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Does sex sell?

Submitted by Jen Glagov on Mon, 06/09/2008 - 1:21pm.

lara st. johnWhen Antonio Vivaldi was working at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, a screen between performers and audience guaranteed that the young girls' reputations would not be compromised in any way by the act of musical performance. Times have changed, of course-and I recently found myself in a conversation about whether or not sex is actually a valuable classical music marketing tool. I immediately thought of violinist Lara St. John's wonderful 1996 recording of Bach's Partita No. 2 and Sonata No. 3. I heard St. John perform live on WFMT, and was so impressed by her interpretation of these unaccompanied works that I went out and bought the recording. To my surprise, the cover featured an almost nymphette-like St. John sporting nothing more than a strategically-placed violin. "If it takes nudity to get people my age to listen to Bach," explained St. John in an interview, "then so be it."

The album sold 30,000 copies, and has been hailed as a stroke of marketing genius. A quick Google search of her name revealed that the chosen method of PR may also have affected public perceptions of her, however. Here are just a few excerpts from recent reviews:

 "She played Bach with her eyes closed and body loose, as if in musical rapture. Only after the presto in the Partita did St. John pause to breathe: A deep guttural gasp that punctuated her seamless movement from ethereal pure tones to raucous, virtuosic thrashing." -Times Colonist, June 1, 2008

"St. John's personal style of complete physical engagement with the music elicited an explosive response from the audience..." -Arizona Daily Sun, February 24, 2008

"The long first movement [featured] ... a mesmerizing solo cadenza in which the soloist passionately attacked and played with great expressiveness. This was mirrored by slinky gestural body English that seemed integral to the performance, not showy." -Buffalo News Entertainment, July 8, 2007

Does sex sell-and if so, is that okay? Does it undermine the integrity of the final product, or help to bring in new audience members? What do you think? (Perhaps readers can think of more recent examples of this phenomenon.)

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Ben Clapton (not verified) | Mon, 06/09/2008 - 6:53pm

I think that it's perfectly acceptable for performers that have that strength (appearance) to use it to sell records. However, they must of course use it with caution, as their performance must also be top notch. If their performance isn't at least as good as any other recording available, then it will be seen as a gimmick to get more sales for a lack lustre performance. Now with the Lara St. John recording, it wasn't the cover that made you buy it, it was the performance. That's an example of it being used appropriately - the cover might attract new listeners, but it's also attracting new listners to high quality recordings.

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Guest (not verified) | Tue, 06/10/2008 - 9:22am

I worry about the subtle impact that emphasis on appearance might have on the classical music world. Look at what happened to Deborah Voight, for example. And it seems as though there's a dearth of young up-and-coming Wagnerian singers (who, historically, have to have a large physique to support the huge sound they have to produce)?

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