Completely ignoring computers and electronic music, how do you imagine music stylistically changing in the next 20-40 years? I'm 18, but what will it be like when I'm 40? There's no way that it's all down hill from hear as some might say. At some point someone is going to do something new and different and it'll catch on quickly. I think music could become more complicated by becoming "Poly harmonic" meaning that slash chords will be used as a double harmonic function instead of as an effect. Meaning this, we started from monophonic music in melodic elements right? The west is the only civilization to incorporated the use of Polyphony "Chords" and it spread through out the world in what we call "Western music" well, traditional other cultural music doesn't do this unless it's specially different. But what if it was taken a step further and we combined two polyphony into Polyharmony? or Poly-tonality. That's what I imagined one way music could change in the future. Perhaps more atonal stuff will start to become normal and popular. Perhaps Microtonality will finally catch on to be popular... May'be new styles will emerge. I hope so, the last new style of music was trance and electronic forms which can be played on acoustic instruments if done correctly which I've seen some people doing. But it came up like 20 years ago at least.

This is a good example of very modern sounding music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzY8eUmx32U&feature=related

What ideas do you imagine could happen "Positive please don't just complain about music and how it's just going to get worse or how all the good stuff was written decades ago"

Random rants about money life sex mixed in with profanity
Add random dubstep background music.
Pinnacle of human music apparently.

What ideas do you imagine could happen "Positive please don't just complain about music and how it's just going to get worse or how all the good stuff was written decades ago"

Random rants about money life sex mixed in with profanity
Add random dubstep background music.
Pinnacle of human music apparently.
lol. Man, that got far.

Polytonality.and.Polyvalence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytonality)

Yes, I actually started messing with some poly tonality but it's so different. Polyvalence or Polyharmony would be at least two chords played at once emphasizing both root tones. like "A/D" I came up with two polyharmonic progressions but they're confusing. I think polyharmonic progressions or music would be that there are multiple harmonic functions playing independently that sound good together. Meaning you may have a straight 4 chord progression in some of the instruments while the bass and other instruments in the song are playing on a different chord and not changing chords at the same rhythm as the first part.

Might not be exactly polyharmonic but sounds kind of like I imagine music in the future sounding: Bm - Bm/E - A/D - A6.9 - A6.9/F# - F#m/E
Or my other one:" Dm/Esus2 OVER a fourth of D to G - Dm/sus2 OVER a fourth of A to D - Dm/sus2 OVER a fourth of G to C"

As you can see, Polyharmony is difficult to notate in chord symbols. Basically, I think we'll move toward ditching the root note and replacing it with different notes like slash chords except they don't have to necessarily be one of the triad tones and that won't be considered dissonance either. ^^

I think the history of music will repeat itself. Look at how, within the microcosm of Europe, music grew into something controlled by traditions- old folk music and plainchant etc were phased out to the extent that when composers such as Bartok and Stravinsky blatantly quoted them in their music, people wouldn't notice them anymore and it brought a fresh quality to their music despite being hundreds of years old.

I think this will happen worldwide, within a few hundred years. The whole world is now accessible, composers can experience whatever music they like and take influence from it. Eventually, everything is going to start sounding the same, and there will be a new standard theory textbook that encompasses the music of all cultures in the world. A new "tradition" will arise. But this isn't going to be until all of us are long gone. We're only at the beginning really- the first music to be influenced by non-European cultures only came about just under a century ago after all.

Also, I think the musical score as we know it will become redundant. Composers have already fought the linear nature of the score- I think it was a Cage piece where the pages could be played in any order the performer liked? Other pieces of music have consisted of a page of instructions of what to do. I myself have played pieces of music shaped like a circle with no beginning or end. Everything that these wonderful "All decent music was written decades ago" types are clinging for dear life to is beginning to crumble around their ears to be honest.

Also, we have already seen a destruction of the "great composer" attitude. What composer, musician, band, etc since say... Stravinsky has been rewarded with the reputation, the reverance, the worship that the old composers are given? Is this because the stuffy old traditionalists are right and modern composers don't have the skill that Beethoven, Chopin etc possessed or is it because of a change of attitude where society is happy to appreciate the music they enjoy without having to put single individuals on any form of pedestal? Could a random person on the street outside the classical music tradition sing a piece of Bach to you? Not likely. Conversely, can someone within the classical music tradition sing a random tune from the charts? Much more likely.

As much as it pains me to say this, I think classical music is dying. I blame the stick in the mud attitude where we put more effort into a Beethoven Sonata than we do into the music of living composers. Classical concerts charge too much. The way you have to sit and be quiet and clap in the right places and listen to people play the same old shit night in night out is very offputting. Hundreds of years ago, people would talk in concerts all of the time- if memory serves me correctly, Liszt was the first to stop playing and say "I'm sorry for interrupting, I'll continue playing when you're done with your conversation". But to be honest, the general population these days would much rather go out for a drink and listen to something in the background than pay to sit in a stuffy hall listening to music written in 1700. I think it's sad; I like to actively listen to my music and I don't think it should ever just be left in the background and have people talk over it etc. But at the end of the day, music performance is a business and if they don't cater for what the majority want, they're going to lose out.

I could literally go on about the future of music all day. I don't mean to be negative at all when I say that things are breaking down, because the majority of these things will give rise to greater music and keep it alive in the context of the 21st century. The only negative thing I am feeling at the moment is the general inability of live classical music performance to keep up with the demands of live music in this day and age, and I think more people would listen to classical music if it was made more accessible rather than kept exclusive to either the Beethoven loving biddies or the "let's throw some cutlery down the stairs and call it new music" contemporary bunch.