Classical Music Argumentative Essay

In the classical, romantic eras of time, musicians such as Beethoven and Mozart were the idols of music. Since then, more modern day musicians have taken the spotlight such as Beyoncé and Carrie Underwood. There just is not enough room for both genres to be successful anymore. There will always be a desire for modern day music; there will not always be a desire for classical music. I argue that instrumental music is dying due to the rise in modern day music, the loss of appeal to classical music, and the loss of job availabilities for instrumental performers.

As years have passed, modern day music has become the highlight of the music industry. When someone asks about your favorite band, you normally are not going to think about an instrumental group. In 2012, the amount of classical music bought declined by 21%. In the following year, classical music only made up 2.8% of the sold music in the industry. Rock music made up 35%, and R&B made up 18%; 4% was made up of other soundtracks (Vanhoenacker). It is shown in these statistics that modern day music is more commonly desired among the

people today.
The people of today’s society have a stronger appeal to music made with sounds such as synthesizers and electric guitars. The problem with this is that people do not realize that much of the music made with those sounds are not made with real instruments. Much of the music is entered in by a computer. In the book “Capturing Sound” by Mark Katz the following quote is used on page 140, “What computers manipulate is not sound itself but representations of sounds” (Katz). The meaning of this is that the sounds computers can make are not genuine. It is only a representation of what the sound would sound like.
One of the main factors of Classical music losing its appeal is the loss of attention in the media. The media control much of what the people see and what the people believe. As sports have become more popular, the media has turned its eye towards them. In the article “Is Classical Music Dying?” the author says she had a student ask her who the pitcher was for the Yankees team, and that made her feel afraid for the future of classical music (Dreyer ). She felt this way because she sees all of these kids talking and asking about sports and very few asking about music, or any of the arts for that matter. What future can the classical music industry have if the younger generations have no appeal towards it?
However, sports are not the only thing taking the attention away from classical music. Famous actors, new pop artists, the lives of royalty or famous people, and so much more has contributed to the attention being taken from music performers. The media makes money off of the stories they can write, and they believe there are more stories to be written about these other topics.
Moreover, the classical music industry puts faith into the donations and attention of their fans and audience. When the media started focusing on other industries, multiple of those donators stopped noticing them as well. Without money, there cannot be as many performances, and that means they can not have the same amount of job opportunities.
Nevertheless, the donations given by the audience were a large part of the spirit of performing. The performers knew how much their music and talent was appreciated, so they put all of their efforts into their performances. When the audiences started to get smaller and the donators stopped helping, the performers lost their spirit. They could not afford to do as many concerts. The jobs started to thin out, and performers started getting other jobs to help pay the bills.
Ordinarily, instrumental performers can get paid anywhere from $28,000 to $155,000 a year (Severson). The amount of pay just depends on how many jobs they can get to perform in. Performing is rarely a full-time job anymore. There are a few orchestras that are year round, but most instrumental performers just take jobs here and there. When studying to become a music performer, they prepare the students by explaining that many of the jobs they have in their future will not involve performing music. There are not enough jobs to make the money needed to live off of.
Pure talent is something that can get you far in the music industry.

Those few orchestras that are year round want the best performers in the world. If you have the talent you will get to do what you love for life; but then there are the others who do not get this opportunity. A performers life is a life of auditioning. Auditioning for anyone who is willing to offer a job. For those lucky enough to get a job that last year round the choice is easy, but for those who have to have multiple jobs the choice is not as easy. They have to decide whether or not they should continue to pursue their love for music. For many performers, they come to the conclusion that they can not afford to be a performer so they stop. That is one reason the classical music industry may not have a future. Performers do not have the money or the spirit to do what they love anymore, so they quit

altogether.
The life of a music performer is not an easy one. They have a numerous amount of jobs in their lives, some dealing with music, others not. All of these facts make up one major point. Classical music is dying and with it many jobs and opportunities. Modern day music has been and will continue to be more popular in today’s society.