Why Music Has Lost it’s Charms (Article)

Operas and classical was the commercial music of it’s time.

Not true...

Projecting our actual economical categories on the past is not very useful...

First Vivaldi, Haendel and Bach were paid by some Religious or Noble elites not by a general popular market in the modern sense at all...

Second put the word "popular" instead of "commercial" word if you want to be truthful ... Why?

Because the tradition was not about economical consumerism but about learning cultural and spiritual activities, religious or secular, but NEVER based on pure mercantilism but on transmission of cultural values mainly....

Third, music was mainly a spiritual event paid by church for centuries...And with no recording, playing musicians were mostly artists or learning families playings, nothing commercial ...

But you can abuse the word and concept and claim that standing in a hall after buying a ticket to listen Liszt was a "commercial" event...But it will be completely beside the point of whatmusic was meaning at this modern time period...

Commercial music is an invention of this last industrial century mainly....

Then Operas and classical was the popular music of it’s time...Not the "commercial" affair it is today....

And a commercial publicity for an opera in Italy in the 19 century, has not much to do with consumerism marketing strategies of today....Puccini was popular yes, but not a consumers objetc, he was idolized because he was a true artist....This is not commerce, even if there is commercial aspect, the singers must be paid etc, this is culture event first and last ....

Modern pop industry can even create temporary idols who dont have almost no talent at all , one after the others...I will not name one...But they all know how to walk and dance for sure... They are sold with visuals...

I feel the current model potentially can yield a further “democratization” of music commerce.  I’m not sad to see the old model (get signed by a major label, hopefully become famous) die.  The improvement to the current model would be to more fairly compensate the artists that are on streaming platforms.

The doom-and-gloom take is more applicable to film, in my opinion.  It’s easier for artists to get their music “out there” these days.  Artists in film seem to be toast.  No one wants to fund interesting films.  There’s no corollary to modern music distribution in modern film that I can see.  Unless you are lucky to live somewhere where you can hound art house theaters or have access to modern independent films, you’re stuck with the contemporary drivel that passes for cinema.

They made music because they were paid to whether by church or as often nobility. For money, the definition of commercial. No one else could afford such frivolities to commission work. However, it was also consumed by the masses .. so popular and commercial though of what competition I can't speak. 

They made music because they were paid to whether by church or as often nobility. For money, the definition of commercial. No one else could afford such frivolities to commission work. However, it was also consumed by the masses .. so popular and commercial though of what competition I can’t speak.

You are beside the main point...

There ALWAYS existed commercial aspect to any activities in all centuries..It is a common place fact...

But my point was that commercial music consumerism is a late affair... It is born AFTER playback system of Charles Cros and Edison...

Popular music of the past is not commercial music in the modern sense of the word...

Popular dont equal commercial in music culture....

In the past music was an education toward spirit and religious matter or toward beauty and superior values... This word "beauty" is cancelled today....

This dont exist no more in commercial music...

Nowadays Bob Dylan is a popular poet for example not a commercial object first and last...

If you say to Dylan that he is  merely a commercial product , he will be insulted...

If you say that to some commercial artists they will be glad and will try to improve their packaging and they will ask you how to do it better....

Then saying that Vivaldi one hundred operas were "commercial" music is not true...

Popular yes... Commercial not....We cannot read the past projecting onto it retrospectively our own categories sorry...Historians wrote entire  books about this error only....

Forrest for the trees.

Commerical music now and then ... Has always been commercial (sellable) because it was what people wanted to listen to of what was available.