4 ms·

> Maybe millennials are repelled by classical music not for coherent reasons but by a vague sense of mistrust, nourished for decades by movies and media. Growi

> Maybe millennials are repelled by classical music not for coherent reasons but by a vague sense of mistrust, nourished for decades by movies and media. Growing up where I grew up, Country music had a terrible reputation for no other reason than my friends hated it. Their friends hated it. Everyone I was surrounded by hated it... therefore, I hated it. If everyone I knew thought it sucked, it must suck. A few years back, I decided that it was time to stop with this nonsense and started exploring Country music on my own, figuring out what I liked and appreciated, figuring out what I wasn't really that fond of. I discovered that there was a ton of country music I really like. I discovered a whole genre of music I'd written off just because my peers had written it off. Unfortunately we suffer many cultural biases like this that until we wake up one morning and realize that we have our own brains and are entitled to our own opinions instead of those of everyone around us, continue to propagate. If millennials are repelled by classical music, given my own experience, it's likely through no other reason than their friends, friends friends and friends friends friends have decided that classical music sucks. It probably has nothing to do with distrust bred from movies and media, it most likely has more to do with the fact that classical music isn't easily accessible, it's not popular, they can't relate to it like they can to pop music which not only tells a story they can identify with, but it's popular with all their friends and thus gives them a vehicle for social acceptance. I grew up with classical music - and there's still a lot I haven't heard precisely because it is so inaccessible. I will agree that it's high effort... I would say that the reward often isn't comparable to the effort required to listen to it.

naravara 8y ago
Are millennials “repelled” by classical music? Is there any evidence for this claim that couldn’t be explained by just not having the money to buy tickets? As a millennial, I don’t know any of my peers who have negative options of classical music. At most, they’re indifferent. Villains having classical soundtracks around them is a trope that goes back to shitty ‘80s action movies too, so this is hardly a millennial thing.
- justtopost 8y ago
  Classical, like old radio recordings, seems incomplete to the modern ear. We are used to a full range of sound only rarely expressed by conventional insturments and recording. Thats why you hear many old standards now set to dubstep and techno, for example 'fly me to the moon'. The music is still valid, but the production, or lack thereof, 'dates' the music.
  - bgeeek 8y ago
    What? This is quite a jumble of assumptions. Sampling in most hip-hop is to create something new. Electronic pieces like those made by Wendy Carlos, William Orbit, Ulrich Schnauss, etc, actually sound like modern interpretations. It's nothing to do with what is lacking or otherwise in older pieces of music. If anything classical music is gaining popularity among certain listeners, although I'm not sure if that's due to an ageing listener or modern composers, film and TV scores, etc. Personally, there is very little in modern music that I haven't heard before (I quite like avant garde music for this reason), so I deliberately listen to older pieces of music to hear something new, whether that is jazz, classical music, etc.
    - ntsplnkv2 8y ago
      Agreed, this discussion always comes with absurd assumptions. Classical music will never be the most popular music, just like classic literature will never be on the best sellers list every year. That doesn't mean it isn't popular. I ultimately became a lover of classical music for a similar reason. Most music today is so generic and bland - you can hear every song before you've finished listening to it.
      - naravara 8y ago
        There was a relevant and entertaining stand-up bit about this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM This might partly be why people love the music they heard as teens first. I hear a lot of stuff now that just seems like riffs on stuff I’ve heard before. I don’t have the nostalgia of first being exposed to it in my formative years to carry me through.
asark 8y ago
There's a strong country & western strain running through "indie" music, and a ton of influence and presence in what pop music nerds consider the canon of 20th and 21st century popular music and popular genres. Ask your local Millennial vinyl-head wearing skinny jeans and expensive workboots what they think of country and you might get more nuance and appreciation than you expect. Stereotypical pop-country that's largely novelty tracks, corny relationship songs, and trucks & dogs, and that're the bread & butter of most country radio stations, though, not so much. Most surf-rockers aren't thought of too fondly, either, outside a very narrow scene—they're not all the Beach Boys.
- balabaster 8y ago
  This makes some assumptions about the country you grew up in. I don't know too many people in the UK where I grew up that could give me any nuanced discussion about country music like they could almost any other genre.
  - asark 8y ago
    Ha! Good point. Sorry, when I think of anyone having any opinion on country and the topic coming up in conversation my mind went straight to the US, but of course it's huge all over the place so that was dumb. I do agree that knee-jerk dislike of country may be rooted in ignorance—but as far as social influence, I'd class that as being good at determining which bad music people like (I like plenty, and it's mostly for those reasons) or dislike, and the country on the radio in the US is, for the most part, firmly of the "you'll only like it if it's part of your scene" sort, so people with a blanket "I don't like country" opinion have very likely only been exposed to the equivalent of its Tenacious D or, at best, Styx (to expose some of my own sub-par likes). It's not their fault they assumed the genre was putting its best foot forward. And hey, Elton John made Tumbleweed Connection, so there's that. :-)

naravara 8y ago

Are millennials “repelled” by classical music? Is there any evidence for this claim that couldn’t be explained by just not having the money to buy tickets? As a millennial, I don’t know any of my peers who have negative options of classical music. At most, they’re indifferent. Villains having classical soundtracks around them is a trope that goes back to shitty ‘80s action movies too, so this is hardly a millennial thing.

justtopost 8y ago
Classical, like old radio recordings, seems incomplete to the modern ear. We are used to a full range of sound only rarely expressed by conventional insturments and recording. Thats why you hear many old standards now set to dubstep and techno, for example 'fly me to the moon'. The music is still valid, but the production, or lack thereof, 'dates' the music.
- bgeeek 8y ago
  What? This is quite a jumble of assumptions. Sampling in most hip-hop is to create something new. Electronic pieces like those made by Wendy Carlos, William Orbit, Ulrich Schnauss, etc, actually sound like modern interpretations. It's nothing to do with what is lacking or otherwise in older pieces of music. If anything classical music is gaining popularity among certain listeners, although I'm not sure if that's due to an ageing listener or modern composers, film and TV scores, etc. Personally, there is very little in modern music that I haven't heard before (I quite like avant garde music for this reason), so I deliberately listen to older pieces of music to hear something new, whether that is jazz, classical music, etc.
  - ntsplnkv2 8y ago
    Agreed, this discussion always comes with absurd assumptions. Classical music will never be the most popular music, just like classic literature will never be on the best sellers list every year. That doesn't mean it isn't popular. I ultimately became a lover of classical music for a similar reason. Most music today is so generic and bland - you can hear every song before you've finished listening to it.
    - naravara 8y ago
      There was a relevant and entertaining stand-up bit about this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM This might partly be why people love the music they heard as teens first. I hear a lot of stuff now that just seems like riffs on stuff I’ve heard before. I don’t have the nostalgia of first being exposed to it in my formative years to carry me through.

asark 8y ago

There's a strong country & western strain running through "indie" music, and a ton of influence and presence in what pop music nerds consider the canon of 20th and 21st century popular music and popular genres. Ask your local Millennial vinyl-head wearing skinny jeans and expensive workboots what they think of country and you might get more nuance and appreciation than you expect. Stereotypical pop-country that's largely novelty tracks, corny relationship songs, and trucks & dogs, and that're the bread & butter of most country radio stations, though, not so much. Most surf-rockers aren't thought of too fondly, either, outside a very narrow scene—they're not all the Beach Boys.

balabaster 8y ago
This makes some assumptions about the country you grew up in. I don't know too many people in the UK where I grew up that could give me any nuanced discussion about country music like they could almost any other genre.
- asark 8y ago
  Ha! Good point. Sorry, when I think of anyone having any opinion on country and the topic coming up in conversation my mind went straight to the US, but of course it's huge all over the place so that was dumb. I do agree that knee-jerk dislike of country may be rooted in ignorance—but as far as social influence, I'd class that as being good at determining which bad music people like (I like plenty, and it's mostly for those reasons) or dislike, and the country on the radio in the US is, for the most part, firmly of the "you'll only like it if it's part of your scene" sort, so people with a blanket "I don't like country" opinion have very likely only been exposed to the equivalent of its Tenacious D or, at best, Styx (to expose some of my own sub-par likes). It's not their fault they assumed the genre was putting its best foot forward. And hey, Elton John made Tumbleweed Connection, so there's that. :-)