Kickass Classical features Classical Music's Top 100 Greatest Hits based on their exposure in today's pop culture. Because Classical Music should be accessible to everyone.

Browse:  Kickass Classical Composers A-Z, a great place to start.
Sort:  Kickass Classical Top 100 List sortable by composer, title, and our own descriptive keywords.
Ask:  Kickass Classical Forums, get answers to questions and share your thoughts.
Listen:  Kickass Classical YouTube Channel featuring a Top 100 playlist and educational favorites.

Why this site?
If you want to enjoy Classical Music on your iPod, but don't know the names of the pieces you're familiar with, where do you go? Classical Music is mostly instrumental, so you can't exactly Google the lyrics. So how do you identify a piece? Through association. This site helps you draw those associations.

Why the name?
It's a mnemonic device designed to aid name recall. It's also rather paradoxical, don't you think? The juxtaposition of the terms yields a rather unexpected and mildly amusing contrast. Heh, kidding. We just like how it sounds.

Why the short clips?
Classical Music pieces can be long and complex. Unlike other sites that feature a random 30 second clip from somewhere in the piece, we give you the "hook" - the main theme of the piece - so you can identify a 16 minute piece in mere seconds.

I don't see the links.
You need the Adobe Flash Player. You should also have a JavaScript-enabled browser with JavaScript enabled.

What is the Kickass Classical Top 100 List based on?
Without boring you too much, the Kickass Classical Top 100 List is based on airplay, sales, and independent research, then filtered through pop culture - movies, movie trailers, TV shows, radio and television commercials, cartoons, songs, video games and ringtones.

Where's the Dvorak? Shostakovich? Stravinsky? Holst? Haydn?
All fine composers, to be sure. However, this site is intentionally limited to 100 pieces to preserve a highly-targeted list of only the most popular, most famous Classical Music. That is, the Classical Music that you've heard somewhere other than a Classical Music outlet.

If you want to go deeper, there are plenty of other websites for that. We found those sites to be pretty complicated and in-depth for someone who just wanted to add a few cool Classical Music mp3s to their library. Which is why we created this site.

(We've toyed around with the idea of The Next 100.)

Some of this stuff isn't technically "Classical."
You're right. The "Classical" period is from about 1730 to 1820. It's just that most people use the broad term "Classical" to define orchestral music. And this site is for most people. We do not, however, broaden the definition even further to include most modern day movie music. See our definition of Classical Music.

Shouldn't this music be free?
Good question. While most of the compositions on this site have long since passed into the public domain, the performances have not. They are new recordings of new performances and arrangements. When you buy Classical Music, you're paying these performers for their work.

There are some sites on the internet that feature free Classical Music, but we have found that most pieces are incomplete, or bad recordings, or just poor performances in general. With Classical Music, the old expression is true: You get what you pay for.

I love Classical Music, and despise this site.
We totally get that this website isn't for everyone. Chances are, you're already educated about Classical Music. This site is for people who aren't yet. Would you like them to understand and appreciate the genre like you do? Join our Forums and help out.

I love this site.
Sweet! Leave a comment. (Seriously, it would mean a lot.)

I want to copy some of this site.
We're very flattered. Thank you. And of course we can't agree to that. You see, we've spent hundreds of hours researching, compiling, cross-referencing, selecting and editing information and recordings to bring you something no other site can offer... 300 years of music in less than 30 minutes.

Because of this, we take our rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) seriously, and have in the past acted with hosting companies to remove our copyrighted material from other websites.

We encourage you to share this experience with others! Just link to this site.

Copy and paste:  http://www.kickassclassical.com     Or: 

Keywords and phrases others have used to find this page include: kick ass classical music, cool classical pieces, top 100 greatest classical hits, most famous classical music in movies and commercials, classical pops, list of popular classical works, best classical songs listen to mp3.

Well, good times. Oh hey, we should mention that all information on Kickass Classical, including the name, logo, and compilation, is protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced without prior written permission. Third party materials are for evaluation purposes and are property of their respective owners. Buy your music, kids.