Why does rock music radio only play vocal works while classical music radio plays almost exclusivley instrumental works?
There are actually some very famous rock instrumentals, but they are far outnumbered by the songs with vocals. Modern rock groups nearly always are headed by a lead singer, and they rarely sit that singer out for an instrumental. Classical music was mostly written before artificial amplification (microphones, speakers) was available. So a singer couldn’t hope to be heard over a whole orchestra. These pieces, then, rarely included voices unless they were a whole choir – Handel’s Messiah comes to mind.
Most classical stations play a variety of selections, but the primary vocal selections available to classical stations – Opera, Choral – are not particularly popular even with classical listeners. They typically turn their stations when these come on That’s ratings for you. And rock stations – well, there are few, few vocal selections anyway in the rock arena. So most music is vocal.
I can’t imagine listening to classical music and listening to all those sopranos singing in their screechy high voices. Besides, most of the classical music is written in German or Italian, for operas . . . and I don’t understand those languages. An opera singer must learn those plus (I believe) more languages just to sing those songs. And I’m sure if you went to Germany or Italy, you’d hear some rock music being sung in their languages.
