High or low culture - what's it to be, then? OK, go on, have both. Reading Art In The Age Of Mass Media by John A. Walker sparked a few thoughts on cultural summits and troughs, neither of which exist if you insist on being what I think is called 'post-modern'.
Published in 1983, the book takes on such subjects as what 'fine art' is and how it relates to other areas of creativity such as advertising; describing the differences in clear prose which even a dummy like me can understand. Not that I need explaining to but spotting this book cheap I couldn't resist.
I remember when the high vs low culture debate was on the agenda, or seemed to be. I don't know why it became an issue, except to guess that someone of 'importance' stated that Bob Dylan's prose is as good as Dylan Thomas's, or something...probably.
Walker's title speaks of its time when, even two decades on from McLuhan's 'message', the media was still a debatable subject regarding it's influence (or not) on the masses. Pre-PC media being newspapers, TV, radio, magazines etc, whereas today we know what 'the media' is (that little screen we hold in our hands). Debates still (and always will) rage about the impact of the internet, of course. Perhaps in decades to come there will have been a definitive survey of thousands of people which proves it a) rotted our brains, b) increased our intelligence, c) had no permanent effect whatsoever.
The thing about today is that despite it's total democratisation of cultural possibilities the internet has no more 'improved' people's taste than TV did when it tried, at times, to be educational. I only mention the idea of 'improvement' because I've heard it said that 'the kids' of today can find 'high' culture at the tap of a link; ergo, there's a good chance they will. That's rubbish spouted by positive-minded idealists. Despite the possibility, we know people will still generally stick to the kind of stuff they like, so yes, you can listen to a whole side of Stockhausen on YouTube, but why would you go there unless you want to discover him? That said and god knows how, you will frequently see comments from those who stray upon avant-garde music by chance only to leave a derisory comment before leaving forever (except to return to see what their comment provoked).
Whether 'high' culture is better than 'low' is a question long lost in time since people stopped caring. The media stopped caring too. When Channel 4 was new (1982) to UK TV in promoting art forms such as Jazz it appeared to be making a radical gesture. In retrospect it was probably only trying to be trendy in the context of the revival that was happening at the time. Still, it would also show films such as Stalker. My generation like to remind everyone at any chance they get that it wasn't uncommon for BBC2 to show 'art house' films (with subtitles!).
Well we're all living in a permanent context handed us by date of birth. In that regard, I miss the old debates about high and low culture. I miss people battling it out over the merits of an Arnold Schwarzenegger film compared to one made by Ingmar Bergman. It was as if people cared, which they did. As futile as it all seems now, such arguments tallied with public gestures such as carrying a Blue Note album under your arm on the tube. As Keith Richards recalled of meeting Mick Jagger in 1962 on platform two of Dartford Train Station: "The thing about Mick and my meeting was that he was carrying two albums with him – Rockin’ at the Hops by Chuck Berry, and The Best of Muddy Waters." That's how we sent out signals in the hope that like-minded souls would respond, or at least feel comforted by seeing a fellow traveller (in taste).
Blah, blah. Now we connect on the social network. We form cliques with strangers whom we may never meet. We inhabit taste bubbles. We need to because mass media mainstream taste is hammering at our door 24/7. That which gives us pleasure threatens to deliver cultural pain at every opportunity in the form of adverts, comments, news etc.
Before I go and listen to Middle Of The Road's Chirpy, Chirpy Cheep Cheep followed by some David Tudor I present something I made a few days ago. Whether it constitutes 'high' or 'low' culture, you can decide...
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| Accelerated Destruction, RTomens, 2017 |
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