Re General distaste for classical.... WHY?

My own experience tells me that the general dislike of "classical" is not
that hard to explain, at least in musical terms..  As a teenager I loved
Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, etc., but curiously, perhaps, not much Bach,
although I was required to play quite a bit as a piano student.  I detested
all opera and most choral music.

By the time I hit my mid-twenties Bach choral music was about ALL I could
listen to, and nothing else really interested me.  So an ear for classical
is acquired, for most people, including classical musicians, by repeated
and attentive listening, and listening to many different performances of
the same work.

Social class, culture, etc., are also factors, but only because they affect
the extent to which the listener is encouraged or motivated to begin the
listening process in earnest.  Very few people, indeed, cannot appreciate
and even grow to love most mainstrain classical music, given time and the
inclination to listen!

John Grant
http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/42/john_lewis_grant.html