[music muse]

I'm, as you all can guess, a huge fan of classical music and music in general, and I go quite often to classical concerts, operas and similar events. During these visits I have observed a couple of times that the majority of people who go to classical concerts, to operas or to classical events in general tend to be old people and that only a very small number of young people go to such events. This observation made me somehow think about how classical music could be promoted or made more popular among the younger generation.
So what do you think about it, how could classical music be made more popular among young people?

 

[brotagonist]

Firstly, I don't think attendance at a concert is a good measure of who's listening. The vast majority of people listen to recordings. Still, classical music doesn't seem to have the popularity that is enjoyed by other genres. Secondly, unfortunately, there is little to nothing you can do to make other people like anything. Probably, the best thing you can do is to tell people about the music you listen to, when they talk about the music they listen to. When people visit, put on a wide selection of classical music, possibly mixed in with other music. Present it as a further listening option, be knowledgeable and never lecture about or force your taste on others. Lead by example and maybe some will follow.

 

[Albert7]

Once upon a time in 2001 from a time machine experience, Albert7 decided to return back from his older self into the younger self metamorphosis. The place is at Cutler's Record Shop in New Haven where Albert7 was attending Yale during his graduate school days. He is the epitome of the typical jock hipster who just bought a TEAC turntable for his dorm room and after entering the music shop, he encounters a young lovely lady at the information desk.

Albert7: Hello, I'm Albert. How are you doing today?
Girl: Welcome to Cutler's. Do you need any help here?
Albert7: Yes, I'm a 24 year old guy and trying to get into vinyl collecting. I listen to some classical music so I'm just wondering what you have in stock here.
Girl: Well, we just got in the latest Hilary Hahn Mozart album. Here you go. (pulls out)

Albert7: Are you serious? That record cover just looks hideous seriously. It wouldn't look good on my shelf. Sorry. Do you have any classical music albums with actually good looking stuff on the cover? The music may be good but it isn't to help my dating chances if I stick that up to court any of the fine Yale ladies here.
Girl: (apologizing profusely) I'm so so sorry. I thought that you were one of those classical music nerds who actually wanted to hear just the music.
Albert7: I'm a record collector first. I only buy albums which have great looking covers.
Girl: But you know that Hilary Hahn does look adorable.
Albert7: There isn't creative about that cover honestly. All DG did was to pose Hahn with a violin and snapped a picture.
Girl: Well, but that's the way the classical music label does it. They are pretty conservative.
Albert7: (seeing a promotional poster over on the wall) Is that Boulez on the poster over there?

Girl: Yes, it is. But it isn't an album however. It's a poster autographed by the maestro himself.
Albert7: You see, I want that on my album cover. A genius surrounded by a bunch of fine fly ladies. Or something like Mozart with the likes of dancers and pirate booty.
Girl: Sorry but I don't think that the classical music record label would go for that type of photo on their album. Pli Selon Pli wouldn't sell any records.
Albert7: On second thought, I don't think that I want to buy any classical music then. I am a graduate student and barely clock in about $10/hour with my library campus job. I have limited funds.
Girl: Well, good luck, go find something else sexier then. I can't help you.
Albert7: (after skimming and filing through various LPs) Okay, I'm ready to check out. I found a bunch of creative looking albums just now.

Girl: (checking me out) You sure about getting all of this? None of these are classical albums.
Albert7: I know but at least I can stick any of these albums and get more dates honestly. At least, the record label put in more effort to do abstract art or take photos of ladies in more creative poses than throwing a person with a violin. At least the women will think that I have tastes which are more hip to the game.
Girl: Oh okay, that will be $41.56.

(fast forward to 2015 to the current habitat of Albert7 in SLC)...

Albert7 in 2015: Based on seeing Albert7 in his younger years, his musical tastes were based on purchasing based on looks before the contents get played. So tips to the classical music label folks to push out records like Taylor Swift or Lindsey Stirling.

1) If you have an abstract piece like Boulez's Pli Selon Pli, use an album cover with abstract artwork of Gerhard Richter or that wall poster of Boulez with the bikini tiki ladies. If Eazy-E was able to court the ladies with refinement and make bank, then there is no reason that Boulez couldn't show that he could do the same.
2) If you have a warhorse that Hilary Hahn is playing, try to switch up the game. For example, stick Hahn in a snow globe with psychedelic colors like this:

3) Selling records is all about looks, if the album cover looks good on a shelf then it's more likely to push weight out onto the streets. Having Carlos Kleiber conducting with crazy arms in black and white is just not going to move more units in the industry than Dudamel rocking his punk rock dreads with a flailing baton brushing a rainbow against a pink background. Young kids buy generally records on impulse so to get hook line and sinker into the young folks with Beethoven String Quartets, the labels need to have the performers do something unexpected and crazy on the album cover.
4) The contents don't matter inside honestly. Even a bad performance sells a lot. Use colored vinyl if possible with a crazy color pattern on the label. Kids just don't really go for black vinyl anymore. Think how many colors the iPhone come in and reflect on why Mozart's Jupiter Symphony pressed on tie dye colored wax is going to be like... totally fresh.

 

[papsrus]

My own experience is this: While I was exposed to classical music from a very early age, I didn't embrace it until much later in life. It was too difficult, required too much effort, wasn't popular with my friends and didn't have any meaning to me when I was young. It didn't speak to my own experiences the way, say, Dylan or the Beatles did. I wanted to listen to what was popular because when you're young, you want to be part of the popular, trendy things in life. And you relate to the music that describes in some way your own youthful experiences.

After popular music, I veered toward a decidedly unpopular music -- jazz, which is generally more introspective than popular music, but still hip and tethered to popular music in some fundamental ways.

It is only fairly recently that I have embraced classical (big tent), which is often a more solitary music. Many people don't seem to want to share the experience of listening to classical music at all. Crowds are sometimes too distracting or noisy for them to enjoy the experience. ... For many people it's simply not an experience to share. And this is decidedly going against what young people want, which is shared experiences.

So, if my musical journey is somewhat typical, classical music may always be skewed toward a more "mature" demographic.

This isn't to say there aren't young people who get into it at a very early age; there certainly are. Or that musicians, orchestras and opera companies don't make thoughtful outreach efforts to attract young people; they do. Those coffee house / pub chamber music nights gained some popularity for a while. Don't know if they are still a "thing" but I thought that was a great idea!

But in the end, mass appeal to a younger audience may simply not be possible.

 

[Fugue Meister]

Firstly, I don't think attendance at a concert is a good measure of who's listening. The vast majority of people listen to recordings. Still, classical music doesn't seem to have the popularity that is enjoyed by other genres. Secondly, unfortunately, there is little to nothing you can do to make other people like anything. Probably, the best thing you can do is to tell people about the music you listen to, when they talk about the music they listen to. When people visit, put on a wide selection of classical music, possibly mixed in with other music. Present it as a further listening option, be knowledgeable and never lecture about or force your taste on others. Lead by example and maybe some will follow.

Here here to this, but I take it a tad further... I force feed people absolute music all the time.

I have around 80 gigs of nothing but the greats on my xbox and when my friends want to play cod they do it to music, usually Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and Wagner. One of my friends got hooked on Mendelssohn's piano concerto in a, its all he ever requests... I keep telling him a 13 year old wrote it but he doesn't believe me.

 

[Triplets]

It will never rival popular music in popularity..because it isn't pop music. It will tend to remain a niche genre. There are many people who would embrace it if they were exposed to it in a menainful way. I have always found that music used to accompany movies or television tends to attract new listeners.

 

[Taggart]

Don't see that probem. OK we only go to a few Operas, usually in Lowestoft, and there a range of ages. When we went to Snape for English Touring Opera, it was a fairly young crowd. When we go to see Norwich Baroque, it's a fairly mixed audience. Most of the players are young so the audience includes their friends and family. When we were in York, for the Early Music Festival, that was again a youngish audience.

Basically young people who are into Classical Music in a big way seem to me to be going in two different directions - older music and modern music - leaving the traditional 19th century repertoire for the oldies.

 

[Itullian]

The use of cm in movies goes a long way imo.

 

[GhenghisKhan]

 

[Sloe]

This is how I imagine the valkyries when I listen to the ring cycle.

 

[Cesare Impalatore]

I don't think that there is a problem with the level of popularity of classical music. Even back in the days of operatic matadors like Mario del Monaco young people and the majority of common people listened more to popular music. Nowadays pop music is more powerful in mainstream society but many great classical pieces are still frequently referenced within the realm of popular culture, too. Many people, young and old, then dig deeper into the world of classical and I think there's enough of them. I prefer an opera house with few passionate people in it rather than many superficial snobs who only go there for prestige reasons.

 

[mtmailey]

I think we need new music that sounds great + more of it in the media like on television.Not to many channels show classical music.

 

[ArtMusic]

I think newly composed contemporary music need to sound accessible and can relate to any listener. Then people will naturally want to explore more of it.

 

[GGluek]

Make sure the pieces are all three and a half minutes long, and give them a good beat.

 

[arpeggio]

The following thread is one of the many threads in this forum that have addressed this issue: http://www.talkclassical.com/36729-should-classical-music-more.html

I am in my sixties and I remember when I was younger most of the audience was old people. Now I am one of the old ones. I can only speak for myself but I am hesitant to spend a few hundred dollars to hear another performance of the Dvorak New World Symphony even though it is one of my favorites.

I know some like to blame Schoenberg for the apparent like of popularity of classical music.

Check out the Delian Society: http://deliansociety.org/

Maybe you have some new ideas.

 

[Bulldog]

Unfortunately, the only way classical music could become more popular would be to insert more popular genres into the classical mold. There are a few folks on this board who try to do just that. I hope this move doesn't succeed.

 

[Sloe]

I think we need new music that sounds great + more of it in the media like on television.Not to many channels show classical music.

I think the best way would be if there was a way for people to hear classical music without looking for it. The only way I can imagine that would be as soundtracks or guest performances in talkshows.

 

[GhenghisKhan]

I do not ever want to see the classical equivalent to Lil Wayne.

 

[arpeggio]

I think newly composed contemporary music need to sound accessible and can relate to any listener. Then people will naturally want to explore more of it.

Have you ever been involved with the management of a symphony orchestra? Are you aware of any studies that show if an orchestra only programs tonal music their attendance goes up? So how do you know if this change in programing would work?

If you recall I have been involved music organizations where the people who though that programing music that real people like to listen to would help attendance. See: http://www.talkclassical.com/31317-rant-horrible-music-composers-9.html#post639571

 

[GreenMamba]

If people want to listen to music that sounds like Mozart, they can listen to Mozart. Most choose not to do so (to their discredit, IMO). I'm not sure a new Mozart-ish composer will change things.