I wonder if any of the popular music of the last 100yrs will survive in the general consciousness of music lovers for any length of time. For example, Bach has been dead for over 250yrs but is still well known; however, I would suggest that someone like Louis Armstrong - the first great improvisor in jazz history - is rapidly drifting further and further from the general consciousness.
    And, if we go back into the 19th century, how many popular musician and composer are still, even reasonably, well known ? Arthur Sullivan springs to mind and Stephen Foster?
    “Classical” composers and musicians names will be kept alive in colleges by music professors and genuine - and not so genuine - concert goers but who will keep the popular musician names alive?
      The continued fame of popular musicians is very much tied to the music industry and the making of money.
The last 100yrs is filled with artists who were once massively popular but are now just fading memories in the minds of old folk.
    100yrs from now, The Beatles, will more likely to be remembered as a cultural phenomenon rather than for their music.
    Of course, I’ve know doubt that, in the future, some popular artists from the past will - from time to time - be “rediscovered” like Scott Joplin was in the 1970s.