Don Pearce wrote in message news:4992198a.402223734@localhost...

Because classical music is generally far more complex and demanding
than modern pop - it takes a greater degree of intelligence to
understand and appreciate it.

You can extrapolate this from just classical music to much "traditional"
music.

I suspect that the simplification is largely driven by the fact that
spending dedicated time just listening to music is becoming far less common
as other art forms have become more practical to enjoy.

In the days when traditional music was king, there was no TV, etc.