And while they are unlikely to become mass, all-ages hits, they are, perhaps for that very reason, indicators of what the new mainstream looks like.
There is no arguing with their purpose, or the need for a correction to the mainstream: look no further than Labour's struggle to elect a female leader.
The nine-day festival, titled Music at the Center: Composing an American Mainstream, looked at an earlier generation of composers, from the middle decades of the 20th century, figures like Copland, David Diamond, Peter Mennin, Vincent Persichetti and Walter Piston.
This emerging Islamist mainstream looks for its model not to theocracies such as Iran's, but to the democratically elected AK party in Turkey, with its Islamic flavour diluted by tolerance for others and respect for secular institutions.But there are also more disturbing manifestations of the Islamists' rise.
There aren't many directors with that kind of flexibility and global sensitivity; as China and other markets continue to come to the fore, it could be directors like Lee who sculpt what the mainstream looks like over the next 25 years.
(For a sense of how hard the French cinema and its artistic tributaries hit the movie mainstream, look at how many foreign films were featured in the major categories of the Oscars for 1966, in which "Alfie" got five nominations but no wins).
That's the way mainstream looks at us and thinks of us, and I know that".
Sony, quite correctly, suggested a more mainstream look.
Although HarperCollins sold out of a "relatively small" first printing, the paperbacks only took off "in quantity" when they were given a more mainstream look in the early 2000s.
At this summer's festivals, the beanie hat is still the edgy choice, while the mainstream look for young women is the floral hair garland.
"It's a brave thing for the Adelaide festival to do!" We also talked about how the most challenging music seems to always end up seeping into the mainstream – "look at dubstep!
