I used to go to orchestra summer camp, and they had a lot of random electives there. Probably just anything someone reasonably trustworthy said they could teach, looking back. My third summer there, I had exhausted the good ones, and so I signed up for Russian Music History. Only one single thing has stuck with me from that class. This is how it went, more or less:
In the beginning, there was the Artistic Institution, and it only accepted a certain style of music. But, not everyone agreed. The New Style was considered to be too wild and avant-garde and some even said it would be the Death Of Music. But the youth, who saw beauty in the New Style that the establishment was blind to, kept on making their music, and doing it so well and for so long that the older bastion of tradition died out, lost power, or were just convinced the New Style was actually amazing too, maybe even better. And the Artistic Institution fell into the hands of the generation of the New Style, and the New Style became what was taught in schools, where the big bucks lied, and the new normal.
And then, there was the Artistic Institution, and it only accepted a certain style of music. But, not everyone agreed. The Newer Style was considered to be too wild and avant-garde and some even said it would be the Death Of Music. But the youth, who saw beauty in the Newer Style that the establishment was blind to, kept on making their music, and doing it so well and for so long that the older bastion of tradition died out, lost power, or were just convinced the Newer Style was actually amazing too, maybe even better. And the Artistic Institution fell into the hands of the generation of the Newer Style, and the Newer Style became what was taught in schools, where the big bucks lied, and the new normal.
And then, there was the Artistic Institution, and it only accepted a certain style of music. But, not everyone agreed. The Newer Yet Style was considered to be too wild and avant-garde and some even said it would be the Death Of Music. But the youth, who saw beauty in the Newer Yet Style that the establishment was blind to, kept on making their music, and doing it so well and for so long that the older bastion of tradition died out, lost power, or were just convinced the Newer Yet Style was actually amazing too, maybe even better. And the Artistic Institution fell into the hands of the generation of the Newer Yet Style, and the Newer Yet Style became what was taught in schools, where the big bucks lied, and the new normal.
If you clicked the play button on the track on the top of this page, you are currently listening to The Rite of Spring, Pt. 2, The Sacrifice, by Igor Stravinsky. When it was performed for the first time in Paris in 1913, it was so fucking insane compared to what people knew and loved that the audience screamed and booed and protested, totally drowning out the music. Now, if I were to play a random segment of The Rite of Spring, a random segment of Beethoven's 5th Symphony, and a random segment of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, each from a wildly different era of classical music, the vast majority of readers of this blog would probably not be able to tell any significant difference between them. Basically all western-civilization music from before 1950 other than country/folk is under one "old, pretentious music" umbrella to average modern-day people, and yes, that includes early Jazz, which was orchestral.
Music has evolved crazily and polydirectionally in the past several decades. Electric guitars and keyboards, sampling, digital composition. The sounds possible are now far more diverse than they were before, so the differences between genres and styles are much larger and clearer. That's likely why all classical music sounds the same to us now.
Music will evolve crazy and polydirectionally when the next big everything-changing technological advancement after computers happens. There is literally no way for us to imagine what that will bring, just as electric guitars and FL Studio would have been inconcievable for some random person in 1913. The sounds (or new adjacent senses) will be far more diverse than they are now, so the differences between genres and styles will be much larger and clearer. In all likelihood, Classical, Rock, EDM, Pop, Hip-Hop, Country, Metal, and Latin music will all be known to most people as the same concept, everyone who listens to them or knows the difference will be (correctly) called a pretentious history nerd, and something by Kendrick Lamar will be dramatic background music in a movie that takes place in 13th century China.
I generally don't think of music as something I, personally, rebel in. I just listen to what I like, and what I like is scattered around many eras and styles. But sometimes I remember the genres I end up listening to least are modern pop and hip-hop, which are the current biggest ones. Just as someone who grew up in the Modernist Period (~1900) might have just naturally gravitated away from Strauss and Ravel and composed something like the Rite of Spring. Such is the nature of human contrarianism.
I guess if there's a takeaway from this, it's that when you grow old, don't assume you happened to be born into the one, single generation within the Goldilocks Zone of art, or anything else for that matter. Just because you're not in the cultural driver's seat anymore doesn't mean the endless black expanse of time that the careening car of humanity speeds through is any more inscrutable or what's on the other side any worse. Let the children have their brainrot. Someday it'll be classical music, and so will you.