Who Needs Classical Music?: Cultural Choice and Musical Values

During the last several decades, most cultural critics have come to agree that the division between 'high' and 'low' art is an artificial one, that Beethoven's Ninth and 'Blue Suede Shoes' are equally valuable as cultural texts. In Who Needs Classical Music?, Julian Johnson challenges these dominant assumptions about the relativism of cultural judgements. The author maintains that music is more than just 'a matter of taste': while some music provides entertainment, or serves as background noise, other music functions as art. This book considers the value of classical music in contemporary society, arguing that it remains distinctive because it works in quite different ways than most of the other music that surrounds us. In this long essay, Johnson aims to restore classical music's intrinsic aesthetic value and to rescue it from a designation as mere signifier of elitism or refinement. Who Needs Classical Music? is certain to spark debate among cultural critics and have important repercussions for arts policy.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1: Musical Values 2: Uses and Abuses 3: Music as Art 4: Understanding Music 5: The Old, the New, and the Contemporary 6: Cultural Choices Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Julian Johnson was educated at the University of Cambridge, Dartington College of the Arts, and the University of Sussex, and is currently a lecturer in Music at Oxford University. The author of Webern and the Transformation of Nature, Johnson is well known for his work on music aesthetics and the relation of music to society. He is also a composer.

Review :
"You will often cheer out loud! I did...more profound than can be communicated in a book review. I read this twice. Like all my favorite books, I will read it again and again. Nothing is more relevant to classical music devotees."--American Record Guide "[A] heartfelt and finely reasoned appeal....wise, perceptive and inspiring book."--The Economist "[A] soberly argued defiance of classical tradition as uniquely valuable in its own right, and hence worth sustaining as a cultural option open to all. Who Needs Classical Music? is neither a last-ditch lament nor an aggressive counter-attack....Every page -at times, every sentence-is loaded with implications for further thought deserves the widest attention." --BBC online "[A] sophisticated yet accessible defense of classical music's value."--CHOICE "You will often cheer out loud! I did...more profound than can be communicated in a book review. I read this twice. Like all my favorite books, I will read it again and again. Nothing is more relevant to classical music devotees."--American Record Guide "[A] heartfelt and finely reasoned appeal....wise, perceptive and inspiring book."--The Economist "[A] soberly argued defiance of classical tradition as uniquely valuable in its own right, and hence worth sustaining as a cultural option open to all. Who Needs Classical Music? is neither a last-ditch lament nor an aggressive counter-attack....Every page-at times, every sentence-is loaded with implications for further thought deserves the widest attention." --BBC online "[A] sophisticated yet accessible defense of classical music's value."--CHOICE