Douglas Rosenthal published a delightful article at Who’s Your Audience? that puts a fun spin on the traditional New Year’s resolution theme by coming up with a shortlist of things he doesn’t want to hear you talking about connected to the classical music field.
Admittedly, I write this post wearing my Grumpy Pants. But I’m also donning my Optimism Cardigan.
I challenge you not to love anything following that.
Rosenthal’s quartet of no-zone topics include:
All the great opera singers are dead.
I listen to classical music when I want to relax.
Classical Music is dying.
Anything that degrades women.
You should definitely swing by and read the full post to learn more about why those made his list.
And since I too own a pair of grumpy pants (but really, who doesn’t?), I’ll add two more to the list:
Disrupt [fill in the blank]. This field isn’t TechCrunch and slipping the word “disrupt” into decades old talking points on the concert environment, programming, or business models isn’t fooling anyone. Nonetheless, my pessimistic side expects to see this word worm its way into the titles and talking points of more than a fair share of conference sessions and industry magazine articles. Resist being lured into thinking these are genuinely fresh conversations.
#MeToo discussions that interject “yes, but…genius” points. It doesn’t matter which A-List artist you’re talking about, if you feel the need to pepper a conversation about sexual misconduct with any sort of qualifying remark rooted in artistic excellence, just stop. You aren’t adding perspective and regardless the reason, you’re simply displaying a remarkable lack of empathy. If you aren’t sure where the line is, go read this article and use the author’s approach as a guide for what not to do.
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