# Who is the Mozart of the Future? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 23, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281 "2014-10-23T19:21:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cephkiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cephkiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cephkiller)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281/1 "2014-10-23T19:21:57Z")
Your great, great, great, great grandchild is listening to what is then one of the most famous and revered musicians or bands from the 20th century. Who is playing on your grandchild’s future media-playing gizmo of choice? My submission? PRINCE His ability to compose great songs in a wide variety of musical genres, his personal virtuosity, and his flare for performance are my cites. Also, I like my geniuses to be eccentric. Prince has that covered as well 😃 ---
**Author:** ![babygoat666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2acd7d/32.png) [@babygoat666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/babygoat666)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281/2 "2014-10-23T19:41:58Z")
I like him, but Prince’s music is too dated already. I don’t think it even resonates with today’s kids. The Beatles are a safe bet, whether or not so-and-so who reads this thinks they’re overrated. They’ve already demonstrated that they can transcend generations. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281/3 "2014-10-23T19:42:03Z")
Rubbish. First of all, you’re trying to compare apples and oranges. Second of all, Prince will forgotten as anything but a note in popular culture history in a couple more generations. He is a great entertainer. A great musician? A great composer? HAH. ---
**Author:** ![Cephkiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cephkiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cephkiller)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281/4 "2014-10-23T19:55:34Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > A great musician? You’re certainly allowed to disagree as to whether his music is appealing to you. However, as a musician myself, I can assure you that Prince is quite gifted with respect to playing many instruments. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281/5 "2014-10-23T20:24:48Z")
> [@Cephkiller](#): > > You’re certainly allowed to disagree as to whether his music is appealing to you. However, as a musician myself, I can assure you that Prince is quite gifted with respect to playing many instruments. I am a HUGE Prince fan, but would have to put the Beatles ahead of him. Dylan. Hendrix. A few others. He is a master, but hasn’t been at a lot of pivotal points in music history. I stated in another thread that I think he is better than Michael Jackson, but Michael’s bid to be heard in 200 years is just as strong, if not stronger, than Prince’s… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281/6 "2014-10-23T20:27:50Z")
> [@babygoat666](#): > > The Beatles are a safe bet, whether or not so-and-so who reads this thinks they’re overrated. They’ve already demonstrated that they can transcend generations. Yeah, The Beatles. Fantastically talented, fantastically successful, fantastically influential. They will be remembered for hundreds of years, long after rock and roll itself is dead and buried. ---
**Author:** ![zoog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7ea924/32.png) [@zoog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoog)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281/7 "2014-10-23T20:31:47Z")
KISS. But then, I subscribe to Mike Judge’s vision of the future as prophesized in Idiocracy… ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281/8 "2014-10-23T20:39:33Z")
It’s pretty much impossible not to image future music history without the Beatles. The more interesting question to me is who, besides the Beatles, as they’re a given as far as I’m concerned. And I really don’t know. I’d like to think Hendrix, Lou Reed/VU, Bowie, Prince, maybe Zep, Sabbath, the Stones (as far as rock music is concerned). Then with rap and electronica? That seems to be the more likely source for reverence one hundred years from now, because rock will totally be dead, if it isn’t already. Kraftwerk? (They weren’t that huge now, but in a music history sense then, then may well be.) Daft Punk? Jay-Z? Public Enemy? Sugarhill Gang? I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281/9 "2014-10-23T20:52:30Z")
One of the defining qualities of Mozart to me is that he was a prodigy. Stevie Wonder was a prodigy and few would deny his talent, but can anyone think of somebody else who began VERY young and kept going strong into their 30s or after? (I can think of a few actors who made the jump, but not modern musicians.) ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281/10 "2014-10-23T21:00:39Z")
> [@Cephkiller](#): > > My submission? PRINCE > > His ability to compose great songs in a wide variety of musical genres, his personal virtuosity, and his flare for performance are my cites. Also, I like my geniuses to be eccentric. Prince has that covered as well 😃 I seriously doubt people from later generations will care if someone was a great performer now. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281/11 "2014-10-23T21:26:05Z")
Peter Gabriel or David Bowie. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281/12 "2014-10-23T21:56:28Z")
The correct answer is Stevie Wonder. Though I’d say early 20th Century acts like Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, etc. are getting there. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281/13 "2014-10-23T22:01:48Z")
The Beatles strike me as being much more analogous to Beethoven than to Mozart. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281/14 "2014-10-23T22:31:03Z")
> [@Cephkiller](#): > > …I can assure you that Prince is quite gifted with respect to playing many instruments. So what? Lots of people can play many instruments. How well, is the real question, not how many. Regardless, a great composer Prince is not and probably no one in the future will think so. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281/15 "2014-10-23T22:35:35Z")
The correct answer is obviously _Wyld Stallyns_. Prince is a very talented musician, but will be no more than a footnote to history. The names from 20th century music that will be remembered are The Beatles and Elvis Presley. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281/16 "2014-10-23T22:38:35Z")
I vote for Jimi Hendrix. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281/17 "2014-10-23T22:40:26Z")
Here’s the problem with threads like this: 1. Few respondents if any to these threads have anything close to a truly informed, knowledgeable opinion about Mozart’s music and why it is considered great. (By the way, Mozart’s greatness has nothing to do with his having being a child prodigy. There are lots of those, even today.) 2. Few respondents if any to these threads have anything close to a truly informed, knowledgeable opinion about the many stupendously talented living composers working today are who are still writing “art,” “concert,” “serious” music, as Mozart did. Yes, you _can_ still make a living writing art, as opposed to commercial or popular, music. 3. Comparing an 18th century classical composer to a 20th or 21st century commercial pop artist is more egregiously illogical than comparing apples to oranges. Different milieu. Different sensibilities. Different experiences. Different purposes. Radically different. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281/18 "2014-10-23T22:42:52Z")
Obviously Skrillex: [Mozart vs Skrillex. Epic Rap Battles of History - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Au0xCg3PI) ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281/19 "2014-10-23T22:51:47Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > Here’s the problem with threads like this: > > 1. Few respondents if any to these threads have anything close to a truly informed, knowledgeable opinion about Mozart’s music and why it is considered great. > (By the way, Mozart’s greatness has nothing to do with his having being a child prodigy. There are lots of those, even today.) > 2. Few respondents if any to these threads have anything close to a truly informed, knowledgeable opinion about the many stupendously talented living composers working today are who are still writing “art,” “concert,” “serious” music, as Mozart did. Yes, you _can_ still make a living writing art, as opposed to commercial or popular, music. > 3. Comparing an 18th century classical composer to a 20th or 21st century commercial pop artist is more egregiously illogical than comparing apples to oranges. Different milieu. Different sensibilities. Different experiences. Different purposes. Radically different. Lighten up, Francis. 😉 You are basically saying that you have your criteria for what a Modern Mozart should be. Cool - make your case. To me, Mozart was a guy who worked across genres, and who wrote across a variety of genres, showing a huge gift for melody along the way, and who is one of the first three names that comes to mind when folks think “Classical Composer.” The Beatles feel like equivalent along those lines. YMM is welcome to V. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281/20 "2014-10-23T23:46:04Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > Yeah, The Beatles. Fantastically talented, fantastically successful, fantastically influential. They will be remembered for hundreds of years, long after rock and roll itself is dead and buried. I’d bet on it being McCartney and his guys, maybe Lennon and the boys, over the Beatles per se. One of those two men will be remembered as an individual the way kings are remembered for building pyramids. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mozart-of-the-future/702281.md?page=2)