In an attempt to make classical music appealing for a younger demographic, organizers of a Belgian festival have created a video that shows a group of Korean dancers twerking to Antonin Dvorak's "Symphony No. 9 in E Minor" in their panties.
The result is only marginally less painful to watch than Avril Lavigne's "Hello Kitty" video.
The organizers behind B-Classic aim to "leverage the power of classical music to engage new audiences — without compromising on quality."
As part of the effort, they contracted director Raf Reyntjens to shoot its first video, which shows Korean dance group Waveya shaking it up to a piece by a Czech composer who was a superstar in his own time, says the festival's website.
"I believe that many barriers need to be broken down to make (classical music) attractive to the general public," festival spokesperson Frank Peters said in a short documentary.
To that end, the festival is hosting "The Classical Comeback," in which people are invited to submit their own videos using classical music. They're asking for submissions that are short, respectful (no remixes), proud, disruptive and relevant (they must express the music's emotions).
The first video had drawn nearly 1.9 million views on YouTube as of Wednesday.
We can see the good intentions here. Classical music may well be in danger of being lost to younger generations. But the organizers' first attempt at making it relevant just comes off as desperate, sexist and sad.
Let's hope that "Classical Comeback" can produce something better.
This also isn't the first time that twerking has been set to classical music.
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