Interesting item over at The Imaginative Conservative. Just substitute a couple of words and--wow--have you heard this before? (No, the analogy is NOT perfect. This is called "out of the box", folks.)

"...Classical music is no longer relevant to us or to our modern society. Johnny and Suzy–or today we should probably call them ‘Caden and Madison’–can enjoy a perfectly active childhood, be accepted to and graduate from a top-tier university, climb to the heights of success in their careers, raise their own children, and pass from this life without ever having known or heard a symphony. In fact, it is worse than that. Even if they are exposed to classical music, Caden and Madison will not necessarily know anything more about the modern world in which they live.

"And that is because classical music was written for and by people in another time and place–in a world wholly unlike our own. That was the world we swept away in the name of Liberty, Equality, and Justice. Or something very like that. Symphonies were written for aristocracy, and therefore orchestras represent the bastion of an oppressive and offensive elitism. And anyway, Liberty, Equality, and Justice have not been properly served and are still more imperative and deserving of our philanthropic efforts than any frivolous art form belonging to a vanished class of elites.

"Besides, people just do not like classical music anymore. Popular taste has evolved to prefer more spectacular and low-brow entertainment. That orchestras have not learned to compete with the television that Caden and Madison can watch in the comfort of their own home and their own yoga pants is really the orchestras’ fault. Perhaps ticket prices are too high considering the lack of demand–and considering also all those whom Liberty, Equality, and Justice have not yet managed to help.

"Orchestras are failing to compete with the other technology-driven entertainment products. They do not fit into the modern way we live our lives; they are clumsy with technology and social media. They have fallen behind the general rate of innovation and progress–in technology, society, and business. In fact, their business model is all but dead, and so are their audiences.

"Sound familiar? Well, it is not a new story. It has been told and retold by cultural and music critics in roughly this way since at least the 1920s. This is how the problems of the symphony orchestra have been framed by the leading opinion-makers and ideologues of our age. And orchestras have been struggling to answer them...."

Oh, it gets even better!

"...orchestras, too, not unlike teenagers, feel awkward–trapped in a “fear of backwardness.” We want so much to be cool. We want everyone to like us. Eventually we will have to grow up and realize that trying to be all things to all people, copying all the trends and fads in an effort to be liked, is a fool’s game. We have to recall that the cool kids usually peaked in high school; it was the nerdy or socially unimpressive kid who went on to do something truly remarkable. We are that nerdy kid. And we are already doing something that is remarkable....

Present company excepted, of course.

You'll have to go to the link to find his thoughts on 'the orchestra problem': http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2014/10/saving-classical-music.html

But here's a bite:

"By now we should already be able to see the problem with the assumptions underlying cries for the concert experience to become more “fun” and engaging or more technologically advanced. The assumption is that these are the reasons people attend concerts. But we know no such thing. In fact, evidence suggests the opposite...."

Hmmmm.