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K-Pop Group Twerks to Save Classical Music

Classical music’s image problem is nothing new, but Belgium’s B-Classic music festival has hit upon a remarkable way of fixing it. As long ago as 1965’s A Charlie Brown Christmas, Lucy was complaining that Beethoven must not be all that great or he’d have his own “bubblegum card.” Might not the youth of today be similarly suspicious of Arvo Pärt or Krzysztof Penderecki because they don’t have music videos with, like, twerking and stuff? Properly marketed, could Steve Reich be as big as Miley Cyrus?

For B-Classic’s “Classical Comeback” series, South Korean pop and dance group Waveya performed some, ahem, contemporary moves to Dvo?ák’s “Symphony No. 9 Allegro con fuoco.” B-Classic spokesman Frank Peters, a Dutch classical pianist, has said he’s “not convinced that youth are uninterested in classical music. I think that it’s simply more difficult for them to discover.”

Good places to find out about classical music include New Yorker critic Alex Ross’ The Rest Is Noise and anything written by Owen Pallett. Or those not averse to quasi-NSFW-ness can just press play above, and before you know it you may find you’ve listened to three minutes of classical music. Don Draper, you’ve done it again. (via BuzzFeed and AdWeek)