As to your earlier comment about listening to Classical radio, keep in mind that the people who run those stations (NPR, Universities) are liberals. I think that's why they tend to emphasize obscurity....... to show how educated they are, and how cool they are. I notice that our Classical station likes to play South American music (probably in solidarity with immigration and Hispanics).
I completely agree that they should spend more time on the more significant composers, who have stood the test of time for a reason. I also don't like that they almost completely ignore choral music and vocal music, probably because most of it historically is sacred. I mean, you can't really play "Carmina Burana" incessantly, can you? You gotta play a Mass now and again. ^-^
I agree with all of the above. A lot of folks in our day have never heard much if any good choral music (beyond Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, perhaps). Some of the best are the operatic chorales. My favorites are the Pilgrim's Chorus from "Tannhauser" and the final chorales from "The Marriage of Figaro" and "The Pirates of Penzance." I also love the rather weird modern choral piece that was used in the soundtrack of
Hannibal.
I have also noticed that "Carmina Burana" gets a lot of air time. I don't care for it very much, but I am always stunned by its irreverent Latin solo "In Trutina." Even Barbra Streisand did a great job with that song on her
Classical Barbra album--which is a very good album, by the way.
My overall interests are just as wide as yours, I think, but evidently not as deep in pop/rock. I do like "Barbara Ann" (partly because it is comically slick in its rhythm and harmony) and "If I Had a Hammer" (even if it was inspired by Socialism). I like all of the old (pre-crossover) Dylan stuff, but almost none of the later stuff except "Forever Young." I also like almost everything Karen Carpenter ever sang because she was an uncanny vocalist.
Amazingly, a lot of teenagers I have talked to have never even heard of her because the rock stations never feature her. That goes to show us that popular tastes can make people musically ignorant by simply shutting off exposure to better stuff. That dumbs down a lot of folks. The Heavy Metal buddy that I mentioned in an earlier piece had never heard Chopin's First Ballade before I had him sit down and listen to a CD recorded by (then) 18-year-old pianist Helene Grimaud. It knocked his socks off. (As I intimated earlier, I am trying to improve his rather unsophisticated tastes--since even the classical and jazz stations are not proving to be much help.)