I'm currently reading Tyler Cowen's 1998 book "In Praise of Commercial Culture". Cowen is better known as an economist writing over at Marginal Revolution. I'm also re-reading his 2007 book "Discover Your Inner Economist" at the same time. Maybe it's just the different target audiences, but I suspect Tyler would be the first to admit that his book writing style has gotten a lot better in the intervening 9 years.
In the process of explaining the influence of capitalism and wealth on art, he mentions a lot of artists in passing. Most I knew about, but many I hadn't. In 1998 Cowen couldn't have anticipated the process I've been going through while reading these books. I've actually been able to look up and sample the work of artists, from painters to rock bands, on the internet and get a taste of their work immediately and for free. That process, aided by things like wikipedia, Amazon's mp3 store (with it's music previews), plus tons of full-length videos with audio on youtube, is an amazing example of what in the book is a cultural optimism that allows for modern and historical art catering to all sorts of niche markets to be so much more accessible now than it ever has been in the past.
One of the facts referenced in the book is that Charles Perrault wrote "Mother Goose" in a deliberate attempt to match Aesop's Fables. I anticipate that my wife, currently teaching classic fables to the kids, will find that interesting. There's tons of similar tidbits in it.
Cowen talks about how because it was a big budget movie and thus had to appeal to a larger audience, the studio forced a happy ending on Blade Runner, but that when the movie was reissued in a Director's cut the original ending could be restored. I know that now it sounds amazing, but in 1998 DVDs weren't in commercial use. Laser Disc was supposed to be the next big thing. Ten years later, we'd fully expect that if the Director preferred a different cut to his movie, we'd get both versions plus a couple of voice-over explanations all on the same DVD and they'd throw in the deleted scenes and alternate endings!
I'm also picking up music tips from the "Possess All the Great Art Ever Made" chapter of his more recent book. He talks about how music tastes changes as individual identities change from different time periods and geographical regions and suggests trying out the best artists of all sorts of different types.
Tonight I've found lots to like. I also just figured out that youtube has tons of music in the form of videos... I know, slow to catch on, that's me.
Sometimes the familiar can be new again when seen through a different style of music. Also search for gamelan on youtube for some cool south-east asian hits.
Those guys are entertainers! Of course, it stands to reason that with literally billions of people to choose from, there are going to be a lot of great musicians (and other professions) available in the area.
A little closer to home, sometimes you just need to shake your head and tap your toes.
How could anyone not like that, whoever they are, unless they'd never heard it?
