UNDER WRAPS

posted by James Reel

    National Public Radio is ashamed of classical music, its cultural mainstay since the network’s beginnings in the early 1970s. How can I say that? The classical presence is severely downplayed on the home page of the new NPR Music site. NPR describes this as “a free, multi-genre Web site that presents the best of public radio music. … NPR Music aims to be as diverse as our audience's interests and curiosity. That's why Jazz Profiles lives alongside World Café and Classics in Concert, and why we feature everyone from Aaron Copland and Aaron Neville, to Dan Zanes and Joe Zawinul. We want to surprise you with new artists, new music, and things you didn't know you would enjoy until you discovered them. The site is organized by genre and by type of musical content including live concerts, studio sessions, artist interviews, profiles, reviews, blogs and podcasts.”
    Apparently NPR is confident that we already know a lot about classical music, and the only things left to discover are jazz and the various popular genres.
    In reality, NPR Music does have a halfway promising classical section hidden away, although the content producers are so unsure of the appeal of classical music that they are compelled to pimp pianist Christopher O’Riley’s unbearably dull transcriptions of Radiohead songs, which is old news indeed. Perhaps in time the classical content will improve, but for now it seems embarrassed and half-hearted.