Is YouTube inhabited by idiots who feel better by criticising others?

[David Pinnegar]

Hi!

I mentioned elsewhere about YouTube videos receiving rude comments . . . The trouble is that often they are the most popularly watched . . .

There's currently a wonderful example of people who like to make rude comments on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ImUo2w1YgQ
which features a great fun character organist who can handle nearly any score put in front of him . . . but rather likes experiencing the POWER of FULL ORGAN which as on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81JzrpXMB14
the camera audio simply cannot cope . . .

When one explains this to rude commentators and directs them to properly recorded recordings such as
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe_eJ60PmtM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nrvPmirH7c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9usBggyS5Nk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD9FFPhyRd4
and a French Baroque Masterclass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1YcEjz8Xro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi2pdYou-Rs
asking them to name 5 other organs in the UK where one can teach such repertoire, it's really amazing the number of such people who can't make positive comments on those recordings, nor even repeat their initial tirades about the instrument directed to those recordings . . .

Are there simply inadequate people around who like to criticise others just so that they can feel superior enough to have been able to do so?

Best wishes

David P

[Holditch]

Hi David

I'm afraid the world is full of idiots who feel better by criticising others. All we can do is tolerate them and I suppose feel pity!

I think it is a bold thing to put anything on Youtube that involves yourself, and most of the people who are criticising are not brave enough to do this

Marc

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

It looks as if I was fortunate with the Harmonium tracks I posted a while back - there were no negative comments last time I looked anyway.

I wish more people would learn that constructive criticism helps, destructive criticism doesn't. I know people who refuse to sing in public simply because at scholl they were told they were no good.

Every Blessing

Tony

[dragonser]

Hi,
I couldn't put what you have said better......
I wonder if this is down to a change in culture, generally people seem to be much more critical on the internet and maybe say things they would not say to someone in person ?
[ or maybe they would ! ].

regards Peter B

Hi



I wish more people would learn that constructive criticism helps, destructive criticism doesn't.

Every Blessing

Tony

[David Pinnegar]

Dear Tony, Marc and Peter

Actually there are two or three factors here
1. the world is seperating increasingly into postive and negative people
2. YouTube is a means of influencing the young generation
3. In all walks of life there are people who think that the best way to climb the ladder is to tread other people down
4. I find diffilculty in counting in advance
5. There is a young generation untempered by the teachings of Christian doctrine in schools whose role models are only the false idols of celebrity culture, fashion, leading to mindlessness akin to the reproduction of amoeba in the sea, and ultimately money and how to "get" it. To our forebears who had to grapple with the reality of what were necessities during the 2nd World War, working together meant expressions of basic civilities in the course of endeavours in the common spirit and even when such common endeavours ceased to have relevance, the civilities persisted. To many of the modern generation the mantra is merely that of "get it at all costs".

Music, especially orchestral endeavours, brings people together in playing and appreciation but unbridled excesses of personal ambitions and the externalisation of the expression of the ego becomes unpleasant.

Perhaps in the organ world this is an area where piston technology has done away with the necessity of having to work with an assistant in a civilised way and so in some cases allowing the ego to join those of the celebrity culture. Long live non-celebrity organists and organists who have no intentions in that direction!

Having said this, however, I do hope that the opportunities that this forum provides for both organ builders being able to enthuse about their work and for organists to enthuse about forthcoming recitals may enable higher profile to players who can bring enjoyment and enthusiasms to audiences - and in this way to promote the instrument by series of positive steps in contrast to the YouTube negative commentators.

In answer to players who fear putting recordings on YouTube, to them I would urge that it's a great medium for positive influence to positive people and in fact the negative detractors will not matter because the power of the negative is diffused and defused by negativity and cannot compete with the focus of energy that positivity encourages. The result must be a gain of enthusiasm towards the instrument - it all goes towards that old saying that all publicity is good publicity. . . .

Best wishes

David P

[organforumadmin]

This post comes up on a search for

"The internet is inhabited by complete morons"


Also on that search is http://www.rubberrepublic.com/2010/01/are-trolls-bad-for-our-health/ which is a very interesting psychological analysis of a commonly encountered problem.


Best wishes


Forum Admin

[Barry Williams]

There are, regrettably, folk around who are incapable of objective criticism of anything, nor of subjective criticism in an honest and frank way.

It is perfectly valid to state why one thinks a particular performance is good or bad, moving or dry, by reference to the performance of other musicians, or by one's own  reception of the music.  Discourtesy is never appropriate and in any event tends to detract from the force of objective comment.

It was with some dismay that I noted the author of certain entirely unacceptable comments on Youtube.

It does seem that there is open resentment of successful organists, particularly those who are able to attract a large audience.

The problem is not confined to Youtube, for the names of unwise critics crop up on Facebook and similar places.  It is, as our Forum Administrator states, that some people appear to feel better by criticising others.  It is unfortunate that in doing so they often damage those others, sometimes including their professional reputation.  I fear that such things also damage the reputation of the organ as being an instrument that attracts unbalanced people.

This Forum, like Youtube, is a very public place.  Not all those who read it wish to participate.  I do urge eveyone to be moderate in expressing themselves, trying always to see the other point of view, especially when criticism is involved.

Barry Williams

[organforumadmin]

Dear Barry

It appears that the varied discussions on this forum are widely valuable in possibly linking things together in a helpful way. The forum comes up on "the tragedy of aspergers" with http://www.organmatters.co.uk/index.php?topic=466.0 and for these reasons discussions such as this in the miscellaneous section are a potentially helpful sociological resource. http://www.organmatters.com/index.php/topic,683.0.html is also linked.

With regard to your concern that the organ might attract people of a certain predisposition, I think that this might be a significant misconception. In common with steam trains and planes and military vehicle, the instrument provides a focus for young people who enjoy the control of machinery of superhuman power. Those who are so inspired may remain at a base level, as people remain sadly in many walks of life, but many go on to develop their intellects in a profound way, the instrument being perhaps the most demanding of any to contend with. The number of organist who happen to be physicists is testimony to this.

Indeed, physicists themselves are dealing with forces in subatomic physics, cosmology and nuclear energy wholly beyond human control and of superhuman power.

As a Forum I hope that we can include successfully, tolerate and guide all who choose to partake and contribute and it should be the pleasure and the duty of the old and experienced to guide the young and inexperienced and it's in this way that I hope that the fathers of the organ in our generation will give perhaps a little more of their resources in time in so doing. It's in this way that hopefully we can inspire the next generation.

In doing so, one does need broad shoulders. There is, through not many clicks to links from this post, a mention of a YouTube comment along the lines of "He has bad hair, an electronic organ with a self destruct stop" to which the victim replied "What an epitaph" on the basis that the bad comment spoke for itself. . . a matter to which you refer in terms of self damage to a reputation.

The other day a young member picked me up on mentioning that a particular instrument had an acoustic bass, telling me that it had only a 16ft and a Quint to which I enlightened him that the only function of that Quint was for the purpose of producing the synthetic 32ft. Were he to have raised this issue publicly, and this is the knub of the link http://www.rubberrepublic.com/2010/01/are-trolls-bad-for-our-health/ , his ignorance of the importance of the harmonic series in the production of organ sounds, which we will politely refer to as inexperience, could very easily be mistaken for "trolling". However, were his raising of the matter to have risked that, discussion could have been continued in an explanation of the subject which I suspect many do not appreciate. Having forum members who have an inability to see how others see them enables them to ask questions that no-one else dares to ask. Of course this was the function of the Court Jester in days of yore, and a Court which did not allow the function of a Jester became as effective as that of Louis XI and Marie Antoinette  . . .

I'm frustrated that two members of the forum have written to me expressing their frustrations at having a Jester in their midst and have declined to make further contributions to the forum at this stage.

But if we, as members and contributors, can adopt a more inclusive stance perhaps helped by editorial assistance of any jesting members exercised by the forum Moderators, those contributions can be seen to be a useful and helpful catalyst of more erudite discussion by those people with great experience and theoretical knowledge to contribute. It's hoped that they might be able to contribute again. . .

Best wishes

Forum Admin