The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Don't agree with your analysis of Breakfast. I seem to be able to close my ears to trailers - and I still haven't heard a trailer for New Music, which is annoying folks so much.

It sounds as though you’re very lucky then. Some people are lucky enough to be unruffled by piped music in shops too, but I have to avoid these establishments to keep a level head. It’s much the same with Radio 3 mornings.

[cloughie]

Thanks for the link to ABC Australia, Crowcatcher. I agree that the Australian stations are pretty good, including the Jazz Station. However the second item on a Lunchtime Concert I listened to, after a Gabrieli fanfare, was a swinging blues march, followed by a composition for two marimbas! I don't think you can escape non-classical in this day and age, IMHO.

Don't agree with your analysis of Breakfast. I seem to be able to close my ears to trailers - and I still haven't heard a trailer for New Music, which is annoying folks so much.

You mean the one where Georgia Mann praises someone’s dreadful, uninspired music to the hilt! I like it so much I can’t remember the composer’s name.

[oddoneout]

Thanks for the link to ABC Australia, Crowcatcher. I agree that the Australian stations are pretty good, including the Jazz Station. However the second item on a Lunchtime Concert I listened to, after a Gabrieli fanfare, was a swinging blues march, followed by a composition for two marimbas! I don't think you can escape non-classical in this day and age, IMHO.

Don't agree with your analysis of Breakfast. I seem to be able to close my ears to trailers - and I still haven't heard a trailer for New Music, which is annoying folks so much.

There is a thing running at the moment which involves someone talking about a bit of modern music and then playing a bit. I've found the couple I've tried to listen to unsatisfactory - the combination of hesitant talk, tiny extracts and talking over the music doesn't work for me, and now I either mute or do something else while they are on. I'm afraid at one point I did think it sounded as if presenters etc had been asked to pull a slip out of a hat and then rustle up x words about it, rather than choosing something they knew/liked.
There are (have been? don't know if they're still going) trails fronted by Tom Service for some sort of new year/new music initiative/idea which also get muted/ignored by me, which might have been the cause of the irritation referred to?

[Quarky]

You mean the one where Georgia Mann praises someone’s dreadful, uninspired music to the hilt! I like it so much I can’t remember the composer’s name.

No, I haven't heard that one either. But that seems to be a technique that Elizabeth Alker uses permanently. Sometimes I wonder about her....no, I won't say any more......

[kernelbogey]

It sounds as though you’re very lucky then. Some people are lucky enough to be unruffled by piped music in shops too, but I have to avoid these establishments to keep a level head. It’s much the same with Radio 3 mornings.

I'm possibly posting slightly off-topic, but I've wanted to state this for a while - and unsure if it deserves a whole thread of its own. As an occasional nocturnal World Service listener I'm aware of producers' use of music (of a kind) in speech programmes, such as documentaries, and I guess this is true also of Radio4, which I rarely listen to. The 'music' is often rather featureless, electronically produced stuff, often runnng in background to speech. I imagine the purpose is believed to be to improve concentration by the listener. I find it distracting, and not much better when used without speech over it. I imagine my distaste for this is not far removed from Alpie's for piped 'background' music.

[cloughie]

No, I haven't heard that one either. But that seems to be a technique that Elizabeth Alker uses permanently. Sometimes I wonder about her....no, I won't say any more......

Yes EA’s regular Saturday morning example and plug for her disconnected programme has permanently deterred me from listening to it but I do own up to having now increased my interest in French singers though the broadcast time is more suitable for a morning cuppa tea than for croissants which are better matched to French holidays!

[french frank]

I find it distracting, and not much better when used without speech over it. I imagine my distaste for this is not far removed from Alpie's for piped 'background' music.

I suppose these reactions (distaste, finding unbearable) are just an individual's sensitivity. Not sure whether it's better to be completely desensitised or not: we seem to get 'badgered' a lot more by things these days. All related to the hard sell. We value your custom: please stay with us.

[kernelbogey]

I suppose these reactions (distaste, finding unbearable) are just an individual's sensitivity.

That's true. But by posting that opinion here, I sought to promulgate the wider point that the role of broadcast music is somehow diminished by this usage: the personal being also political.

[french frank]

That's true. But by posting that opinion here, I sought to promulgate the wider point that the role of broadcast music is somehow diminished by this usage: the personal being also political.

In fact I was saying (I think) that the usage you refer to was not innocent. I think the wider problem has always been that 'we' tended to put the view that 'Your practices have had the unintentional unwanted result that…' (which provokes the response, "Oh, dear me/us. We shall rectify the situation at once"). Whereas in reality the response would be, "Yes, we realised that would happen but we have other, superior aims which nullify your complaints."

[kernelbogey]

...we have other, superior aims....

Ah yes, of course.

[Serial_Apologist]

Not sure whether it's better to be completely desensitised or not: we seem to get 'badgered' a lot more by things these days. All related to the hard sell. We value your custom: please stay with us.

Well if it's OK that it is exactly this that they want of us, read right across the totality of modern life: get used to it because there's damn all you or I or anyone else can do about it. The thin end of a wedge.

[cloughie]

In fact I was saying (I think) that the usage you refer to was not innocent. I think the wider problem has always been that 'we' tended to put the view that 'Your practices have had the unintentional unwanted result that…' (which provokes the response, "Oh, dear me/us. We shall rectify the situation at once"). Whereas in reality the response would be, "Yes, we realised that would happen but we have other, superior aims which nullify your complaints."

Which means - ‘we’ve lost the plot and what you say doesn’t go anyway to help us find it - we know best!’

[oddoneout]

In fact I was saying (I think) that the usage you refer to was not innocent. I think the wider problem has always been that 'we' tended to put the view that 'Your practices have had the unintentional unwanted result that…' (which provokes the response, "Oh, dear me/us. We shall rectify the situation at once"). Whereas in reality the response would be, "Yes, we realised that would happen but we have other, superior aims which nullify your complaints."

And don't care - the possible other/superior aims are irrelevant when the constant received message is "we'll do what we want".

[french frank]

Which means - ‘we’ve lost the plot and what you say doesn’t go anyway to help us find it - we know best!’

And don't care - the possible other/superior aims are irrelevant when the constant received message is "we'll do what we want".

They have precise aims and do know what they're doing (understand that as you will ). If the aim is to attract a broader audience (people who need to be guided into an appreciation of classical music, those who already have other tastes which R3 hasn't hitherto catered for and younger people), we'll employ strategies to achieve those aims as a priority. If currently lower priority listeners are uhappy, sorry but …

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Which means - ‘we’ve lost the plot and what you say doesn’t go anyway to help us find it - we know best!’

Surely not. I thought the BBC's normal assumption was "We're always right!.