In response to DDR's set up, which I know was intended tended at least
half-humorously, I did wish to say something. The decline of interest in
OTR -- and Dr. B may dismiss these proposed reasons and offer others, as is
his wont, and right -- derives from numerous factors that worked against
it: the concentration of the legacy into too few hands with botiuqey/gifty
business models, the drying up of conventional radio outlets still
delivering the goods, the aging/dying off of the original audience that
remembered it from when there was no TV, the enthusiasts' interest in too
few of the genres represented by OTR, etc. It came to a point where the OTR
universe was contracting, rather than expanding, and once that plateau is
reached it becomes like a white dwarf, a tiny former star with all of the
material packed inside it, growing ever denser and dimmer.
By virtue of its mandate, ARSC is busier and more badly needed than ever
before. The manifold DRM issues, the recent and unprecedented truly serious
and scholarly investigation into pre-1917 recordings outside of opera, the
controversy of what constitutes jazz and what that has stirred up,
activating interest in a whole range of little appreciated dance band
recordings, the rapidly decaying formats of recent times and the neglect
from scholars of relatively recent eras. The failure of "new musicology"
and the lassitude of musicologists more concerned with accruing tenure --
which is getting away from them anyway -- than with developing a true
understanding of developments in music of recent eras. And so forth, and so
forth .... Jeez.
We can't cure all of these issues, but they all prevent some kind of
challenge, and we find ourselves of finding ourselves having somewhat
whiter hats than the white hats who ought to have the job of evaluating or
taking care of these things. And I admit I expanded our definition beyond
what we do, but all of this affects us in some way. The universe is clearly
expanding, not contracting, for ARSC. It is all our little organization can
do to keep up with new developments, and much of the relevant news I hear
either comes through this list or its members. I'm not happy to see the OTR
people disband, and another thing we might have to consider is how to deal
with OTR related issues now that there is no more OTR organization to
centralize thinking about it, access and to respond to what level of
enthusiasm there is about it. It never ends.
Uncle Dave Lewis
Lebanon, OH
On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 11:09 AM, Dennis Rooney <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
> All who fear ARSC as we know it self-extinguishing must read this.
>
> DDR
>
>
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