>>> (common people like me would call by lake of knowledge)
That's fine. My take is that it's perfectly OK to have art for popular appeal, and perhaps separately, art that takes some investigation to fully appreciate. I face this as a musician, specifically playing modern jazz. A lot of my friends find polite ways of telling me they don't like that kind of music, and I reassure them that I'm not in the least bit offended.
Of those Picasso portraits, if I could afford just one, I'd take 1971. Turns out I can afford just zero.
Not OP, but been playing classical music for ... christ, 17 years.
It often is.
"Modern" usually implies dissonance, syncopation, and sometimes downright atonality and free time.
These concepts are fun from a musicians standpoint, as they break away from formalities and rules, but do so within a complex musical context in ways that are very difficult as the instruments are balancing between having the cake and eating it against each other, simultaneously.
This is hard to pick up on, which in effect often leads to the sub-genre confining itself to musicians-listening-to-other-musicians demographics, eg. "are they high?"-jazz.
Similar comparisons can be made for Picasso and art in general I suppose(?).
Probably a combination of acquired taste, and non-conformism. I took classical lessons as a kid, and played in the school jazz band. I think among some musicians, we get sick of the same old stuff, and thirst for "hotter" music. This tendency was what propelled jazz forward, so if you progress through jazz along a more or less historical path (as a player or a listener), you will kind of experience the same thing.
In high school, being interested in anything but top 40 made you a freak. Oddly enough the kids who were accepting of a shy nerd who liked jazz and classical, were the punk rockers. That's whom I hung out with.
For some musicians, "hotter" can also mean older, such as baroque or early music specialists.
That's fine. My take is that it's perfectly OK to have art for popular appeal, and perhaps separately, art that takes some investigation to fully appreciate. I face this as a musician, specifically playing modern jazz. A lot of my friends find polite ways of telling me they don't like that kind of music, and I reassure them that I'm not in the least bit offended.
Of those Picasso portraits, if I could afford just one, I'd take 1971. Turns out I can afford just zero.