It was the first day of my freshman year of high school. I was sitting in my Honors English class, waiting for my turn to answer the icebreaker question most high school teachers ask during roll call. I normally don’t mind answering those harmless questions, but that day, I was dreading it. “I like pop,” said Emily, a girl sitting way across on the opposite side of the room. A guy by the name of Andrew, who sat right next to me, said he prefers rap. Another dude, whose name I forgot, said, “I like whatever I’m listening to at the moment, if it makes me happy.” Hm, not too bad of an answer, I thought.
While the teacher was going down the roster, I sat still, frantically holding conversations with myself in my head. Should I say mainstream? Hip hop? Rap? Er, heavy metal?
Hanna? What is your favorite genre of music?
Oh no, don’t say it, don’t say it… “Classical,” I blurted out loud. Suddenly, the noise and chitchat died down and everyone turned their heads and stared at me bug-eyed. “Oh, I see,” the teacher said. In the background, an immature kid snickered. As my face grew hotter with each passing minute, I silently kicked myself and hoped my classmates would soon forget this particular, first day of school episode.
As weird as it sounds, I’m a millennial who loves classical music. With a father who had once been a member of a church choir back in Korea, I grew up listening to choral music, classical music and the like. When I was old enough to go to school, I was exposed to popular, mainstream music, but no melody or tune delighted me as much as classical music did.
There’s just something wildly novel about a blend of violins, cellos, flutes, trumpets and all the other instruments of the orchestra that captivated me as a child, and still does to this day.
For clarification purposes, classical music, as used in this article, is an umbrella term and not an accurate phrase for all the instrumental types of music I enjoy. There are several periods that span what most people call “classical music,” such as Renaissance, Baroque and Romantic. Classical is just another time period, so the term “classical music” applies to the music produced during the Classical era. But for sanity’s sake and the length of my story, I won’t get into the history of classical music or how the term is rife with inaccuracy.
What I will do is write about some composers and genres that aren’t classical, but let’s not make this difficult — let’s call it classical.
Classical music is my life. I listen to Bach. I listen to Handel. I listen to Gershwin (definitely not og classical music, but y’know). I listen to Beethoven. I listen to Tchaik. I listen to Debussy. I listen to movie soundtracks. Brb, gonna go listen to some Hans Zimmer and cry to myself about the fact that classical music has never been and won’t ever be the “people’s choice.”
If Hans Zimmer wins anything at the People’s Choice Awards, please let me know. You can reach me through Facebook or Twitter, thanks.
I get it, well-dressed people seated in overdone concert halls just staring at other well-dressed people playing music doesn’t seem too exciting, especially in this day and age where millennials are likely to be seen at clubs, raves or music festivals where EDM blasts from every dimension. Nicole E, a 22-year-old college student who lives in Liverpool, England, took to Twitter to express the displeasure millennials have for classical music. Another Twitter user took a harsher approach to it, criticizing Uber drivers who play classical music.
I sort of hate how a lot of people disregard classical music before giving it an honest listen, simply because they think it’s for rich people. It’s true many big-name composers, such as Handel, Tchaikovsky and Haydn were wealthy. But a lot of composers were penniless too, including Wagner, Sibelius, Debussy and even Beethoven, who is hailed as the greatest composer of all time and also happens to be my favorite. Classical music is for anyone who’s willing to listen — after all, I’m a regular, middle class kid.
So why is it that I’m seen as a total nerd who’s out of touch with the progressive world when people find out I like classical music? They ask me, “Why do you listen to that stuff?” I respond, “Because I like it.” I don’t think there’s anything different from a 19-year-old girl listening to pop and a 19-year-old girl listening to classical. Both like whatever’s coming out of those headphones. So what’s the problem?
I honestly don’t know. I can’t answer that question. It’s just that one is socially acceptable in the bizarre world of millennials, while the other isn’t. I place partial blame on society’s portrayal of classical music—complex, intellectual, sophisticated and stuffy. To make it even worse, Hollywood has frequently portrayed psychopaths and villains as classical music enthusiasts. A leading example is the 2010 crime thriller, “The Killer Inside Me,” starring Casey Affleck and Jessica Alba. Affleck, who plays a small-town deputy sheriff turned psychotic killer by the name of Lou Ford, listens to Gustav Mahler or Gaetano Donizetti at night. Alone. It’s no surprise why so many people see classical music junkies as eccentric people in long skirts and turtlenecks.
Some millennials have taken action to try to get rid of the negative label attached to classical music. ClassyAF is the brainchild of Talisa and Naomi Blackman of Toronto. With the new concert series, the sisters want to “bring classical music out of the concert hall and into the bar.”
Groupmuse is another millennial startup founded by Sam Bodkin, a Columbia University graduate. He jumped on the idea when he became obsessed with Beethoven’s “Grosse Fugue” playing in a friend’s apartment. Groupmuse, which has been featured in TIME, NPR and the Wall Street Journal, brings classical music to casual house parties in Boston, New York, Seattle and San Francisco.
These ideas are great. I think it’s great more people are being exposed to classical music. It’s just not my cup of tea. Tacos, popcorn, alcohol, lying on the floor, talking, lit-up phones and classical music in the same picture doesn’t sit well with me. But that’s just me.
Anyway, classical music won’t make a magical comeback and steal the hearts of millennials, despite all the effort. That’s because short and sweet is all the rage. Mainstream songs are only about three to four minutes long, and they’re catchy. In comparison, classical pieces are super lengthy, and while they do have strong hooks, a lot of people can’t identify them.
Whatever. Who cares what others say. I’m going to keep on listening to and loving classical music. Not gonna lie, it’s hard being that one college student who likes classical music, even more so because on any given day, I’d choose to attend a traditional concert unhelpfully stereotyped as boring over a casual one.
There’s just something so relaxing about sitting on a velvety throne for hours, listening to music echoing off the walls of a beautiful, air-conditioned hall.
So to that immature kid in my high school English class, “Well, bless your little heart.”
P.S. Do you want to hear a funny music joke?
Middle C, E flat and G walk into a bar. “Sorry,” the barman said. “We don’t serve minors.”
