The fears of the great maestro Bruno Walter have come true. Music has changed over the years. Why doesn't pop, rock or any other form of contemporary music appeal to me? Most (and i say most, not all) music nowadays is excessive and shallow. The difference between art and entertainment is clearly seen. The modern society has reduced music to the level of entertainment. Nice tunes and moving lyrics in pop songs appeal to our senses. They label classical music as boring, or a turn off, unable to appreciate its subtleties and layered meanings, choosing instead to indulge in the simplest of ear-pleasing entertainment, songs with accessible (and usually similar) tunes, with shallow, blunt (and again often overused in thousands of other songs) messages for lyrics. Listeners go for extreme emotion to satisfy their own needs, and to draw parallels between the lyrics and themselves. Art music, ont he other hand, is less about the self, and more about the one who wrote it. In fact, the writers of moving lyrics and (sometimes) good tunes usually pass unnoticed, whilst the millionaire star on stage (who just happened to be born with a good voice) is worshipped.

Woe to this generation, who craves simple indulgence and leaves it as that.

What a pity.