Why do grown-ups like classical music?

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Hey, thet's my favorite instrument and place to be at a concert as well- preferably performing something by Holst.

I just don't see how slow music with just violins and pianos can be liked.

Not everyone likes the same kind of music. That is why. If everyone was the same, the world would be too boring. I see how it can be liked. Use common sense. It's like how you like rock. I only like Japanese music and video game music.

I guess we just have different tastes.

Actually, Pianos and Violins (as well as organs) can express feelings a lot better than the electric guitar and drums.

I wonder where the idea comes from that classical music is only (or mainly) enjoyed by adults? I am maybe older than many of the people on this site and yes, I love classical music; but I also loved it when I was a kid, and I know many adults who do not particularly enjoy it. And remember there are many sub-categories within what we loosely call "classical" music. Personally I don't enjoy them all equally. For example I have a great fondness for baroque, contrapuntal music, in particular that of J S Bach; I also love music of the strictly 'classical' age, but I do not care much for the Romantic composers such as Chopin. As for 20th century music - some is great but some (for example the twelve-tone stuff by composers such as Schoenberg) sounds plain ugly to my ear!
I think we often tend to respond most to the type of music that we heard around us when we here young. So if you grew up in a family that listened mostly to classical music, that is the sort of music you learn to appreciate best. Other families may have introduced you more to jazz, or country, or rock music, whatever.
For me, the wonderful thing about classical music is its complexity, and depth. Classical compositions can be long enough to explore many themes and moods, and they invite the listener to contribute to the experience, because your own emotions and reactions enhance and change how you feel about what you hear. So your experience of hearing even the same piece of music can change from one occasion to the next. This is perhaps why classical music 'lasts'; we can still listen to music that is hundreds of years old with enjoyment. A composition is not expected to be popular just for a matter of weeks before it fades from memory.
I think this idea that the listener contributes to the experience of music is common to all great art; music, graphic art, sculpture, literature, poetry .... the greatest examples of all of these invite their audience/viewers/readers to form their own experience of what they see, so that everyone in a way hears and sees something personal and different.
These are some of the reasons I love classical music and would find life diminished without it! Persononally I dont respond much to pop /rock/country music, so perhaps I could ask, as the converse to this thread, what is it about these types of music that other people - maybe younger people but not exclusively - find so wonderful?

Oh ho ho, is that a fact? I have some Norwegian thrash metal lying around here that would make Beethoven wet his pantaloons.

Like any genre, classical is good for some things and terrible at others. Sometimes a talented composer can stretch the limits of the instruments and make something original, but that's still no excuse for saying one genre beats another.

I like everything but country and rap. I've been that way my whole life. What got me interested in classical music were the Loonie Tunes cartoons I used to watch on saturday mornings when I was very small. "Figaro" is much more interesting to listen to when you can picture Bugs Bunny torturing the fat old opera singer.
In the early 80's there was a set of LP albums called "Hooked On..." that gave older forms of music a bit of a disco beat and quick-mixed short pieces from all over the genre into catchy meddleys. They were inspired by the "Stars on 45" series of singles from the late 70's that did the same thing with 60's and 70's rock music. I ended up getting five or six of the "Hooked On..." albums.

Because as you get older you realise how much of a fool you are for listening to manufactured music that isn’t even made by the celebrity that sings it; they have little talent apart from brainwashing you.

I used to listen to classical music, but as I got deeper into my heritage, I stopped listening to any music that smacked of Eurocentrism, and started listening to rap, salsa and other ethnic music.

I don't like music in languages I can't understand...my mom always puts CDs in Hebrew, and it's annoying, as I don't know everything.

I really can't stand rap and I can just bear country music, though some I do like, for instance: Johnny Horton. But I used to say I liked everything from Sinatra to Marilyn Manson (though I have kept off the Manson for awhile).

But at present, I have some Pavorotti as well as Bach and the opera, Carmen. Those are really the three (well, four actually) classical CDs I listen to. Many people who even like instrumental HATE opera. But I much like opera, myself. Though, honestly, I am horrible with artists and song titles, so I am only good at recognizing a song, etc.. Only if I see it do I usually remember title/artist.

When I was younger (23 now) I listened to some classical, but mostly I was into musicals and Frank Sinatra. That was my weird music that I got teased for.

My parents raised me on classical. I can't diss it, it has it's merits.
Then again, I think of a lot of the better Progressive Trance as an electronic extension of classical music in a sense - used to love bumping John '00' Fleming, Paul Van Dyke, and Mark EG arround town.

I play the violin and I happent to like classical music. it is very calming.

hope this post actualy works this time eeeh

Interesting topic, I've always loved rock and roll from the days of "Satisfaction" and "Light My Fire".

My aspie son detests R & R and loves jazz, classical, swing and anything pre 1953 or so!! ! My son is very sensitive to loud sounds and background noises.

I feel like the teenager and not the Mom!!

Classical music is NOT boring, and it can be quite exciting. I myself am 13 years of age(14 as of this Sunday) and I love classical music.
I play classical music with great skill on the piano, and currently I'm learning a song by a composer named Khatchaturian, and it is extremely fast and takes extremely agile fingers and hand-eye-coordination. It is very very fast, and I feel offended when someone says classical music is boring. Classical music is an art, a form of communication through ideas.

Rock is just noise.
I despise rock because it gives me migraines and I don't like rock singers because they are soooooo unpoised and have a revolting unresonant voice. And trust me, I know what's good at what isn't, but I still look at it through an open mind.

I'm very sorry if I offended you, I respect your opinion that rock is better than classical because I'm an open-minded person. But please, please do not stereotype things like this or someone's feelings are bound to be hurt. Thank you.

Chris