perhaps irreverent, I thought just lightly irreverent, and it’s also not all irreverent if it means what I thought. I took “the mummifying of Katherine Jenkins” to suggest (not having to mean Ms. Jenkins at all, of course, but anyone or everyone taking part) two parts:
1. Take, for example, in the very sweet, old time, bona fide tradition of popular culture such as old stage musicals with well known stars, or old Hollywood musicals. The audience, particularly female members, with admiration and love, in eulogisation, “claim” the great star they so admire and appreciate, as theirs. As their own. As part of them. Creating an identity in perception of the very star herself as of their lives.
2. I saw the “mummification” then further alluding to these appreciating mums in the Classical Brits audience wrapping Ms. Katherine Jenkins in their best cotton and taking her home.
This is a serious and bona-fide criticism, and appreciation, of the event and seems very relevant. Every kind of cultural area, popular or not, has at least something of this eulogisation of certain “stars”, including the most serious elements of classical music culture. I thought the point with the word “mummification” was to, though, draw the distinction with that this element may be overriding in this strange, starry, glitzy world of culture of The Classical Brits. To the loss of respect for the purity of music as having the greatest priority and the purity of uncensored, true, personal appreciation of music.
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