Phew, lots of great points marc, I dont know how you guys can put such effort into blogging, I seem to find it hard to focus on just reading these lengthy dissertations. ( since no one has replied to marc yet I think I am not alone???)That said, a few things filtered through my addled brain, reading this marc, ...there is a new controversial book out about the history of western music, ( I may have mentioned this to some of you so forgive my repetition), and in it, ( having only read the book review and forgetting the authors name),it purports to draw a strong link between the artist and their socio economic context. For example , contrary to a point of marcs', some famous artists like Chopin, were wealthy and catered to from birth and lived in what we would consider stardom from inception, yet he still produced this great body of work. Just goes to show that there are holes in all our theries and that you cant pin down artistic impulses to any one set of rules. I do believe hartily with marc that we expect far too much from our artists and I think that was the thrust of my first reaction to Brians original comment, ( marc expressed it much more eloquently)...
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