Haven the genres of Art Music and Pop been coalescing since the emergence of minimalism and then crossover?
The music industry says yes and trendy postmodern writers (see Hip Pains for examples) say yes. So no. Minimalism and crossover are categories of Pop ‘Music’ (see below). Musoc.org does not deny that there are some ill-defined points of contact between Art Music and most of the trends in postmodern ‘music’, but the ‘convergence’ much beloved of cultural relativists (which they patronisingly call ‘breaking down barriers’ or the ‘democratisation of music’) is only achievable through a spurious redefinition of categories. Composers have merely (and legitimately) incorporated various ideas, melodies, techniques etc from these categories, as well as from folk, traditional jazz, musical theatre etc, into works that fall otherwise within the realm of Art Music. The gulf between the categories of Art Music and Pop ‘Music’ is unequivocally unbridgeable – by definition.
