But Without A Beat I Can't Dance to It

The fact is that today the young, educated and sophisticated listeners who, 40 years ago, would have paid attention to classical music, have turned to fashionable genres like indie rock. They even practice the connoisseurial behavior — seeking out obscure artists, reveling in the cachet of cult knowledge — that "high-brow" listeners apply to classical music. . . .

It is only the content of the music — the aesthetics — that differ.

Which brings up an inflammatory and un-PC question: Is one genre of art superior to another? I have no grudge against contemporary popular music (with the possible exception of Radiohead). It's ephemerally and ironically fun at its best. But classical music at its best offers works that are dense with meaning, hard to immediately grasp and therefore more interesting for a longer time.

So if the classical music establishment wants to lure young listeners, the real task is to reassert the absolute value of the Western art music tradition. In other words, classical music leaders must challenge today's entrenched post-counterculture relativism that sees a Schubert symphony as the equivalent of the latest White Stripes album.

John V. Bennett, in "Rachmaninoff Isn't Radiohead, Dude!" (LA Times).