I did a Google Book search on "Classical Music is dead", and I came across a couple books, one titled "The 80s Reader", and I found out it came from a famous quote on the book "The Closing Of The American Mind", published in 1988, which stated that classical music is dead among the young. A Wall Street Journal article recently took an anlysis of Classical Music critisism, and noted that in 1980 that there were approximately twice as many Classical review articles in TIME magazine, but in 1990, that figure had reversed. The number of instrumental themes on TV/Radio Shows/Movie Soundtracks also noticably dropped this decade, as you had to have a voice and beat to make a good record.

The 1950s were probably the last decade for new classical music to have an impact of music. A company sleeve from the mid-50s just before rock exploded lists about the same number of new classical releases as popular releases.  But as rock n' roll took off and continued to evolve, it shifted the emphasis of criticism from Classical to Rock, so that by the MTV era, if you didn't like the new music, you could still listen to early Rock n' roll or even Jazz. The 1970s probably also had the final developments of classical music: Minimalism and postmodernism. Jan Hammer's Miami Vice theme remains today as the most recent instrumental recording to Top the Charts.

Today, the focus of music criticism is probably centered around the 1960s/70s, which means that soon, Jazz critism will fade, and also Hip-Hop era criticism is taking off.  :\'( Just check those "new releases" in the music section today and see what artists people are drawing on.

The decline in classical music sales continues to this day. If video didn't kill the pop radio star, it almost certainly killed Classical Music. Classical today is virtually an underground genre away from symphony halls/opera houses. 

In the UK Classical Music has never died. With major radio stations dedicated to the music and constant live performances in concert halls, epsecially The Proms organised by the BBC it has never been better!

I suppose.

I never thought about that angle before, but I basically agree with you. I actually think alot of "traditional music" kinda died out in the '80s... like it was the beginning of more electronic and less blues based stuff as well. I think that's why alot of those songs still don't seem out of place on the radio next to current stuff.

Personally I cringed at classical music when I was a kid in the 80s/early 90s (I hated when my dad played it), so I wouldn't be surprised if other people did too. It was really different to the typically catchy and upbeat forms of pop music at the time.

I think some '70s music was still influenced by it though, like some Kansas songs.

No.  Absolutely not.

For one thing, when you hear Schubert or Beethoven, you're not hearing the thousands of idle fops who fancied themselves composers in the 18th century and have deservedly disappeared into the dusty casket of time.

It also depends on what we mean by "Classical Music."  Do we mean anything by a string quartet, an orchestra, or an opera company?  Do we mean notated music only, or do we allow the improvisational?  Is the distinction even relevant anymore?

Once again, composer such as Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Danny Elfman, Elmer Bernstein, and David Diamond churned out pages of rubbish for consumption by Hollywood or this or that commissioned interest.

Great composers working in the 1980s:

John Cage
Philip Glass
Iannis Xenakis
Meredith Monk
Robert Ashley
George Crumb
David Tudor
Terry Riley
Steve Reich
Francis Dhomont
Giacinto Scelisi (r.i.p. 1988)
Lou Harrison
Alvin Curran
Morton Feldman (r.i.p. 1987)
K. Stockhausen
Anthony Braxton
Stuart Saunders Smith
Brian Eno
Luigi Nono
Christian Wolff
Noah Creshevsky
Larry Polansky
John Luther Adams

Of course, little of the music composed by the above sampling of composers considered "classical" or "non-pop" working in the '80s would be recognized as sounding "classical," but they advanced so-called "art" music from movements which grew out of "classical" music earlier in the 20th century (such as 12 tone music, serialism, musique concrete, minimalism, totalism, electronic music, and aleatory methods).

Allan Bloom was on a mission to piss on all modern Western culture, and he certainly made some salient points, but neither "classical" music nor Allan Bloom died in the 1980s.  Allan Bloom died in 1992 and "classical" music still thrives!
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/07/nopity.gif

As for "relevance," how can it be relevant to anything when it is not heard?  The main purveyor of classical music in the U.S., NPR, treats it as frikkin' background music and plays the same conservative renderings of Bach, Brahms, and Mozart over and over again.  The vibrant modern movements are relegated to the ivory towers of the universities and "scenes" in cultural meccas such as New York City and San Francisco. 
::)

I did a Google Book search on "Classical Music is dead", and I came across a couple books, one titled "The 80s Reader", and I found out it came from a famous quote on the book "The Closing Of The American Mind", published in 1988, which stated that classical music is dead among the young. A Wall Street Journal article recently took an anlysis of Classical Music critisism, and noted that in 1980 that there were approximately twice as many Classical review articles in TIME magazine, but in 1990, that figure had reversed. The number of instrumental themes on TV/Radio Shows/Movie Soundtracks also noticably dropped this decade, as you had to have a voice and beat to make a good record.
Again, seek and ye shall find.  If you do a Google search on "Classical Music is Dead," then what do you expect?  I do agree with Bloom on anti-intellectualism.  I grew up with teachers and professors bemoaning the death of literature and declaring my generation would be the first generation in American history to be less educated than their parents.  I suppose you can make the same claims about music and visual arts.  Bloom, as a conservative, would not appreciate art that looked different from the painting hanging in his grandfather's library anyway.

If you're looking for classical music reviews, TIME magazine is not the best source to begin with. 

The 1950s were probably the last decade for new classical music to have an impact of music. A company sleeve from the mid-50s just before rock exploded lists about the same number of new classical releases as popular releases.  But as rock n' roll took off and continued to evolve, it shifted the emphasis of criticism from Classical to Rock, so that by the MTV era, if you didn't like the new music, you could still listen to early Rock n' roll or even Jazz. The 1970s probably also had the final developments of classical music: Minimalism and postmodernism. Jan Hammer's Miami Vice theme remains today as the most recent instrumental recording to Top the Charts.
Per my previous post I disagree about the 1950s being the last decade.  For instance, the Beatles and the Who were influence by minimalists such as Reich and Riley.  Subsequently, bands from Birdsongs of the Mesozoic to Radiohead have been deeply influenced by classical and jazz. 

It is unfortunate the way the public has been so prejudiced in favor of pop vocals.  People are more likely to remember Louis Armstrong as a singer than as a trumpet player.  The jazz program on my local NPR station is overloaded with Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holliday.  Mind you, I am NOT NOT NOT knocking these artists in the least; I am merely stating the public demands pop vocals and if the host of that jazz program turned his back on vocals, he would lose listeners fast. 

Today, the focus of music criticism is probably centered around the 1960s/70s, which means that soon, Jazz critism will fade, and also Hip-Hop era criticism is taking off.  :\'( Just check those "new releases" in the music section today and see what artists people are drawing on.
Heavy hip-hop influence here, this is one of my favorite releases of the past season:
http://www.bridgerecords.com/pages/catalog/9285.htm


The decline in classical music sales continues to this day. If video didn't kill the pop radio star, it almost certainly killed Classical Music. Classical today is virtually an underground genre away from symphony halls/opera houses. 

You're almost correct here.  "Underground" implies there's something clandestine about it.  As Frank Zappa said, "No commercial potential."  Thus, there are a dozen different venues you could go to see "classical" music tonight in Manhattan, but precious few anywhere else.  Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, though not by much. 

No.  Absolutely not.

For one thing, when you hear Schubert or Beethoven, you're not hearing the thousands of idle fops who fancied themselves composers in the 18th century and have deservedly disappeared into the dusty casket of time.

It also depends on what we mean by "Classical Music."  Do we mean anything by a string quartet, an orchestra, or an opera company?  Do we mean notated music only, or do we allow the improvisational?  Is the distinction even relevant anymore?

Once again, composer such as Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Danny Elfman, Elmer Bernstein, and David Diamond churned out pages of rubbish for consumption by Hollywood or this or that commissioned interest.

Great composers working in the 1980s:

John Cage
Philip Glass
Iannis Xenakis
Meredith Monk
Robert Ashley
George Crumb
David Tudor
Terry Riley
Steve Reich
Francis Dhomont
Giacinto Scelisi (r.i.p. 1988)
Lou Harrison
Alvin Curran
Morton Feldman (r.i.p. 1987)
K. Stockhausen
Anthony Braxton
Stuart Saunders Smith
Brian Eno
Luigi Nono
Christian Wolff
Noah Creshevsky
Larry Polansky
John Luther Adams

Of course, little of the music composed by the above sampling of composers considered "classical" or "non-pop" working in the '80s would be recognized as sounding "classical," but they advanced so-called "art" music from movements which grew out of "classical" music earlier in the 20th century (such as 12 tone music, serialism, musique concrete, minimalism, totalism, electronic music, and aleatory methods).

Allan Bloom was on a mission to piss on all modern Western culture, and he certainly made some salient points, but neither "classical" music nor Allan Bloom died in the 1980s.  Allan Bloom died in 1992 and "classical" music still thrives!
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/07/nopity.gif

As for "relevance," how can it be relevant to anything when it is not heard?  The main purveyor of classical music in the U.S., NPR, treats it as frikkin' background music and plays the same conservative renderings of Bach, Brahms, and Mozart over and over again.  The vibrant modern movements are relegated to the ivory towers of the universities and "scenes" in cultural meccas such as New York City and San Francisco. 
::)


"Relevance" probably isn't the right word. A better question might be whether classical music has lost its "mainstream commercial appeal." I'd say the answer is yes. I've always viewed classical music as a niche musical style that only a few people listen to, and it's hard for me to imagine a time when it wasn't that way. There's usually only one or two stations on the radio dial that play it. You think of it as something whose time has passed, and that belongs in another era a few centuries ago. Of the composers listed in the last post, how many of them ever had a platinum album? I'd say the film scores done by John Williams are the only classical music that really appeals to me.