I mostly agree, but you are viewing ideal conditions in a macro-economical manner; perhaps whatever your society encouraged. Bach lived in a time and place where being a composer was a matter of finding a church to employ him, or "serving a court", et cetera. Were these ideal conditions for becoming a composer? They are, but it's a bit lame to say "Well, if I were born in 17th century Austria, I could be a great baroque composer, but in 2022, my society just doesn't encourage that." It's trivial.
People usually are conforming their interests to their society. Most people are not dreaming of being baroque composers today, but perhaps audio engineers, or whatever. The Beatles are a product of their time. They saw what was being encouraged, and it influenced them. A Beatles does not exist today because our society does not encourage it.
Frankly, there exist many contemporary painters who I consider clearly superior to Van Gogh, and their society thought so as well. For whatever reason, our society doesn't value them as much as him. Our views have reversed.
I do not know if this makes sense at all. I'm sure that I'll see this tomorrow and wonder what I was thinking.
It makes great sense, thank you. It's a cliche'd point in most situations, that people are products of their time, but in this case it explains and joins two mechanisms - the Beatles not only benefitted from 'ideal conditions', but were possibly driven (in part) by them.
People usually are conforming their interests to their society. Most people are not dreaming of being baroque composers today, but perhaps audio engineers, or whatever. The Beatles are a product of their time. They saw what was being encouraged, and it influenced them. A Beatles does not exist today because our society does not encourage it.
Frankly, there exist many contemporary painters who I consider clearly superior to Van Gogh, and their society thought so as well. For whatever reason, our society doesn't value them as much as him. Our views have reversed.
I do not know if this makes sense at all. I'm sure that I'll see this tomorrow and wonder what I was thinking.