Choosing A Style Of Composition For Assignment 2

I have been listening to a variety of pieces suggested in the course appendix in order to decide which style of composition I will study for assignment 2. It is difficult to pick only one, as I think I would benefit from looking at each one in more detail, however ultimately I have chosen to study serialism for this assignment. The reasons for my choice are as follows:

1. Out of all of the styles, serialism is the one I understand the least.
2. I don't enjoy listening to this type of music, so I'm hoping more exposure and some knowledge will change that somewhat.
3. Although I now really enjoy minimalism this is a style I have already looked at in some detail, and listened to a lot of. I would enjoy studying this further but want to delve into a style I know very little about.
4. I was very tempted to look at electronic music, or some of the other less well-known styles such microtonal music, but ultimately I decided on serialism as it appears to have been a huge shakeup of western music, and the public's opinion of western art music. Schoenberg once said in 50 years the postman will whistle my tunes. 100 years later and I don't expect the majority of postmen have even heard of Schoenberg. I want to find out why this prophecy hasn't come true. I also want to find out why many composers abandoned tonal music, and why many other composers, such as Steve Reich, turned away from serialism and began a different movement in music.