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John Adams: Composing an American Life

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Los Angeles Public Library

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Classical Composer John Adams Dishes On Pop Culture

03 min 13 sec

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"The great bifurcation in music is between pop and classical," says composer John Adams.

He discusses the challenge of creating classical music in a nation dominated by pop culture and "lingering anti-intellectualism."
Does Classical Music Alienate Modern Audiences?

04 min 05 sec

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Composer John Adams argues that the "dissonant and very complex" style of modern classical music is alienating to contemporary audiences.

Adams also discusses his commissioned work to commemorate the September 11 attacks.
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01 hr 15 min 52 sec

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There are 2 comments on this program

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Previous FORAtv comments:

bailhe

Posted: 06.04.10, 05:58 PM

I'm a huge fan, loved his book, have about everything he's released, etc. I wish, however, someone had asked him to explain the distinction he seems to make between the artistic significance of pop culture and what he describes as his separate culture of serious art. There is certainly a great mass of daft, senseless -- even wretched output in pop culture, but I think there is likely a similar -- if not higher --percentage of serious art with equal failings. He intimates that high art is somehow more intellectual, contains more fascinating ideas, or something, but I can't understand that. Although literati typically have better vocabularies than gliterati, it seems to me their art -- the work that is meaningful and valuable to us -- talks about the same thing: the full experience of being a human being.

eglasgow

Posted: 06.05.09, 02:32 PM

He comes off as a divisive elitist when he says something along the lines of "They want to know what we're thinking," referring to non-intellectuals vs. intellectuals. There is not a dividing line, as he seems to suggest, between these two groups.