Let's Go to a Concert

Waiting to be taken to a concert (where "old cranky people…shush you"), pre-teen Jennifer sits moping on the stoop steps with her friend Emmanuel when they are suddenly visited by (honest to goodness) "The Music Manny," a music aficionado who takes them on an attitude-changing whirlwind tour of various types of concerts, including parades, big band, jazz, ballet, symphony orchestra, chamber music, folk, and world music. Superimposed over the visual clips of performances, our guide and his charges offer up a series of breathless accolades ("all different kinds of people love ballet") that you would never actually hear coming from the mouths of our nation's young. Add to this the absolute absence of rock, pop, hip hop, rap, or even country mentioned as possible concert outings, and you'll understand that not only are men from Mars, and women from Venus, but Let's Go to a Concert hails from a completely different universe. While I'm all for expanding musical consciousness in the young--whose listening palette is often admittedly limited--I can't imagine gaining their confidence by totally ignoring reality. Not a necessary purchase. Aud: K, E. (R. Pitman)