Why should the oldsters get all the good tunes?
Classical music is dead.
Long live classical music.
I don’t know how many times experts have called “time of death” on classical music over the past 75 years, but what I find heartening is that they (much like the self-styled prophets who keep picking dates for the end of the world) continue to be wrong. Every time it appears that classical music is, indeed, dead and buried, it pops up again in unexpected places, full of life and appealing to a new audience.
A recent BBC article by Daisy Woodward highlights this phenomenon. In Gen Z and Young Millennials Surprising Obsession, she cites a 2022 survey by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra which found that “under 35-year-olds are more likely to listen to orchestral music than their parents,” and that there has been a “widespread surge in [the] popularity of classical music in general, particularly among younger generations.” According to Woodward, there are many reasons for this shift, which range from influences as diverse as easy access to music streaming, the TV show Squid Game (which features classical music), and TikTok, with #classictok currently boasting 53.8 million views. This is spurred on by young classical musicians who have taken to all social media platforms where they’ve connected with listeners directly, helping to shed the “elitist and inaccessible” image that classical music has developed over the years.
When one looks at the history of Western classical music, it’s easy to see the pattern—one form of musical experience dies and another takes its place. Societal changes, technological changes, cultural shifts—all of these things kill off old forms, but they also usher in new ones. Those of us who cherish the forms through which we experience music are understandably dismayed when they change or die off, but that doesn’t mean that the music itself has died, only that it has found new ways to adapt itself to an evolving society. We oldsters may not recognize or appreciate the new forms, but we can be grateful that the beating heart of this music is still vibrant.
‘Cause we oldsters know a thing or two about the power of western classical music. We know that it speaks to generation after generation of people because the good stuff that survived time is rooted in the deep soil of human experience.We know from decades of life experience that when all of society and life seems to be in flux, this music offers us grounding in the truth of who we are. This is why most of us care so much about passing this music on to younger generations. We just have to learn to do this without confusing the traditions and mores of classical music with the music itself.
So, what can us oldsters (those of us who aren’t on TikTok or don’t follow all the up and coming young musicians) do to help younger generations feel welcome in classical music? We can stop trying to force our forms, conventions, image, and performance mores on the young. We can accept that this music is too vibrant and alive to be kept in the marble halls of the “Church of Classical Music” and that it will survive the grubbiness of unsavory interpretations or TikTok snippets. In other words, we can do our bit to “unstuff” classical music by “unstuffing” ourselves. By doing this we give the young the courtesy of falling in live with classical music in their own way. Just like we did.
Photo by Jade Masri, courtesy of UpSplash