Fear of Music: Why People Get Rothko But Don't Get Stockhausen

The Tate is the most popular tourist attraction in Europe. Conceptual artists like Tracy Emin and Damien Hirst enjoy celebrity status. Works by 20th century abstract artists like Mark Rothko are selling for record breaking sums at auction, while the millions commanded by works by Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon make headline news. But while the general public has no trouble embracing avant garde and experimental art, there is mass resistance to avant garde and experimental music ― although both were born at the same time and under similar circumstances. And despite the fact that from Schoenberg and Kandinsky onwards, musicians and artists have made repeated efforts to establish a synaesthesia between their two media. In Fear of Music, David Stubbs looks at the parallel histories of modern art and modern music and examines why one is embraced and the other ignored, derided or regarded with bewilderment. Why do people get Rothko and not Stockhausen?