system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:Why is classical music known by its composer, whereas lots of modern music is known by the artist who performs it, and not who writes it?
gpt
It really boils down to the fact that life is incredibly different now that it was, say, a hundred years ago.

During the classical era, most music was commissioned by people of influence. Nobility, the church, etc would hire the famous Then, the distribution of this music is not like it is today. There were no recordings, so the only way to actually HEAR the music of the time was to hear it performed. Major cities throughout Europe had their own orchestras; it's not as if one famous orchestra of composer would travel in some grand tour, it was the music itself that traveled, and the name that was attached to that music.

Today, the face of the music is of the performer, because that's what we all can see. It's distributed via TV, radio, and mp3s. We hear the one artist's performance, not one song performed by the local musicians in each town.

EDIT: Tidied up the grammar a bit.