In his useful PostClassic blog, Kyle Gann has taken up the question of whether today’s composers debate, or if they are too cool to do so. In the course of his blog entry, he talks about the fights of the 1980s between Uptown and Downtown, serial and minimal. It’s here:
http://www.artsjournal.com/postclassic/2013/09/passionate-dinosaur-in-a-laid-back-new-world.html