History Main / ClassicalMusicIsBoring

->''"I've got Creator/KimKardashian in my bed backstage. When's the last time your music got anybody laid?"''
-->-- '''Music/JustinBieber''' (to Music/LudwigVanBeethoven), ''WebVideo/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory''

* This trope is averted with many, many film scores using classical music. This goes at least as far back as ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' and definitely after ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars: A New Hope]]'' in which Music/JohnWilliams' classical score soundtrack became a top seller on the music charts. Since then, Williams and many of his contemporaries like Music/DannyElfman and Music/HansZimmer have become mainstays in popular culture for their classical film scores. On the other hand, though, many purist fans are quick to insist that modern film scores aren't technically ''classical'' music [[note]]except for films like ''2001'' that straight-up quote preexisting works from the classical repertoire[[/note]], just ''orchestral'' music. To be fair to both sides, it's obvious that modern film composers [[SincerestFormOfFlattery draw a lot of stylistic inspiration from classical models]], so if you like John Williams you'll love Music/LudwigVanBeethoven.

** ''WesternAnimation/BarbiePrincessCharmSchool'': The dance class in couple starts with classical music, but Delancy suddenly makes Blair trip. In order to cover it, Prince Nicholas, Blair's partner, suddenly switch the moves for a much more modern dance. Everybody (but Delancy) soon imitates him, and strangely the background music changes accordingly, becoming a techno version of the tune. One of the princes even starts to do breakdance.
** ''WesternAnimation/BarbieStarLightAdventure'': Barbie and Prince Leo, at the ball, compare the classical music background (Tchaikovsky's TheNutcracker) to a lullaby. Barbie still try to find rhythm in the tune, and soon, she does modern dancing instead of waltz, infuriating the king.

* Film/APrincessForChristmas: Ashton once teaches Jules how to dance waltz on the tune of the [[TheNutcracker "Waltz of the flowers"]]. Jules gets bored of it, gives a cooler look to Ashton by ruffle his hair, switch to a more modern tune, and teaches Ashton how to dance on it, until Arabella walks in and shut it off.

* ''WesternAnimation/HiHiPuffyAmiYumi'': The episode "Opera Yumi" has Yumi's old singing coach Madame Blubbery, a stuffy woman who wanted to make Yumi an opera prodigy, cajole (and eventually hypontize) Yumi into performing opera. The performance is depicted as being very dry and boring, with Kaz several other audience members actually falling asleep. After Yumi accidentally snaps herself out of her trance with a high note, the girls turn the show into an impromptu J-pop concert, which gets the audience much more excited.

* Music/FrankZappa, despite being a classical composer himself, held the opinion that he felt that most classical music before the 20th century was ''boring to him''. He adored 20th-century composers such as Music/EdgardVarese, Music/IgorStravinsky, Music/BelaBartok, Music/CharlesIves, Anton Webern, and Music/OlivierMessiaen because their work was more personal, adventurous and less monotone. He went into more detail in his autobiography ''Literature/TheRealFrankZappaBook'' where he explained that most classical music from previous centuries was written to please some King, Duke or Abbott who forced composers to make everything sound according to their wishes. In that regard, it's not much different from mainstream pop music nowadays, only with record producers forbidding artists to make songs that clash with their conventional tastes. Recent research has proven, however, that Zappa did often listen to pre-20th-century composers like Music/JohannSebastianBach, Henry Purcell, and Music/RichardWagner too and was more knowledgeable about their music than he showed to the outside world. And he did record an album of ElectronicMusic performances of music written by his 18th-century Baroque namesake Music/FrancescoZappa.

* Also averted by many, many western cartoons. Works like ''WesternAnimation/WhatsOperaDoc'', ''WesternAnimation/TheBandConcert'', ''WesternAnimation/TheCatConcerto'' and others would not nearly be as hilarious without classical music, either as the source of gags or as {{Standard Snippet}}s. Also, MickeyMousing (making the actions in cartoons follow those in the musical score) often uses classical music.

* WesternAnimation/BarbiePrincessCharmSchool: The dance class in couple starts with classical music, but Delancy suddenly makes Blair trip. In order to cover it, Prince Nicholas, Blair's partner, suddenly switch the moves for a much more modern dance. Everybody (but Delancy) soon imitates him, and strangely the background music changes accordingly, becoming a techno version of the tune. One of the princes even starts to do breakdance.
* WesternAnimation/BarbieStarLightAdventure: Barbie and Prince Leo, at the ball, compare the classical music background (Tchaikovsky's TheNutcracker) to a lullaby. Barbie still try to find rhythm in the tune, and soon, she does modern dancing instead of waltz, infuriating the king.

* ''WesternAnimation/HiHiPuffyAmiYumi'': One episode has Yumi's old singing coach, a stuffy woman who wanted to make Yumi an opera prodigy, cajole (and eventually hypontize) Yumi into performing opera. The performance is depicted as being very dry and boring, with Kaz actually falling asleep. Then Ami snaps Yumi out of her trance and the two turn the show into an impromptu J-pop concert, which gets the audience much more excited.

* Music/FrankZappa, despite being a classical composer himself, held the opinion that he felt that most classical music before the 20th century was ''boring to him''. He adored 20th-century composers such as Music/EdgardVarese, Music/IgorStravinsky, Music/BelaBartok, Music/CharlesIves, Anton Webern, and Music/OlivierMessiaen because their work was more personal, adventurous and less monotone. He went into more detail in his autobiography ''Literature/TheRealFrankZappaBook'' where he explained that most classical music from previous centuries was written to please some King, Duke or Abbott who forced composers to make everything sound according to their wishes. In that regard, it's [[NotSoDifferent not much different]] from mainstream pop music nowadays, only with record producers forbidding artists to make songs that clash with their conventional tastes. Recent research has proven, however, that Zappa did often listen to pre-20th-century composers like Music/JohannSebastianBach, Henry Purcell, and Music/RichardWagner too and was more knowledgeable about their music than he showed to the outside world. And he did record an album of ElectronicMusic performances of music written by his 18th-century Baroque namesake Music/FrancescoZappa.

** In "Bart the Genius", because Bart was declared a genius by the school psychologist, Marge takes the whole family to the opera; where both Homer and Bart become extremely bored at it and make loud noises during the performance.
** In "The Seven-Beer Snitch", in order to try and look more "cultured", [[MayorPain Mayor Quimby]] allows the construction of an opera house. The opening night is Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, full house...''and every single Springfieldian leaves after the first four notes are played'', with them saying that it was the most "interesting" part of the symphony. Then, everyone ''stampedes their way out'', '''''including the orchestra''''', when Marge [[NiceJobBreakingItHero tells them the next piece is an atonal medley]] by Music/PhilipGlass. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Quimby gets mad enough at the number of resources that the house's construction required, and everybody else letting it go to waste]], that he mournfully calls them "dumb rednecks", after which Mr. Burns buys the property and converts it into a prison.

* In this 1988 ad for the tabletop version of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL264JInRpE naval battle]], the characters are attending [[AtTheOperaTonight an opera]], but don't listen and play the game in the meantime. One of the men even shout out loud that his aircraft carrier been sunk, loud enough for the singers to hear him, and stop.

[[folder: Radio]]

[[folder: Real Life]]

** In ''Discworld/{{Maskerade}}'', most of the people at the opera are only there because it's the done thing, rather than because they enjoy the performance. One upwardly-mobile middle-class patron makes the mistake of taking his mother, who doesn't care what the done thing is and would rather be at the music hall.
** In ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}'', Sam Vimes, who also grew up going to music halls, characterises classical music as "You couldn't hum it, and at no point did anybody shout 'Whoops, have a banana!'" Although it's somewhat averted in that even he can recognise that Tears of the Mushroom's harp recital is something special.

* A comedic comeback to the assertion that this trope is true is to remind the complainer that the "1812 Overture" calls for ''cannon fire sixteen times'' in the score.

* This trope is one of ''Creator/TwoSetViolin'''s pet peeves; they hate how mainstream media, especially talent shows, usually hold this perception and try to "modernize" classical music, and they work hard to show that classical music can be just as enjoyable as pop music.

* Downplayed in the ''Disney/TheAristocats'' when at the beginning, high-class Madame Bonfamille and Georges Hautecourt engage in opera dancing, and at the end, they end up dancing and enjoying an upbeat jazz band played by cats.

* BarbieStarLightAdventure: Barbie and Prince Leo, at the ball, compare the classical music background (Tchaikovsky's TheNutcracker) to a lullaby. Barbie still try to find rhythm in the tune, and soon, she does modern dancing instead of waltz, infuriating the king.

* Music/ChuckBerry's rock song "Roll Over, Beethoven" (also [[CoveredUp famously covered]] by Music/TheBeatles, Music/ElectricLightOrchestra, and Creator/JerryLeeLewis) gleefully opines that classical composers like Beethoven and Tchaikovsky would roll in their graves if they heard TheNewRockAndRoll.

* OlderThanSteam. JosephHaydn supposedly wrote a joke (an [[ScareChord unexpected fortissimo]]) into his "Surprise" Symphony to awaken the audience.

* In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff3Q5Qp9FJ0 the Pepsi "Shady Acres" commercial]], deliverymen are bringing Pepsi to a retirement home, as all the residents are wildly dancing to disco music. The men also deliver Coke to a college fraternity; the frat brothers are playing a boring bingo game as classical music plays in the background.

ClassicalMusic -- and other forms of "high" culture -- are frequently shown as being incredibly dull. Apparently everyone who enjoys it is really just incredibly pretentious and is just pretending to enjoy it. The honest, working-class heroes like rock and roll or kickin' country music... and typically the stuffy classical fans wind up dancing to it by the end as well.

This trope is probably tied to historical reasons. Before the advent of recording technology, there were only two kinds of music - "folk" music (which was essentially the music of the masses) and "organized" music, which is now termed as "classical". The latter necessitated the use of high value materials and expensive venues, inviting an audience of only a cultured few - to top that off, most people in those days moneyed enough to afford musical lessons were of the upper class (the middle class was less common back then). Recordings allowed "popular" music to evolve - which is essentially a modified form of folk music - and became a way for music to be accessible to a much wider audience. In a way, Popular music could be seen as a rebellion against the more "exclusive" Classical music.

* Downplayed in the ''Disney/TheAristocats'' when at the beginning, high-class Madame Bonfamille and Georges Hautecourt engage in opera dancing, and at the end they end up dancing and enjoying an upbeat jazz band played by cats.

* In ''Film/CitizenKane'', the audience that attends the premiere of the opera Kane commisioned for his wife Susan are seen growing more bored by the minute. One man entertains himself by tearing his program into strips, and is eventually seen asleep. Since this is likely the type of audience who would go to the opera on a regular basis, it suggests the lack of quality of this particular work, made just for the sake of making a rich man's wife a star.
* Played with in ''Film/AnEducation'': it's worldier, wealthier Helen who finds classical music completely boring as opposed to middle-class suburban Jenny, who loves it, but this contrast sets Helen up as the more uncultured DumbBlonde and Jenny as the sensible BrainyBrunette.
* ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'' had the stuffy UpperClassTwit environment filled with slow chamber music, while the lower decks had people merrily dancing to jaunty popular tunes. Played with in that the classic music keeps playing as the boat sinks as an invocation of Classic Music Is '''Calming'''.

** In ''Discworld/{{Maskerade}}'', most of the people at the opera are only there because it's the done thing, rather than because they enjoy the performance. One upwardly-mobile middle class patron makes the mistake of taking his mother, who doesn't care what the done thing is and would rather be at the music hall.

* In one episode of ''Series/TheKingOfQueens'', Doug and Carrie are visiting a violin concert, and even though they don't enjoy it that much, they decide to sit it through. At the end, Carrie exhaustedly remarks how ''long'' that concert was.

* In an episode of ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide'', Moze is in a music appreciation class that many use as an excuse to nap. Later Subverted, when Moze comes to appreciate the more bombastic and lively pieces to help her in a volleyball game when some of Mozart's pieces get stuck in her head.

* In an episode of ''Series/JeevesAndWooster,'' Tuppy Glossop gets engaged to an {{opera}} singer and goes to hear her perform. He cheers enthusiastically at the end of the first scene, and gets up to leave only to learn to his dismay that there are still four more acts. It isn't long before he's nodding off.

* In a ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' strip circa 1960, Lucy asked Schroeder to listen to Snoopy play polkas, schottisches and waltzes on his accordion.

* This trope in invoked and then subverted in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' when D.W. gets YoYoMa to come to the library to play cello. Arthur and his friends are sure it's going to be boring. Francine has invited her uncle, jazz musician Joshua Redman, for the same day. The kids hope that the two will get into a fight. An ImagineSpot has them in a wrestling ring; Ma pulls out his cello and puts Redman to sleep. But on the day of the meeting it actually goes well, both get along and Redman expresses his enjoyment of classical music.

** In "The Seven-Beer Snitch", in order to try and look more "cultured", [[MayorPain Mayor Quimby]] allows the construction of an opera house. The opening night is Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, full house...''and every single Springfieldian leaves after the first four notes are played'', with them saying that it was the most "interesting" part of the symphony. Then, everyone ''stampedes their way out'', '''''including the orchestra''''', when Marge [[NiceJobBreakingItHero tells them the next piece is an atonal medley]] by Music/PhilipGlass. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Quimby gets mad enough at the amount of resources that the house's construction required, and everybody else letting it go to waste]], that he mournfully calls them "dumb rednecks", after which Mr. Burns buys the property and converts it into a prison.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' Meatwad is playing his new rap CD from MC Pee Pants, which is driving Frylock crazy. Frylock tries to get him to listen to some [=CD=]s by some "real gangsters, from the 17th century", which Meatwad tentatively accepts. Of course as soon as Frylock leaves the room, Meatwad goes back to playing the rap CD.

* Music/FrankZappa, despite being a classical composer himself, held the opinion that he felt that most classical music before the 20th century was ''boring to him''. He adored 20th century composers such as Music/EdgardVarese, Music/IgorStravinsky, Music/BelaBartok, Music/CharlesIves, Anton Webern, and Music/OlivierMessiaen because their work was more personal, adventurous and less monotone. He went into more detail in his autobiography ''Literature/TheRealFrankZappaBook'' where he explained that most classical music from previous centuries was written to please some king, duke or abbott who forced composers to make everything sound according to their wishes. In that regard it's [[NotSoDifferent not much different]] from mainstream pop music nowadays, only with record producers forbidding artists to make songs that clash with their conventional tastes. Recent research has proven, however, that Zappa did often listen to pre-20th century composers like Music/JohannSebastianBach, Henry Purcell, and Music/RichardWagner too and was more knowledgeable about their music than he showed to the outside world. And he did record an album of ElectronicMusic performances of music written by his 18th-century Baroque namesake Music/FrancescoZappa.

* Countless electronic musicians, like Music/WendyCarlos (''Music/SwitchedOnBach''), have made ElectronicMusic renditions of iconic classical music pieces that ''pep'' up the music by giving it spacy and futuristic sounds. As a result many people who normally would never listen to classical music have bought ''these'' albums, because they felt it sounded much more exciting and better. Truth be told, several have eventually learned to appreciate classical music thanks to these electronic versions.

Before the advent of rock and roll in the 1950s, this trope used {{jazz}} and swing as the populist counterparts to "stuffy" classical music thereby making it at least OlderThanTelevision.

* In an episode of ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide'', Moze is in a music appreciation class that many use as a excuse to nap. Later Subverted, when Moze comes to appreciate the more bombastic and lively peices to help her in a volleyball game when some of Mozart's pieces get stuck in her head.