Banning Contemporary Music?!

My Professor for a Music Class posed the following Question recently:

Hermann Hesse once wrote that the deep thoughts of humanity can only be expressed in classical music. How has society been forced into decline and decay by the universal acceptance of all forms of popular music, from rock to soul to folk to rap to hiphop to country to techno to pop? How would thinking among the general public be improved if all popular music were banned and only classical music were allowed? Would you want to live in such an enlightened world? Why or why not?

I'm not gonna say anything yet ... I have the advantage of having lived through this discussion and I don't want to create a bias.

FleurDeLis wrote:

My Professor for a Music Class posed the following Question recently:

Hermann Hesse once wrote that the deep thoughts of humanity can only be expressed in classical music. How has society been forced into decline and decay by the universal acceptance of all forms of popular music, from rock to soul to folk to rap to hiphop to country to techno to pop? How would thinking among the general public be improved if all popular music were banned and only classical music were allowed? Would you want to live in such an enlightened world? Why or why not?

I'm not gonna say anything yet ... I have the advantage of having lived through this discussion and I don't want to create a bias.

Based on faulty thinking right there. Deep thoughts can be easily expressed through, song (no music), also dance.

FleurDeLis wrote:

My Professor for a Music Class posed the following Question recently:

Hermann Hesse once wrote that the deep thoughts of humanity can only be expressed in classical music. How has society been forced into decline and decay by the universal acceptance of all forms of popular music, from rock to soul to folk to rap to hiphop to country to techno to pop? How would thinking among the general public be improved if all popular music were banned and only classical music were allowed? Would you want to live in such an enlightened world? Why or why not?

I'm not gonna say anything yet ... I have the advantage of having lived through this discussion and I don't want to create a bias.

That's an easy answer.....Mr. Hesse is wrong.
Sure that there is a lot of stuff around that it is just an insult to real music, but deep thoughts of humanity are not exclusive to classical music.

I agree, deep thoughts are not exclusive to classical music by any means.

That being said, can you imagine a form of music that could better society in some ways, regardless whether it is classical music or another type? I personally find that contemporary music plays all too often with my emotions, pulling he heart-string or giving rise to excessive anger. Classical music, in contrast, seems to balance me rather than pushing me into a certain direction ...