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Let's take an extremely opinionated and biased poll, shall we? ;)

According to the definition in the Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music, it states that "classical music" is "...in popular usage, art or 'serious' music as opposed to popular music (183)."

Many believe that classical music is any music that happens to have some sort of violin instrument or orchestra playing. However, contrary to popular belief, "Hey There Delilah" (with it's crappy violin accompaniment) is NOT classical music.

***WARNING: RANDOM MUSIC HISTORY LESSON***

I believe that classical music is determined by it's style and time period. The classical style really didn't start developing until opera (comic opera, in fact) made its scene in Italy in the in the late 17th to 18th centuries. Classical music usually follows very strict counterpoint rules. Any rules ever violated in music of that time period could not go unbroken without reason.

***END RANDOM MUSIC HISTORY LESSON***

That means that what many composers are submitting today on Newgrounds (and elsewhere) isn't necessarily "classical" but "neo-classical" music. Since we as composers (or DJs or songwriters or beat-makers or whatever the hell you call yourself) did not obviously live in that time period...then we are not writing music FROM that time period, but INSPIRED by that time period.

And with that, I give you Beethoven, the piano-playing cat: