Has art jumped the shark after WWI?

[JuliaL]

Pop music succeeds because it offers enjoyment. That's why people are willing to pay for it. But it's often presented in some kind of opposition to classical music without taking into consideration that classical music was the pop music of it's time.

Yes, I see. I was stressing that each genre exists in a dynamic environment where it can only survive if people pay for it. In listening at home I don't differentiate. My CD jukebox (legacy equipment) stays on all tracks shuffle. Classical, rock, classic rock, pop, punk, rap, world music... I'm not very discerning or selective. It's all good.
In the marketplace, there are market pressures (duh) which highlight or shadow artists and their works according to various complex, real but hidden rules. I imagine that only a minority recognize that Mozart was pop for his time and few also realize that their listening choices are not wholly individually determined. We listen to what we like, but in large part, what we like is a product of the selections of the community. This dynamic system washes back and forth, IMHO without absolute values, so Bach was supported in his time, fell out of favor and came back based on the sum of the individual listening decisions of those with access (today that's pretty much everybody.)