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From: lkk@mit-eddie.UUCP (Larry Kolodney)
Newsgroups: net.music.classical,net.music
Subject: Re: Why classical music isn't popular
Message-ID: <2419@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 21-Jul-84 23:07:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.2419
Posted: Sat Jul 21 23:07:09 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 23-Jul-84 02:21:36 EDT
References: <55@whuxl.UUCP>
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 16

Here's a theory:

Most people form their musical tastes when they are fairly young,
say under 25.

For most americans of that age, music serves a social purpose, as well 
as a merely asthetic one.  For teenagers especially, the kind of music
you like determines to a large extent where you will socialize and who
you will socialize with.  Thus, classical music, which does not do much
for a teens social life, is ignored.
	Since teens are so image conscious, most would
not think of straying from the mainstream.  Teens also tend to have
extremely short attention spans, and thus don't have the patients to
listen to say, a synphony, (which takes a least a few minutes to develop
a theme), while pop music (which frequently repeats every 5 secs.) is
available.