[NewMusic] Ribot rant and subsidized spaces in Europe

[Michael Zelner]

On 4/8/2007, David Slusser wrote:

> I should stay out of this - but I've always maintained
> that Americans are really going out to see celebrities 
> when they are ostensibly going out for music or anything
> else.

For some people, it's a mixture of the two -- but even those folks will tend towards the "names" when choosing what performers to see and hear.

Take my mother (please). She considers herself well-informed on modern American culture (as a daily reader of the NY Times and frequent viewer of PBS, doncha know). Yet when I tell her about some concert or other that I've seen around here, many times she hasn't heard of the artist and will ask, "Is he famous? Should I have heard of him?" She read the article about Cecil Taylor at Jazz At Lincoln Center (sic) and knew who Wynton Marsalis was (because he's "famous") but not Cecil Taylor.

MZ