Yes, classical music is the fundamental of any music that exists today. You take Bach's Fugues for example, and you can learn how to layer sounds and how to exhibit each voice such that the listener can catch onto the melody, as well as create interesting harmonies.

The 1-4-5 chord progressions pop musicians use today are going out the window IMO. Classical music is on a comeback. Good music is good music regardless of instrumentation.

To me, music is a joke these days. Today's stars are more famous for their names rather than their talent.

Classical is still alive and kicking. Familiar themes keep coming up in today's popular music. Love, tragedy, struggle, pain, glory, humility, pride. The whole schabang. What is music if it cannot express these ideas constantly. I listened to Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana (1935) today.

Carl Orff – O Fortuna

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTWvlwZ7AJw

Carmina Burana is great, but it's "songs" are so catchy I tend to get them stuck in my head to an annoying degree. They're almost more like pop tunes.

^Thanks DYCDTTS. Helps me to understand the 19th and early 20th century better - they must have had their popular, mainstream, prog, alternative, obscure genres as well.

Been listening to Ahmad Jamal for a number of years and the track “Swahililand” always stuck in my head. Recently I learnt from a Robert Glasper vid that it was sampled by J Dilla.
Also interested in the piano runs and I thought hey a lot them sound like they could come from classical composers. Perhaps Debussy, Rachmaninov, Beethoven, Mozart? Any less mainstream, more obscure ones?
Jamal strikes me as someone who played at the crossroads, taking the past and projecting into the future. Like the god Janus.

Ahmad Jamal – Swahililand (1974)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3S1naGY9EQ

I forgot Grieg godammit.

Short answer No and I still stand behind that to this day!

Every kind of music is relevant today, and for always.

As new listeners discover classical music, or rap, or rock, or jazz, or blues, etc. - the music is more than relevant to them. It often brings joy to have discovered something fantastic which until then they had no idea was there.

The poll assumes that we all agree on the definition of "classical". Does it just mean the period between say 1700 to 1900, or does it include Baroque, Romantic, Contemporary... i.e. past music written PrEdOmInAnTlY bY wHiTe MaLeS?

I guess the question is a little ambiguous. I wasn't sure if it was asking if I think classical music is still relevant today, or if I think classical music should be relevant/important today?
I answered Yes btw.

- What would your long answer be, DJ? :)
- Do you think it should be more relevant today?

Everyone knows this one right?

But to WATCH these musicians as they're recreating an epic masterpiece is the one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. They made this video while sitting just a few yards from "der schönen blauen Donau".

Why Classical music Will Never Stop being relevant, it's all right here. MUST be viewed fullscreen.