Who are the bachs, mozarts, and wagners of the 21st. century?

Question

I'm just curious which way music is evolving. It's hard to recognize great talent in the thick, but time and future generations tell. I'm just wondering which musical artists will best represent our era 200 or 300 years into the future. I say Pink Floyd is one of the greats during the last 100 years. They took musical wave lengths to a new level of depth and breadth. Of course it always helps a bit to smoke a bowl before listening. Anyways, please enlighten me. I'm looking for musical expansion in the evolution of sound.

Answer 1

John Williams (who has 11 honorary doctorates), Danny Elfman, Hanz Zimmer.

Answer 2

Interesting to see that answers (apart from number 3) concentrate on popular music, and seem to be unaware that there have been numerous 'serious' composers with substantial bodies of work since the last mentioned in the question, Wagner. I tend to think that much current popular music will be forgotten 200 or 300 years in the future, much as popular music of the past is forgotten today. There will be those who will show an interest - just as there are those who try to perform medieval popular dance music. I'm sure there will be those who write their PhD thesis on one aspect or another. Popular music has a very limited life span. The furthest many people think back these days is to Buddy Holly, and then the Beatles and Rolling Stones etc of the 60s. Very few people are interested in popular music of the 30s 40s and 50s except fans of Big Bands and Frank Sinatra etc., both of which are, I suggest, a minority interest. Go back even earlier and who do you know who knows anything about the popular music of the 1900s and 1910s, just a century ago? In 50 years time when there is nobody alive who lived in the 1960s the popular music of that time will be an equally closed book to the vast majority, but there will be nostalgia for the popular music of today (whatever that is!)

Answer 3

The Beatles
Led Zepellin
Very early Elton John in the 70's before he came out
John Coltrane
Duke Ellington
And yes, in classical music, Gustav Mahler!
Leonard Bernstein
Rogers and Hammerstein
Kraftwerk (electrosynthpop genuis and godfathers)
Neil Young
David Bowie
Yes, Michael Jackson
Prince
Radiohead
Stevie Wonder
Damon Albarn (from Blur and Gorillaz)


Just to name a few.

Just imagine - if Mozart and Beethoven were alive now, what would they listen to and appreciate?

If Beethoven were alive, I can add to his listening appreciation list:

Nina Simone
Antony and the Johnsons
Maybe even Morrissey

Answer 4

Modern composers that have much to say and the technical skills to communicate with exquisite clarity include (in my opinion) Aaron Jay Kernis, Phillip Glass and John Adams.

Pink Floyd and other entertainers really don't qualify. Their music is harmonically restricted, rhythmically tiresome and structurally feeble. They do nothing new, and in fact one can analyze their music and find that they write in the style of the 19th century.