![Review: Various Artists - 50 Shades of Grey: The Classical Album [Album]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/geek/gars/images/1/4/7/2/1/fifty-shades-of-grey-classical-album.jpg)
![Review: Various Artists - 50 Shades of Grey: The Classical Album [Album]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/altthumb.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fhangout.altsounds.com%2Fgeek%2Fgars%2Fimages%2F1%2F4%2F7%2F2%2F1%2Ffifty-shades-of-grey-classical-album.jpg&w=500&h=500&zc=1&q=70){kind=small}
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50 Shades of Grey. A book that’s caused a huge amount of controversy, whilst becoming a household name and putting erotica on the map. Badly written, Twilight fan fiction, with catastrophically disillusioned plot, an ‘inner goddess dancing inside’ amongst pages filled with torturous sex that between a multi-billionaire who’s an emotional disaster, and a pathetic young student with no control whatsoever. Of course, I have read the book, discussed it with many a peer, and gathered my own opinion of the whole sordid thing. As you can probably tell, I wasn’t a huge fan, and every fibre of my bean was crying with each word I read whilst screaming “why don’t you just click on ‘synonyms’ to find a different adjective or noun you utter fool” accompanied with the brisk swish of turning page after page in hope it gets better (it doesn’t).
When I read the news that EMI were releasing a 50 Shades of Grey compilation album, my mouth hit the keyboard. A big red flag waved and there was only one reason, and one reason only why EMI would consider such a thing, any guesses? Writing a review on some of the most important pieces of classical works ever written, such meticulous masterpieces full of grace and perfection, performed by countless people over centuries, filled with passion, beauty and the ability to wash a whole host of emotions over you from start to end, then sticking 50 Shades of Grey on the cover, jarred. It seemed wrong and just going against the grain in so many ways. Can you imagine if we could go back in time, and Bach is putting the final touches to 'Adagio from Concerto #3' and you ran in screaming “NO – YOU ARE WRITING THE SOUNDTRACK TO FUTURISTIC MOMMY PORN”! I think they’d be flabbergasted.
However, can we still appreciate the music and disassociate the 50 Shades branding EMI have chosen to use? Of course we can! This is a stunning compilation that proves to a collection of some of the most timeless pieces of musical works of arts that’s ever floated from times gone by and continues to live on with the modern Romantic ideals.
The likes of Bach, Verdi, Debussy, Pachelbel and Chopin et al were master musicians, talented musical connoisseurs, whose music are as powerful and majestic now as when it was written in the 1600’s and later on in the 1800’s. They are immortalised in their music, and heralded as true Romantic kings, looked up to as role models, passing on their teachings to aspiring musicians and composers. Now in 2012, a music industry giant of the future have taken the Romantic and placed it right next to the sordid. It seems like a complete juxtaposition, where the beauty, the splendour of the gracious sweeping melodies awash with angelic tones and historic grandeur is paralleled with E L James’ monstrous 50 Shades of Grey. Literature is filled with twinned imagery and ideologies, you have your good and bad, black and white, rich and poor, and now we have purity with filth.
Most of the tracks feature in the book, and they added a dimension to Christian’s complex personality, adding an air of intellect and maybe even more richness (apart from his monetary value). Did they make a huge difference? Not really. The readers aren’t interested in whether he’s playing Verdi’s 'La Traviata Prelude' or Pachelbel’s 'Canon in D', just how he’s going to sleep with Anastasia. They don’t really have individual relevance and clout in the story at all. Just a mention and then it’s back to the mind games and sex.
Although, we can’t be completely negative. I feel that E L James has at least brought the magazine readers into the book realm, and getting more people reading is definitely what this world needs. And if these fans are now being exposed to classical music properly (I’m sure it’s graced their ears previously, but unknowingly to them) then that surely is another good thing. Another point to consider is that the Romantics catalogued in this anthology of classical greatness had a plethora of muses, and who knows what happened behind their bedroom doors. Maybe they had their own Anastasia’s, their own sexual frivolities and complex relationships that became the driving force behind the music we love just as much today as we did yesterday, and we will continue to do so as each track proves to be durable to the harsh trends of the fickle music arena.
REMEMBER: The ratings are solely based on the music, and has nothing to do with 50 Shades of Grey.
When I read the news that EMI were releasing a 50 Shades of Grey compilation album, my mouth hit the keyboard. A big red flag waved and there was only one reason, and one reason only why EMI would consider such a thing, any guesses? Writing a review on some of the most important pieces of classical works ever written, such meticulous masterpieces full of grace and perfection, performed by countless people over centuries, filled with passion, beauty and the ability to wash a whole host of emotions over you from start to end, then sticking 50 Shades of Grey on the cover, jarred. It seemed wrong and just going against the grain in so many ways. Can you imagine if we could go back in time, and Bach is putting the final touches to 'Adagio from Concerto #3' and you ran in screaming “NO – YOU ARE WRITING THE SOUNDTRACK TO FUTURISTIC MOMMY PORN”! I think they’d be flabbergasted.
LISTEN // Bach - 'Concerto in D Minor'
However, can we still appreciate the music and disassociate the 50 Shades branding EMI have chosen to use? Of course we can! This is a stunning compilation that proves to a collection of some of the most timeless pieces of musical works of arts that’s ever floated from times gone by and continues to live on with the modern Romantic ideals.
The likes of Bach, Verdi, Debussy, Pachelbel and Chopin et al were master musicians, talented musical connoisseurs, whose music are as powerful and majestic now as when it was written in the 1600’s and later on in the 1800’s. They are immortalised in their music, and heralded as true Romantic kings, looked up to as role models, passing on their teachings to aspiring musicians and composers. Now in 2012, a music industry giant of the future have taken the Romantic and placed it right next to the sordid. It seems like a complete juxtaposition, where the beauty, the splendour of the gracious sweeping melodies awash with angelic tones and historic grandeur is paralleled with E L James’ monstrous 50 Shades of Grey. Literature is filled with twinned imagery and ideologies, you have your good and bad, black and white, rich and poor, and now we have purity with filth.
LISTEN // Pachelbel - 'Canon in D'
Most of the tracks feature in the book, and they added a dimension to Christian’s complex personality, adding an air of intellect and maybe even more richness (apart from his monetary value). Did they make a huge difference? Not really. The readers aren’t interested in whether he’s playing Verdi’s 'La Traviata Prelude' or Pachelbel’s 'Canon in D', just how he’s going to sleep with Anastasia. They don’t really have individual relevance and clout in the story at all. Just a mention and then it’s back to the mind games and sex.
Although, we can’t be completely negative. I feel that E L James has at least brought the magazine readers into the book realm, and getting more people reading is definitely what this world needs. And if these fans are now being exposed to classical music properly (I’m sure it’s graced their ears previously, but unknowingly to them) then that surely is another good thing. Another point to consider is that the Romantics catalogued in this anthology of classical greatness had a plethora of muses, and who knows what happened behind their bedroom doors. Maybe they had their own Anastasia’s, their own sexual frivolities and complex relationships that became the driving force behind the music we love just as much today as we did yesterday, and we will continue to do so as each track proves to be durable to the harsh trends of the fickle music arena.
REMEMBER: The ratings are solely based on the music, and has nothing to do with 50 Shades of Grey.
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