"Joanna, like Woj, is really displaying her cultural conservatism in this thread. There are a lot of lefties, esp older ones, who claim all this radical cred, then suddenly show weary disdain for "kids today" and their "noise," when they're not making general assumptions about skin color's effect on one's cultural choices. It sometimes gets wrapped up in pseudo-sociological blather -- violins are practically unknown in da 'hood, so kids turn to turntables and boomboxes (ain't it a shame?) -- but the underlying assumptions remain solid."
I don't really think that there are separate worlds of "classical" and "modern" music. And I won't continue to say anything about hip hop because it's stupid to talk about something I am not familiar with and do not understand. I do think however that "pop culture" is something closer to commercial culture and farther away from "culture", and I think the distinction is useful and real and meaningful, not merely elitist.
I do not believe, either, that acoustic instruments are better than electric ones. I think that Hendrix and Charlie Christian are some of the best guitarists of the century -- even though they played electric guitar. I also think that one reason I appreciate and understand Hendrix' music is because I also grew up listening to Bach. If that doesn't make sense, never mind.
But I'll give you an example from a music I do know, because I dance to it all the time, and that's middle-eastern music and north african music. The traditional music of this type has about oh, a good seven layers of rhythmic patterns and sound textures, which make it an utter delight to dance to; the electro/techno music that comes from the same region ...has about two. It may well be that a drum machine can give you multiple beats, but it's not a musician. And the interplay between musicians, weaving together their instrumental voices, is just much more interesting than whatever one individual can do with a sound machine....experientially so for me anyway.
By the way, I didn't say anything about "kids today" and their "noise."
Joanna