Dare I....

[ardcarp]

....talk about the much maligned R3 Mix Tape? Yesterday's (Monday's) had some lovely things in the mix, including a version of Hermanni's St Brigitta's Hymn with Trio Medieval (9min 26 sec from start) and Owain Park's Coelos Ascendit sung by Trinity College Choir (23min 46 sec from start).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001bc7

I enjoyed the other stuff in it too, but I just wish it hadn't been curated. Why is that silly word used for everything these days?

I'm hoping to get my hair curated in a few days.

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm hoping to get my hair curated in a few days.

You will then have become a curated egghead, ardy!

[cloughie]

....talk about the much maligned R3 Mix Tape? Yesterday's (Monday's) had some lovely things in the mix, including a version of Hermanni's St Brigitta's Hymn with Trio Medieval (9min 26 sec from start) and Owen Park's Coelos Ascendit sung by Trinity College Choir (23min 46 sec from start).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001bc7

I enjoyed the other stuff in it too, but I just wish it hadn't been curated. Why is that silly word used for everything these days?

I'm hoping to get my hair curated in a few days.

I had mine done today - fortunately just cut and not remixed! Looks and feels better!

[Roslynmuse]

I don't hear the programme very often, but when I do I like it simply because there's no chat. It's a bit like Words and Music in that respect - no false chumminess, just the readings and the music.

I recall that discussion of 'curated' came up a few weeks back. It irritates me, maybe unreasonably, but there it is.

Trip to the barbers booked for next Tuesday. I hate having my hair cut but I hate the state it is in currently even more...

[ardcarp]

I don't hear the programme very often, but when I do I like it simply because there's no chat.

Same here. I don't go out of my way to hear it, but when it happens to be on in the car or round the house I usually enjoy it.

[LMcD]

Same here. I don't go out of my way to hear it, but when it happens to be on in the car or round the house I usually enjoy it.

Same here, too. I think the increased use of 'curated' is simply a reflection of the way the language is transitioning - or is it being transitioned?

[cloughie]

Same here, too. I think the increased use of 'curated' is simply a reflection of the way the language is transitioning - or is it being transitioned?

Or is it moving irreversibly on in a bad direction?

[Pulcinella]

I see that the strapline on the BBC Schedule page reads:

Switch up your listening with classical music

What on earth does that mean?

On the few occasions I listened in the past, I couldn't bear the abrupt and jarring changes of key between pieces.
That offended me much more than any change of style/genre.
I wonder if whoever is curating the programme now puts together a more pleasing sequence of keys.

[Ein Heldenleben]

....talk about the much maligned R3 Mix Tape? Yesterday's (Monday's) had some lovely things in the mix, including a version of Hermanni's St Brigitta's Hymn with Trio Medieval (9min 26 sec from start) and Owain Park's Coelos Ascendit sung by Trinity College Choir (23min 46 sec from start).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001bc7

I enjoyed the other stuff in it too, but I just wish it hadn't been curated. Why is that silly word used for everything these days?

I'm hoping to get my hair curated in a few days.

I enjoy the mixtape . I don’t enjoy the use of the word curated to describe the half days (?) work involved in selecting a a few pieces for a half hour music programme when it should be reserved for those who’ve spent weeks curating an exhibition or gallery showing-that is a very demanding task . The word is used because it sounds pretentious and impressive and because it makes the medium skilled task of putting together a music programme more difficult than it is.

[gurnemanz]

Or is it moving irreversibly on in a bad direction?

I don't object to "curated". The way human languages evolve is for me one of the greatest miracles of what it means to be human. As a linguist, I find it constantly intriguing. Like most people I have subjective personal preferences (even prejudices) about new linguistic phenomena but believe that in themselves they cannot be said to be either good nor bad, but, if they survive, simply found by to be useful as communication. New words sometimes seem to arrive spontaneously and pragmatically in everyday use but Shakespeare and Milton and countless other writers made up words. They will enter enter the language if people find them useful and survive if people continue to do so.

Language can of course be used to manipulate whether in the field of politics or advertising. Victor Klemperer was Professor of French at Dresden in 30's. He only survived because his wife wasn't Jewish. His study of the language of the Third Reich (LTI: Lingua Tertii Imperii) is a a detailed and fascinating record of the Nazis' distortion of the German language. The Nazis were "bad", not the language. It's available in English but I've only read the German and it must lose a lot in translation.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I don't object to "curated". The way human languages evolve is for me one of the greatest miracles of what it means to be human. As a linguist, I find it constantly intriguing. Like most people I have subjective personal preferences (even prejudices) about new linguistic phenomena but believe that in themselves they cannot be said to be either good nor bad, but, if they survive, simply found by to be useful as communication. New words sometimes seem to arrive spontaneously and pragmatically in everyday use but Shakespeare and Milton and countless other writers made up words. They will enter enter the language if people find them useful and survive if people continue to do so.

Language can of course be used to manipulate whether in the field of politics or advertising. Victor Klemperer was Professor of French at Dresden in 30's. He only survived because his wife wasn't Jewish. His study of the language of the Third Reich (LTI: Lingua Tertii Imperii) is a a detailed and fascinating record of the Nazis' distortion of the German language. The Nazis were "bad", not the language. It's available in English but I've only read the German and it must lose a lot in translation.

I have no problem with new words for pretty much the reasons you list . What I regret is the blurring of meaning in useful words which then creates unhelpful ambiguity. For example the constant use of the word “refute” when what is meant is “rebut” or “reject” . That strikes me as an impoverishment “of what it means to be human”. For the same reason in factual prose I don’t like the pretentious, the use of jargon or cliche. Using curate to describe the relatively simple task of putting a music list together is a good example of all three. What’s wrong with the words” choose “or “select.” What did Orwell say -never use a complex word where there’s a simple alternative ?

[ardcarp]

Yes, of course language gradually changes over time. (But as someone else suggested, 'curated' is just pretentious...and probably only used by those who consider themselves culturally superior.) Interesting that l'Academie Francaise exists mainly to protect the French language. It doesn't seem to be wholly successful, vis le weekend. I don't think any institution can fight against the popular use of popular words and expressions....which in time become mainstream.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Yes, of course language gradually changes over time. (But as someone else suggested, 'curated' is just pretentious...and probably only used by those who consider themselves culturally superior.) Interesting that l'Academie Francaise exists mainly to protect the French language. It doesn't seem to be wholly successful, vis le weekend. I don't think any institution can fight against the popular use of popular words and expressions....which in time become mainstream.

Yes the Academie Francaise is wasting its time. All languages eventually die and one day English will. But in the meantime I’d live with curate if R3 presenters could stop using the words brilliant and fantastic all the time ...

[ardcarp]

By co-incidence, I was chatting with a graphic artist who moved to the UK from Chile about 10 years ago. I was asking him about how Chilean Spanish differed from that spoken in Spain, and he laughed and threw his hands up in a hopeless gesture. 'Where do I start' he said. Basically he said it was impossible to sum up all the linguistic changes in South America. In some areas Spanish is spoken as it might have been 400 years ago differeing in both words and pronunciation. He went on to talk about other communitues (Welsh in Patagonia, Germans in Brazil, etc, etc) which hang on to language and traditions that were practised a long time ago but which have died out...or at least become heavily modified...in the Father-/Mother-land. Then of course there's the mingling with native Americans. It's a huge subject, and I'm sure books must have been written about it.

I wonder how 'curate' has got on? Seems more sensible in mainstream Spanish:

[museum] dirigir
[exhibition] organizar ⧫ comisariar
[festival, event] organizar

The word 'cura' seems to have something of the priest about it.

[jayne lee wilson]

Largely given up posting here, fed up with being attacked or ignored, but to quote myself from 15/03/21......

Among current definitions/usage this one from Cambridge Dictionaries....

"to select things such as documents, music, products, or internet content to be included as part of a list or collection, or on a website"....

Why do people here get so upset about it? Why should it not be used in this way?
Peer into the root of the word, you'll find it has a greater element of care implied in the selection and/or presentation process than "choice" "sequence" or "selection" itself....

"from Medieval Latin cūrātus, from cūrāre "to have spiritual charge of" " (Merriam-Webster); a curate was one "dedicated to caring for souls"....
Rather apt for artistic matters and "care-full" selections, one would think...

Language is organic, creative, historical, habitual...it never stops changing through usage (in speech or writing)....
Synonyms, the more the better, should be relished for their shades of meaning...especially when they go this deep.