# Do you think Mozart would like modern music? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 20, 2012, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577 "2012-11-20T03:13:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/41 "2012-11-24T01:28:30Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > First, he’d give the iPod a listen and say, “That’s cool, but could they make it sound better?” Sure. Stop selling them with crappy white headphones. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/42 "2012-11-24T03:40:23Z")
to answer the original question. IME, musicians have more in common with other musicsans of any genre, than they do with fans of their particular genre. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![NKNK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a9adbd/32.png) [@NKNK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NKNK)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2013, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/43 "2013-09-22T02:08:11Z")
I think we can look at what the current musical geniuses actually decide to do today. Here is a few examples: Even if it’s to keep the sonata movement alive like Bogdan Ota Alin. Or make a tons of film music like Hans Zimmer as an example. If being honest, I believe Mozarts level of talent would have exceeded the amount of produced music by Hans Zimmer, even with way higher complexity. With Mozart’s level of talent, every phrase can hold a new form of expression. Imagine Mozart coming to this world, re-writing popular music into something that actually expresses something. I personally don’t think he would re-write modern music, at his level of genius I think he would come up with new music, way more complex, interesting and with expressions than the current modern music. I simply believe he would change the musical laws once more. If Mozart was alive. I believe he would start off doing something similar as Bogdan Ota Alin to begin with. But later I’m very sure Mozart would once again re-write our musical theory. I simply believe Mozart would be interested in more complex music than the typical radio tunes. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2013, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/44 "2013-09-22T03:20:04Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > You wouldn’t be able to drag him away from the likes of the gross-out movies of the Farrelly brothers and the Jackass movies. He was into that [shit](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozart_and_scatology). I’d rethink any particularly highfalutin expectations, but I would want to listen to Zappa’s _Hot Rats_ with him. I concur with my sentiments from 2012. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2013, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/45 "2013-09-22T04:40:26Z")
How are we defining “modern”? The last 150 years? The last sixty? The last ten? Are we only considering “popular” music, or all of it? Are we lumping [Stephen Foster](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U1l5y2rkzA) in with [Krzysztof Penderecki](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOnC5X8rWi0), and the [Velvet Underground](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffr0opfm6I4), and [Alexandrov](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U06jlgpMtQs), and [Blind Willie Johnson](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FRbhFd_BhY), and [O’Donnell](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6JK3fhYE1w)? [Spike Jones](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZlFBSRrSR0) and [Hendrix](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLV4_xaYynY)? [Williams](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9vrfEoc8_g) and [Williams](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h36GTeHlNJ4)? [“Punk”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49j6FYBDunM) and [“Punk”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4dUiBfMQVU)? Are we only including _western_ music, or does [Malian jazz](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llr2_E0dFRE) count? Or [Tong Bo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbBTkINk5n4)? [Ladysmith Black Mambazo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2xl2fsdyGM)? Or [Yamashirogumi](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-wv4pFodIQ)? Or anything from [Bollywood](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dishe-dDo8Q)? I think the answer to “would Mozart love or hate modern music” might simply be “yes.” ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2013, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/46 "2013-09-22T09:33:42Z")
If he were to start composing music again he’d be starting from scratch, as an indie musician. He’d be ignored by major record labels as “Too derivative of Mozart” and since he’d come off as a loon trying to convince them and others that he actually WAS Mozart, he’d be marginalized and left to post whatever music he made to YouTube, garnering 2,395 Views, 102 Likes, 15 Dislikes, and Comments such as “You suck,” “Cool tunes man,” “Brilliant!,” and “Ok, but too many notes.” ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2013, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/47 "2013-09-22T09:41:23Z")
He’d also be totally freaked out if you showed him **Trading Places**. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2013, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/48 "2013-09-22T10:38:54Z")
I you just brought back an iPod to Mozart’s day, I think he would just dismiss modern popular music as too simplistic, and get bored with it pretty quickly. If he was around today, though… let’s see. He’d start out with a classical heritage, mad violin skillz and a knack for writing great melodies that get better with each listen. I think he’d get into the groove after a while, and start appreciating the music he first thought of as too simple. After a while he’d start to hang out at rock concerts, pick up modern doodads such as loopers and electric guitars, get into pop tunes and folk music, and begin mixing it all up. After a few albums that would sound too complicated and esoteric for modern ears, he’d get the hang of great pop melodies, hit a sweet spot, and end up sounding something like [Andrew](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N36Bl4WkVQY) [Bird](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-B8E6T5Ri4). ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2013, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/49 "2013-09-22T14:09:58Z")
I would hope that Mozart would appreciate modern music, and I think it would help him to do so if you introduced it to him in a sort of chronological order of development; so you’d make sure he heard some Blues before you played some early Rock n Roll, and so forth until you got to something like Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and his head asplodes. Then again, maybe he would freak out over Stravinski long before that. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2013, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/50 "2013-09-22T14:20:43Z")
Hmm, I don’t know if he’d be able to appreciate the complexity of modern classical music, or maybe even a lot of modern jazz, but he might understand pop music’s simplicity. Don’t think he’d be too fond of Autotune though. Don’t know how he’d like electronic instruments. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2013, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/51 "2013-09-23T12:12:09Z")
[quote=“Martian Bigfoot, post:48, topic:641577”] I you just brought back an iPod to Mozart’s day, I think he would just dismiss modern popular music as too simplistic, and get bored with it pretty quickly…QUOTE] I have 12,000 tunes on my iPod, including … Mozart, Mahler, all the great “B” composers, and pretty much every western music genre under the sun. He would love it. and I would love to watch his reaction as long as it wasn’t to burn me at the stake for some kind of witchcraft. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/52 "2013-09-24T00:28:29Z")
He would love a system where you can make $500,000 a year thirth years after composing, playing and producing one Christmas song. > **[Paul McCartney Continues to Have a Wonderful (Financial) Christmas Time](https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2010/12/23/paul-mccartney-continues-to-have-a-wonderful-financial-christmas-time/)** I think he would have loved the possibilities of recording techniques and film (opera in his day). He would at least be tolerant of todays music. In his day he was quick to defend Haydn and his relationship with Salieri was much better than depicted in “Amadeus”. He certainly was fond of scatalogical humor, at least in letters. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577/53 "2013-09-25T17:34:49Z")
Well, we know that when Beethoven travelled through time his favorite songs included Mozart’s Requiem, Handle’s Messiah, and Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet… Seriously, though: > [@Elmer J Fudd](#): > > An intergral part of his appreciation of music would have been vibration and observation What the heck are you talking about? Vibrations? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-mozart-would-like-modern-music/641577.md?page=2)