The iPod generation is becoming hooked on classical music with new figures in the UK revealing a huge surge in youngsters listening to radio station Classic FM.
Driven by the success of film scores for blockbuster movies like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and determined efforts to sex-up the classical music industry, a section of Britain's youth appears to be tuning in to Mozart.
The surprising figures revealed in the latest set of radio results show half a million under 15s are now tuning in to Classic FM each week, overturning the conceived wisdom that classical music is something people predominantly turn to in older age.
Classic FM, which recently won the top award at Britain's radio oscars the Sony Radio Academy Awards last week, saw a massive 52 percent increase in the number of under 15 listeners on the previous quarter.
According to Nielsen SoundScan worldwide sales of classical music in 2006 was whopping 22.5 percent over 2005 however some purists are upset by the inclusion of such music as Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban (Josh Groban?!) and Il Divo, all of whom they say don't really belong in a a classical music category.
Hip-hop was down (-20.7%), R&B was down (-18.4%), alternative was down (-9.2%), jazz was down (-8.3%)—soundtracks were up (+19%).
Classical racked up 19.4 million records sold, which had many media outlets crowing that classical is hot again. Really? Let's put that in perspective: Total record sales for 2006 were 588.2 million—and 2006 was considered a dead year.
