Getting others to like classical music

[rph108]

I have lots of friends who like country and rap and stuff(blah  :-/), but are very intelligent (No offense to those types of music). I try to get them to listen to some CD's like Chopin and Bach, but they seem bored. Is there any easier way that anyone has come up with to show your friends how great classical music is?

[DarkWind]

Rite of Spring for the wild kind of music. 'Nuff said.

[Shagdac]

Probably the same techniques you would suggest if they wanted ideas on how to get you interested in
country, rap and stuff!


Actually, I've often wondered the same thing rph! I wish I could get my friends and family as interested in classical music as I am...wouldn't that be great! Unfortunately, even with sharing different types of classical and trying to expose them to it in different ways, CD's, concerts, playing pieces I think they would enjoy.....it hasn't done much good. Most of the people I know who enjoy classical, happen to be musicians themselves.  On the other side. My 18 year old son likes Rap...( I personally don't care for it), however even with his attemps to let me hear different types...and he'll even say "you'll like this...it has a piano in it!(haha)..it's still not something I enjoy. I respect his taste, because it is his, but unfortunately we can't make someone like something they don't. I think the best we can do, is offer opportunities to share the music we love, and HOPE that they enjoy it.

Just my thoughts.
S

[allchopin]

I think that you really have to grow up on it for it to fully sink in as a favorable, listenable genre.  If you listen to it young, you may associate the music to certain memories (nostalgia basically).   Same with rap or country - if your parents listened to that music, chances are, you will acquire that taste as well, if only slightly.

[Fastzuernst]

My parents know nothing about classical, therefore I had to discover it myself through books and research. I grew up listening to the Beetles, James Taylor, and christian contempory (UGH!!!)

[rhapsody in orange]

Well I think to like something you'd first need to have interest with it. People who do not like classical music probably do not listen to them much, therefore their understanding of it probably is less than their understanding for pop/rap etc. Guess it is the same case for appreciating a literature novel. As you understand it more, you would appreciate it more. That is the reason why some classics are more popular than others (Fur Elise, Rondo Alla Turca just to name a few) It is because they are more often played, therefore people are more familiar with the tune. Personally, I would like a piece only after I've played it several times or heard it several times. It lets you know where the music goes rather than just a mass of sound playing at your ear.

[Nightscape]

I agree with rhapsody in orange.... classical music would be far more popular if the public was exposed to it more often - the only classical exposure most people get is the occassional TV commercial that will feature some poor arrangement of a classical tune.  But classical music is not advertised heavily like popular music, because there is little money to be made in it (being in the public domain, no one collects royalities, and since classical music is already unpopular, it doesn't stand much of a chance of being accepted widely soon).

Even if it were popular though, only a small fraction of the population could understand and appreciate it (I'm sure that even most of the population doesn't appreciate and understand most of the popular music available!)- they would need lyrics and a drumset or something to help them along.

The only thing that can really be done is to expose your more intelligent friends to it (not blatantly, but subtly over time).  This has worked with my friend Austin, who like many others, had the ability to understand, but had never experienced it.  He now considers the Rach 3 to be one of the greatest pieces of music ever written.  Quite a change!

Just play music that you now will be immediatly appealing - Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff come to mind.  Try Nutcracker suite, or the 1812 overture.  Or a rachmaninoff prelude, or his 2nd piano concerto.  Another good starter is Ravel's Bolero.  By no means play something esoteric, like a Bach fugue or any of Schumann.  They will be bored to tears (Even I am sometimes bored to tears with Schumann still, but hopefully that will change.)

[breadboy]

Even if it were popular though, only a small fraction of the population could understand and appreciate it (I'm sure that even most of the population doesn't appreciate and understand most of the popular music available!)- they would need lyrics and a drumset or something to help them along.
 

Isn't shameless elitism fun?

[galonia]

I like all sorts of music - my brother used to press play on my CD player every few days just to see what was inside at the time - sometimes he'd get Bach, Rachmaninoff, or Beethoven, Mozart, Wagner, Prokofiev, Bartok, Chopin - or old pop tunes that our parents listen to (such as the Beatles and Elvis and Beach Boys and Connie Francis), and sometimes it'd be contemporary pop - yes, even the Spice Girls have featured in my CD player! - and sometimes it'd be rap (I'm a big fan of Snoop Dogg and Eminem) - and sometimes contemporary rock such as the Offspring or Grinspoon or Silverchair.

But the point is, anyone can listen to anything, and people who declare they don't like "classical music" should watch all their television and movies with the sound off.  The more music I listen to, the more I realise how much the backing tracks of tv shows and movies come from music that could have been written anywhere from 400 years ago to today.  For example, I'm a big fan of the Smurfs (which is not shown anymore on Australian free-to-air tv) and everytime Gargamell (the evil wizard - I can't spell his name properly) appears, we hear Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1.

I have a friend who is into the "cool" contemporary popular music, and he couldn't believe I listen to Frank Sinatra, until I played him "Fly Me to the Moon" - the theme to some Japanese cartoon stuff he watches.  He hadn't realised that Sinatra was the one who originally sang it!  Who is uncool now? (or at least, ignorant)

[ChristmasCarol]

I managed a volunteer symphony for a couple of years.  This subject was ever present.  We live in world of television and movies dictating the tastes of the entire culture.  The members of the orchestra were clearly enriched by the community of other musicians who appreciate classical music. 

I agree with the above message that it needs to be introduced when you're growing up.  Heck, I used to vacuum the living room to the strains of the Grande Canyon Suite trying to sing all the parts.  Course I too was exposed to horrible music in church on a regular basis.  Thank goodness it didn't ruin my ear.  Bach would die all over again if he heard the modern day church music.

As you go about your life, while driving, in your home, you can expose your friends to little bits here and there.  Over time they will start to associate this sound with you and when they hear it somewhere else it may stimulate an interest.

Deargodinheaven, if I have one more student ask me if I watch American Idol.

Well just know that most of us on this board are out here loving it right along with you.

[Spatula]

Bach would die all over again if he heard the modern day church music.

 

LMAO! 

[Bob]

I know of a way.  Get them to listen to movie music -- A lot of it can be symphonic, so they get used to hearing an orchestra.  Symphonic and 20th century.  If they like the movie, they probably like the music. 

Who's not going to like Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., or Star Wars?  If they like Williams, they might like Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra.  If they like Star Wars, they might like Wagner's Ring Cycle music.

I agree with some of the previous posts.  They would have to make the choice to listen to music to begin with and to listen to classical music.

There's always Gerswhin too.  Rhapsody in Blue, Concerto in F, Porgy and Bess, An American in Paris. 

\@__      "Vroom!"

I wonder if some of those "Classical Music's Greatest Hits" collection do classical music a disservice.  Even classical radio stations.  They play a lot of what I think of as "pop" classical music.  It's soothing music and the same pieces people think of when they think classical music, a Mozart Symphony, Bach Minuet, etc.  stuff that's not too dissonant or "unhappy."