[stupidcar]

It's funny that he identifies the problem: that avant-garde classical hasn't been able to find a way to connect with an audience, but then spends the conclusion trashing pop and rock as "plastic" music, listeners of which need to be apparently re-educated to appreciate better music. This despite the fact that pop and rock music has already achieved exactly what he is advocating. It has integrated avant-garde elements within a traditional framework and delivered it to a mass audience. Maybe he should consider learning from these genres, instead of trashing them.

Sure, there's plenty of generic, uninspired pop and rock. But there's plenty of generic, uninspired classic musical as well. And dig even a little deeper, and you find many, many pop rock, and hip-hop artists who are wildly experimental, yet still find an audience. Techniques like sampling and the use of electronics were pioneered by the avant-garde, but it is pop, rock and hip-hop artists who have taken them further and done the hard work of figuring out how they can be incorporated into a traditional (and new) melodic frameworks that actually have an appeal to the listener.