It'll never stop being USEFUL. If "relevance" is measured by whether it resonates with an [average] listener, whether they feel it expresses certain things better than they themselves can, -it's relevant in a way that contents of a museum of old fine art are relevant in a very large city. Sometimes enthusiasts visit it to study/appreciate, sometimes people go there because their school made them go, some are glad it's there & "one day they should really go check it out". Similar thing has happened & is happening in jazz.
Quality Cucumber had some great points; I'd like to add that music (IMHO), in any shape or form, has to be needed in order to be relevant. It needs to offer anthems-of-times within a given society or its circles. Random example would be: people discussing the news & someone voicing their reaction via a quote from a song/composition.
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