# Promotion of classical music



## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

Its obvious that they are using sex appeal to promote classical music on this video, cute young asian girls with very sexual dance routine. Personally i have nothing against it but still curious to see what you think.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Ravel's Bolero would have been more appropriate as a soundtrack.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

R U Sirius? This is Mega-Bull___... someone got paid work using music in the public domain (a near no cost cheapie) to make a dreadful video and work around a bunch of young Asian dancers. A Paid Lechery Project: the end result video -- a mere by product -- is not only really dreadful, it is ridiculous in the extreme. 

It might appeal to 12 year-old boys, and a few non bachelor senior citizens who are still married can trick their wives into believing they are listening to Dvorak while they're actually, well.... best left unsaid.

ADD: P.s. the video is so offensive on so many levels that if it were not also an extreme example of contempo-kitsch which it is in a ridiculously funny and surreal sort of way, it would be seriously offensive


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

This is pretty ridiculous. Our hypocrisy knows no bounds. If we're that horny then there are plenty of free porno vids online that are much more effective.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Where's the "More like this" button? Dvorak might have liked it (secretly). Not much of that sort of thing around in his day.


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## scratchgolf (Nov 15, 2013)

I watched the video (some of it). I found the young girls. Still looking for the cute girls though. Are they hidden in the background? I'll watch again and look harder this time.


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## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

I think that classical music definitely needs better promotion, but no....NOT LIKE THIS! Dvorak was not meant for twerking!!!


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

PetrB said:


> It might appeal to 12 year-old boys,


Hey, it can't hurt to have more twelve year-old boys listen to classical music. They'll start out with this, and then graduate to the musicians in that "most attractive female musician" thread. 

But I shouldn't say too much. Due to a cap on my internet data, I can't watch much in the way of online video, so I didn't watch this particular one.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Stargazer said:


> I think that classical music definitely needs better promotion, but no....NOT LIKE THIS! Dvorak was not meant for twerking!!!


Twerking To Dvorak is fine with me. I don't have any problem with the video except that it became boring well before the end.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Can you promote something by demoting it?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Woodduck said:


> Can you promote something by demoting it?


"There's no such thing as bad publicity."


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

And the fact that they use Karajans recording just oozes of lack of quality sense, my vote is; booring and way to lame, if You get provoked by this You should really get out more and interact with people other then the ones that that put limitations on Your reality check!

Someone should teach these Girls about Istvan Kertesz and not overdressing! 

/ptr


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

KenOC said:


> "There's no such thing as bad publicity."


There is, if it's "bad" in the sense of "ineffectual." This has to be bad in that sense - as well as every other.


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

Sex sells - and it has worked for the promotion of some of the more populist classical artists e.g. "Medieval Baebes", "Bond" (string quartet), and other female artists / groups with an unfeasibly attractive line-up.
This dancy thing to Dvorak, however: Cheap and nasty.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Well, ask Liszt about it!


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

Well, this is bad publicity. If we are not careful, then we might forever be reminded of this routine when listening to Dvorak's 9th. But if there is a battle between sex and classical music - then I have no doubts which side is winning. One is a basic instinct, the other just a luxury of the comfortable.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

shangoyal said:


> Well, this is bad publicity. If we are not careful, then we might forever be reminded of this routine when listening to Dvorak's 9th.


Which is why I stopped watching after about 30 seconds. It comes across as a tedious talent show routine. I'm all for eroticism in classical music, but it needs to be classy. I wouldn't even like this "same old bump and grind" if it were with some of my favorite classic rock.


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

Their parents must be proud.

Back in my day we didn't need no twerking or tittilation to bring the classics and the masses together:






I'm still having trouble finding the beat.

-

You know what would be _really_ cool? If K-Tel updated the series with a _Hooked On Darmstadt_

Or even _Hooked On Spectralism_


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

Most pop culture is filled with sex, very reveling cloths, sexual dance routines&lyrics its partly why it attracts todays youth.
Also does that dance routine actually change the music?
Does it make Dvoraks work which he wrote a long time ago any different?
Does it make sound different?
Does it change what Dvorak himself tried to say?

No, not at all.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

jani said:


> Most pop culture is filled with sex, very reveling cloths, sexual dance routines&lyrics its partly why it attracts todays youth.
> Also does that dance routine actually change the music?
> Does it make Dvoraks work which he wrote a long time ago any different?
> Does it make sound different?
> ...


It's not really about the music though, you see? It's about the cheap sexual stimulation… I'm not paying attention to Dvorak, I'm watching girls shake their backside at me while my animal urges start to fire off. The music is just an unfortunate ride-along.


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

My first objection is that they chose one of the least erotically-charged pieces of music for a dance video.
My second objection is that it was unimaginative and boring.

Any student film-maker could've done a better job.


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## JCarmel (Feb 3, 2013)

I'm afraid that I haven't watched a second of the video because I just hate the promotion of classical music in this way...yet there have been many female artists that have been persuaded to present themselves thus. I hate, hate, hate it!


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

Well, I applaud the desire to promote classical music, but I will admit that the combination of a Romantic symphony with that type of dancing just seems odd to me. If the intent is simply to provide sexy video to entice young people to listen to classical music, I suppose it could work somewhat, but I suspect that very few will be drawn to extended performances live or recorded.

I went to the originating site and found rules for submitting more videos to the project. Among the rules were these two:



> Be short. No longer than 5 minutes, the video has to appeal to the critical attention span of audiences today.
> 
> Be relevant. The visual part of the video must express the emotion of the classical music.


If the audiences really have a very short attention span, they likely will never truly embrace classical music. Although maybe some will try it, like it, and wish to listen longer. I think the Disney movie, Fantasia, merged visuals with the music rather well, but as I mentioned above, the visuals and music of this video seem rather at odds to me.

Anyway, the project is obviously not aimed at any of us. We already love classical music. They are trying to engage others who may have heard very little classical and trying to find a hook that might just cause some to explore further. If that happens, great.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

jani said:


> Most pop culture is filled with sex, very reveling cloths, sexual dance routines&lyrics its partly why it attracts todays youth.
> Also does that dance routine actually change the music?
> Does it make Dvoraks work which he wrote a long time ago any different?
> Does it make sound different?
> ...


It makes of the music a victim of some of the lowest end tastelessness in pop culture. It is a downer, and it is a lowest denominator rationale to give (male, anyway) pre-pubescent teens and teens "what they want." It is also condescending toward their native intelligence on a massive scale. ("You're too dumb and too distracted with sex to receive or like classical music unless we do this to it.")

So, yeah, as a first impression it is highly detrimental to the piece and to the new listener's perception of classical music in general. Classical music _is hip,_ but not because of any of the superficial aspects pasted on to it in this video.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

The rigid comments from some of you surprise me. Sexual attraction exists in every facet of life. The video in question won't do anything to damage classical music.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

If you want to get some sexual imagery with classical music try the movie Aria - 80s euro art house and it's much more fitting:






I tried starting a thread on this because it's so wonderfully mad but there were few takers :-(

The Marietta's lied is very topless


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

I can still picture the fat Elvis impersonator singing Rigoletto all these years later


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Bulldog said:


> The rigid comments from some of you surprise me. Sexual attraction exists in every facet of life. The video in question won't do anything to damage classical music.


I'm all for sex, just not teen-mentality tacky titillation in music videos, any genre.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

dgee said:


> If you want to get some sexual imagery with classical music try the movie Aria


Consider it done.


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## ethanjamesescano (Aug 29, 2012)

The video is very offensive.
The girls are not even attractive. 
They look like factory workers making iPhones in China.
It's not really promoting classical music, what they did is blasphemy

If they really want to promote classical music, this is the right way


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

This kind of stuff has no effect anymore.


I wonder though, about a certain violist, who is really into asian...


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## mtmailey (Oct 21, 2011)

The video looks fun to me but IT WILL NOT HELP TO ME,THEY NEED TO TEACH MORE OF CLASSICAL MUSIC!!Like in America they teach hip-hop/rap music to much i think.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I just noticed that the video has been posted for less than a month but has been viewed over 3.4 million times. Clearly many people are watching it. I would also suspect that classical music fans make up an exceedingly small percentage of those views. So many people who are not classical music fans are hearing classical music due to the video. Now, whether the video will motivate any of those people to listen to more classical music is not clear.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

There are some awkward comments on that video too, a top rated comment saying that all the judgmental-ness on the dancing goes to show why people don't like classical anymore, because we classical fans are a bunch of over-intellectual prudes for giving the impression that we "don't get" this dancing.  Another highly rated person said "Oh you don't know the guy (Dvorak), he may have envisioned this!" This is the world we live in... to heck with relativism sometimes!!


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

ptr said:


> And the fact that they use Karajans recording just oozes of lack of quality sense
> 
> /ptr


Meant to say I was very impressed you could identify this so easily as Karajan's.

Unfortunately now every time I hear Dvorak I'm going to imagine Karajan twerking at the audience from up on the podium.

(kidding, of course, I was doing that long before this came along)


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

OK so I actually watched some of this and isn't the whole point here that classical music is totally lame and lolz that you put some pretty girls dancing to it? Which would be why the chose the earnest and determinedly unsexy finale of Dvorak 9


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

dgee said:


> OK so I actually watched some of this and isn't the whole point here that classical music is totally lame and lolz that you put some pretty girls dancing to it? Which would be why the chose the earnest and determinedly unsexy finale of Dvorak 9


I agree with you. I got pretty much a similar impression - there is a mocking undertone to the video.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

jani said:


> Its obvious that they are using sex appeal to promote classical music on this video, cute young asian girls with very sexual dance routine. Personally i have nothing against it but still curious to see what you think.


Stupidest thing I've ever seen. Our human capacity for idiocy is boundless.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Art music's future is dependent on a faithful few and no amount of Asian *** will ever change this. The masses are not interested in demanding art and never have been, really.


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## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

I like some pop music and know The Beatles had mass appeal though what they did back then is likely considered art now so some art will have mass appeal won't it?


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

ethanjamesescano said:


> The video is very offensive.
> The girls are not even attractive.
> They look like factory workers making iPhones in China.
> It's not really promoting classical music, what they did is blasphemy
> ...


They aren't promoting classical music, they are using classical music to promote their bank.


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