I think this thread is getting slightly off topic; the original discussion was more about the course of contemporary trends, not our specific opinions/reactions to this or that new development. I mean, of course we're talking about it, but there's more to contemporary music than the 'world music' fad.
I generally agree with JStone and robinjessome, but suggest that more evidence might be necessary. Aside from Minimalism, the trends in post-Serialism and aleatory have been steadily growing closer and closer (with the occasional sprinkling of Dadaism), which suggests a future musical spectrum where a combo of strictly predetermined elements and chance events is the norm. The crisis in this is that such an idiom is not stable. Critics have and will continue to point out that music thus composed is random noise, which is accurate but fails to consider other principles of aesthetics in the composition.
Perhaps there may be a return to the lyricism of Webern in our future?
