It's not that classical or even jazz for that matter are dead, but that the people who play those particular genres of music (or at least the people who make up their playlist) keep rehashing the same old stuff.

Oh, my God! It's a concert of all Bach! You never hear that...

Here's the interesting thing. During the heyday of classical music, the Catholic church was the musician's benefactor. Most of the classical music that we know of was requested and paid for by the church.

Today, most "classical" style music is no longer written for the church, but instead written for Hollywood.

I've been to several concerts by my local orchestra. They sound great, but I'm tired of listening to pieces written for a time hundreds of years ago.

The day my local orchestra advertises a concert of modern-day Hollywood film score music is the day I'll by my next ticket. Dances with Wolves, Star Wars, Superman, Batman, Unbreakable, and even The Untouchables have soundtracks with incredible music by such modern-day greats as Danny Elfman, John Williams, and Hanz Zimmer.

You want good jazz? The soundtrack to Sneakers is definitely worth a listen...

You want to get younger generations interested in "classical" types of music? Then start playing more music that was written in the last 30 years or so. There's pleanty of it out there at your local film theater every week and none of it has the pretentious snobbery of a long dead master attached...

It's good you mention movie music. Some of it is great - Newman's score for Avalon, for instance. I've bought a few soundtrack albums, and I find that great soundtracks seldom stand up on their own. Mostly I find that the best ones don't. They serve the story. Few stage backdrops are great paintings. That would distract from the show (Chagall excepted).

Music does require a narrative element, though. Maybe that's what you miss when you hear late 20th century academic (AKA "Classical" music).

Ashman:

The day my local orchestra advertises a concert of modern-day Hollywood film score music is the day I'll by my next ticket. Dances with Wolves, Star Wars, Superman, Batman, Unbreakable, and even The Untouchables have soundtracks with incredible music by such modern-day greats as Danny Elfman, John Williams, and Hanz Zimmer.

The Japanese have already figured this out. Virtually all movies, TV shows and video games in Japan have accompanying soundtracks which feature "background" music enhanced into full-length pieces, along with songs by popular artists.