I love this thread and I find it extremely pleasing that not only the music itself is so rich and full of passion but even the philosophy behind listening is also so fascinating. Let me add a few new twists and turns to this story:

1. Pop is dominant but not entirely. Advertisements and films widely use parts of classical pieces so that one could say classical music is also everywhere. The difference is, unlike with pop, they do not mention the authors and titles and do not enable the audience to find the recordings and purchase them.

2. I guess the turning point was when people switched from live events to television as the main source of entertainment. This encouraged developing a universal visual content that would sell to everyone - and thus dumbing the content down. In consequence, everything else was also dumbed down - pop music emerged along with junk food - both simple and straight to the point - and without any depth to them.

3. The dawn of the internet allowed for "de-massification" of the mass society by enabling them to pursue niche interests. I recently discovered that a lot of people who own mp3 players and have a deeper understanding for sound, also tend to reach out into the classical realm out of curiosity and discover they like it, making the classical at least one of the genres they listen to.

4. There are also certain "border" phenomena, which clearly show where the mass dumbed-down "product" ends and where true art begins. Consider Nigel Kennedy and Vanessa Mae. On one hand they draw attention to the genre which is a great way of promoting the classical and reversing the ignorance and even bad publicity still lingering in the minds of "post-mass culture" society (the general bad publicity that used to be created in the mass media is making the classical music seem "boring", "outdated" or "incomprehensible"). So in order to get into the mainstream media, both Kennedy and Mae had to sacrifice some of the non-mass qualities of the classical. Let us consider the following example:

Vanessa Mae - The Devil's Trill

Apart from a fair interpretation of the classical Tartini piece, it also features some annoying and absurd "modernising" elements like the artist exiting out of a cryo-stasis chamber :-) as well as the "visual selling" obsession by making her into a "sexual" object in a very conventional way, which has nothing to do with her music.

Another example is what Nigel Kennedy did to one of my favourite parts in the Four Seasons:

Nigel Kennedy, Vivaldi´s Summer - III Presto

Again - the viewer is distracted by the visual aspect - he also was made into a "sexually appealing product" by having an "updated" haircut and there were some "improvements" added - namely his strange "dance" as he performs and his sort of over-violent interpretation - again dumbing the piece down and making it more "visually apealing" and more suitable for shallow reception.

I hope this adds further depth to this discussion and inspires more posts to follow :-)