The term "classical music" changes meaning as it traverses the globe. It now connotes almost any ancient practice that has persisted into the modern era—the ritual opera of China, the imperial court music of Japanese gagaku, the radif or "order" of Persian melodies, the great classical traditions of India, and the polyrhythmic drumming of West African tribes, among a hundred others. Those who cherish the "classical musics" share a fear that the behemoth of mass-marketed pop will wipe out the wisdom of the centuries. To be "classical", in this sense, is to protect tradition from the ravages of passing time, to perpetuate the musical past.

—Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century