http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/s ... aul-morley

I can't disagree that the pop and rock scene hasn't got a pulse, not that good bands aren't out there, but the closest I get to classical is movie soundtracks. And that's unlikely to change.

I can't shake the feeling that until wider society realises it's bread and circuses like never before that we'll get the music we deserve.

I remember hearing a quote from.. I think it was The Future Sound of London and it goes something like

"We don't make dance music any more. We got into dance music because we decided rock music as a dead genre and we've realised there now isn't a significantly greater amount of good dance music being made than there was rock music when we started."

Mainstream music, of all genres, has been commoditised to death. It is now so utterly polished and flattened that it is incapable of stirring the emotion. Again, this spans across genres. David Guetta and Calvin Harris are actually no more musically exciting than Taylor Swift or Cheryl Cole. Plus, I don't think popular music can be recovered, it's so over-processed it can't see the way back any more. The difference with Classical is there's no real imperative in the new. We're not looking for 'the next big thing' in classical music in the same way and therefore there's no requirement to blandly it to oblivion.

There's a technology issue as well. Nowadays it's easy for anyone to release music to the masses.
Added to the fact the predominant format is MP3 so it's compressed to fcuk. This means music loses its dynamics and edge.
This does mean that big production pays off and you'll get some exciting music but then it's musically lacking.
Classical on the other hand had dynamics built in so sounds exciting (even though even cd limits its range).

I rarely listen to music these days, maybe a couple of minutes a month, or when the other half is doing something around the house and puts on music full volume. I just can't get interested in music these days.

IMO, the writer is being really rather unfair.
His main charge seems to be that the majority of the Pop and Rock genres is crap and written only to receive a pay-check. Well, quelle surprise frankly.
You see, if you spend any time at all in the so-called Classical world, you soon learn that over 90% of it is total [LIFTED]. Mozart, Bach et al. may be feted composers but try listening to the complete works of any of them and you'll soon be bored to tears.
I remember one evening as a boy, while practising Schubert's Piano Sonata Op.142, thinking what happened to opuses 1 to 141?
The reason for this is simple - most of what humanity produces is dull, unoriginal crap. This is true of smartphones, software and is most definitely true of classical music.
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