Classical

Classical music is nowadays widely used to distinguish Western art music from other forms, and is somewhat of a sweeping generalisation, although it contains some features that it shares with no other musical form. In the last two decades, with the advent of commercial stations such as Classic FM in the UK, it has achieved a hitherto unknown level of popularity and commercialisation, with its own charts and numerous compilations of the more popular segments. Prior to this, it was almost entirely the cultural preserve of the BBC's Third Programme and subsequently BBC Radio 3, although the remit to appeal to a minority highbrow culture also led to the production of plays, talks and documentaries. Due to its somewhat exclusive and the dissemination of, by the definition of some, "better" music than rock or pop, physical archives of performances have tended to survive with far more robustness than what was considered ephemeral art forms. It could never be said that Peel was anything more than an admirer of the genre, as it never featured to any degree on his shows, with the outstanding exception of Night Ride, which allowed him to indulge in his taste for works outside the mainstream. Nevertheless, certain works were the background to some of the most important events in his life and he certainly showed an appreciation of its continuing influence on pop culture that belied a willingness to be open to its emotional and visceral power.

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