Good read. Favorite paragraph from there,
"At the heart of Mr Johnson's argument is this sense that the classical impulse is different from simple entertainment. Classical music offers not merely the basic pleasures of melody, harmony and rhythm, but the meanings which these elements can reveal when explored in the process of composition by a master. It is just this intense emotional and intellectual engagement, shared by composer and listener, that pop music and pop culture reject: it is definitely not cool, a quality which denies complexity, in which work followed by chilling out define the parameters of being human."
