My mother is now 99 and has had dementia since her early 70's. Her one active memory response seems to be to music or fresh flowers. Since I was adopted, and my biological mother is very sharp at 88, I have hope. I am old enough to be able to think about the loss of my music, but choose not to do so. I may back off when I start drooling on my guitar...

As to musical taste in younger folk, I can only speak to the U.S. experience. When I was young, we had music in school. I attended a small rural school in a farming and ranching community. My elementary school had a band room, with instruments the we could learn to play. Our music teacher was an elderly gentleman, Golden Long, who had once played trumpet for John Philip Sousa's Marine Band. We also had recordings of classical music played for us and even had a field trip to hear the local college orchestra play.

Art and music have come to be regarded as peripheral and not core subjects in most of our public schools. Ergo, children grow into their teenage years with no essential knowledge of the rudiments of those subjects. That is, unless their parents foot the bill. It should not surprise anyone, therefore, that much popular music is dull, unsophisticated, repetitive and loud, often without much in the way of a melody line or memorable lyrics. And that is without considering rap and hip-hop, for which any actual musical content is practically irrelevant.

The great overall body of music has always been a changing landscape, added to by each succeeding generation. But, we reap what we sow. We can't blame our youth for their lack of musical sophistication or taste so long as we continue to deprive them of the opportunity to learn the basics.