Today, stage music clearly prevails over non-stage traditions. Although the older singing practices are being revived at informal gatherings, the present tendency to revaluate traditional culture does not prevent a further decline of traditional sonic and musical practices in general.
The Khakas stage music scene, however, flourishes. It is richer and more alive than ever in its fifty years existence. In the stage music since the 1990s two tendencies can be recognised. The older, backward-looking way is to adapt and arrange older tunes. In the recent, forward-looking, approach, musicians try to stay close to the "traditional" musical language and to also express the spiritual world behind the music. These tendencies are found in "folk music", estrada, and composer's music alike. In all three, the two different stances towards the music of the past co-exist. Examples of the newer, more spiritual, tendency are, for instance, Shalginova's compositions for piano, Tanbaev's (and Kuchenov's) estrada experiments, and the new traditional creations of the Sabjïlar and Chiti Khïs "folk music" ensembles. In the field of dance, an experimental choreography based on takhpakh singing movements by Kuchenov in 2004 must be mentioned.
The young professional musicians are only fragmentarily acquainted with the older knowledge related to sound and music, and post-Soviet patterns of thinking hamper inclusive understanding. However, in the last ten years, Khakas musicians have come closer to the older knowledge than in the past fifty years or so. They carefully study and discuss the new and more open-minded historical, ethnographic, and philosophical studies on "traditional" society, culture, and religion. No longer satisfied with the Soviet "folk music" reconstructions, they consulted the oldest musicians in personal encounters. They started to explore their musical and spiritual "roots", leaving the object-oriented approach to their music for one that re-enlivens it with philosophical-cosmological notions.