Classical music is unpopular because it requires an attention span and a
commitment.  This makes the enterprise sound like an unpleasant exercise,
but for many people that is precisely what it is.  It also requires some
sense of history.  It is not a now kind of thing.  I think too that the
classical music Community does very little real outreach, and most of us
either do not give a hoot about spreading the word or do not have a clue
as to how it can be done, if indeed it can be done.  Public school music
education is increasingly seen as a frill, and that may be contributing.
But now here is the main reason.  We on this list are aware that there
is an enormous variety of twentieth century music, but even people like
Billy Joel, who should know better characterize all of it as dissonant
and unlistenable.  And indeed for most people the contemporary music
which speaks to them is popular music, or rock, or world music.  There
is a reason why Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen are very popular.  They
communicate with their audience in a manner which seems to be beyond the
powers- maybe beyond the aspirations of "classical" composers.  It is as
if classical contemporary music demands an entrance fee of intellectual
commitment and attention span which even the best of the other styles does
not.

Or on the other hand, maybe the classical music gene has now mutated.

Bernard Chasan