Comments on: Why teens don’t listen to classical music

By: Evil Cymbal

Evil Cymbal — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:20:52 +0000

I’m 23 and Rock is my favorite genre. Black Sabbath (with Ozzy), Led Zeppelin and The Doors are some of my favorite bands.

I’d just like to add that, it’s difficult to listen to a symphony by Mahler and not get excited. The man was a Genius, and in my opinion, the greatest composer of symphonies (after Beethoven, of course). There are so many frenetic moments and morbid subjects in Mahler’s music, any open-minded listener of Metal could easily get into Classical music by checking out his symphonies. I suggest getting started with the 2nd and 9th. But my personal favorites are the 1st and especially the 3rd.

One thing that’s for certain: the length of most Classical pieces does tend to exasperate young people. That’s a shame because, even though Rock is my favorite genre, there’s a reason why Classical music has survived for hundreds of years… and you might discover why, if you give it a try.

By: Charlie L

Charlie L — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:26:47 +0000

Great style of writing. Very interesting throughout.

I think the main problem is that it’s not ‘cool’ teenagers are sheep!

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 20:30:10 +0000

AS a kid and young teen, I played trumpet. While I played some contemporary music, I had the greatest fun playing classical music. In high school, Led Zeppelin was my favorite group, along with Black Sabbath and Van Halen. Later on, I somehow got into listening to classical music. Having recently purchased some of the Beatles re-masters, I came to the conclusion that listening to them when I was a pre-teen may have interested me in classical music later. Some of their top hits-A day in the life, Hey Jude, Sargent Pepper, etc, used strings in a classical manner. There are a number of groups that do that today.
Maybe the challenge of today’s composer is to write some material-ala Chopin’s preludes, Dvorak’s and Brahms Bohemian dances, Markopoulos’s 24 Pyrrochoi dances, to match the age they are living in. Composers usually write material based on what is happening around them, so one would expect at some point to hear hip hopish, rock and country influenced pieces much as Ravel and Gershwin wrote piano concertos with a Jazz/classical synergy.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:30:27 +0000

I am 13 years old,and I listen to classical music. I also listen to electronic music, (which I personally think it sounds very similar to classical.) I really hate the “rock” music that people my age are listening to. They don’t realize that all that music that they are listening to originated from artist like Mozart.

By: Benjy

Benjy — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 14:17:22 +0000

Here is something relevant to the phrase:
“the entire sum recorded music of humanity”

Check this link out and see how sad things have become for music of ALL styles. Classical or not, no museum will purchase this mountain of vinyl when 99 cents for any tune keeps the market rolling.

Watch carefully and you’ll see that only 17% of this man’s record collection is all that has ever been transcribed nor ever will be onto CDs.

http://gizmodo.com/5038783/worlds-largest-record-collection-is-worth-50-million-no-one-wants-it-for-3-million

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 13:41:47 +0000

Actually, my friend just moved out to St. Charles, Ill from Michigan and he was amazed at the high school strings program they had. In places like Michigan, we are lucky if our high school even has a string program. And when we do it is just filled with students wanted a free A in a class. Not only do our students not listen to classical music but they barely even play it… It is too bad they are missing out on the $11 tickets to the DSO for being under 37 years old.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 20:02:22 +0000

Why don’t we try validifying the music that teens listen too by meeting them where they currently are. If we continue with the notion that we must “expose” teens to classical music and “educate” them about classical music, they will probably, for the most part, remain uninterested. We have to meet people where they are when trying to expand their musical taste, then slowly, through trust, began to find the nexus between the music they listen to and love and classical music. It is always possible and takes mostly patience and understanding, all of which are free! I know that the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich hires a DJ after some of their concerts and has a dance party playing the lastest tunes that young people know. How comforting it must be for a young person, not hip to classical music, to hear music they do know played after attending a hoitytoity classical concert hall.

By: Ben

Ben — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 07:36:50 +0000

This video is kind of on this topic:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html

By: The bassman

The bassman — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 07:09:10 +0000

Kids dont listen to classical music because they simply dont have the attention span!! The instant gratification pop music is far more practical to someone born and raised in the age of microwave ovens and the internet. Heck! Its even called popular music! We all know how much teens like being popular. Also, it doesnt help that the word “classical music” is used to describe hundreds of years worth of music. Maybe if the music were presented to young people in smaller more digestable chunks instead of one big whopping genre, that might as well be titled “grandpas music,” they might be able to wrap their ADD ridden brains around it. Not to mention the fact that there is so much great music that has been pumped out in the last century, its nearly impossible for a musically curious kid to get past the recordings of the 1960s by the time theyre out of their teen years. Personally, when i was ready to move on to more intellectual music, i was listening to a love supreme not mahler 4.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:43:57 +0000

Like Brian, I am also a high school student and classical music nut. I also may be the only active listener of this music out of the 1200 students at my school. I’m lucky to have a friend (now off to conservatory) that is just as passionate about the music as I am. We bought tickets to the NY Phil in June and drove 300 miles to see Mahler’s 8th- what a performance!

I think that if we debunk the stereotypes of ‘classical’ music (the the general sense) being centuries old and for rich sophisticates, we can widen the audience greatly. How many students really think of music like the Rite of Spring or Einstein on the Beach as being part of the same tradition as Mozart?