ONE PARAGRAPH ONLY!

The music of the 20th century is often heard as strange. Composers  wanted to move as far away from tradition as possible. Some composers  actually stated that they didn’t care if audiences listened to their  music, because if they didn’t appreciate the new sounds, then they  simply weren’t capable of understanding what was going on. Perhaps not  incidentally, this mindset also coincides with a point in history where  fewer and fewer people listened to so-called “classical music,”  preferring popular styles instead. Do you think composers shot themselves  in the foot? What could they have done differently that would allow art  music to continue to evolve without alienating audiences?