Elitism in Classical Music: Why does the Classical Music Industry Hate Pop Music?

This is a topic that’s been on my mind recently. First, I want to say that this is not the biggest problem at the forefront of the classical music world right now. Racism, misogyny, assault, they’re all more important and dire than the topic I’m talking about today. As a straight white woman, I don’t feel that I’m able to add much new material to the conversation, but I support those who have experienced racism, misogyny, assault, any other trauma from the classical music world, and it must change.

Want to hear my thoughts, rather than read them? Watch the video here!

Searching on Grove Music

This semester, I’m taking a class called Music Since 1950. It’s focused on Western classical music from 1950 to today. In the first class, our teacher said that we would focus on the classical music tradition even though rock, pop, and jazz were happening at the same time.

Even though the focus is on classical music, he said we could look at any type of music we’d like for our final project, as long as it was written after 1950. I took this and ran with it.

Since it’s my last semester, I thought it would be fun (and interesting!) to analyze the song cardigan by Taylor Swift, since I’m such a huge fan of her and her work. As I began writing, I realized that it might look a little weird providing so much biographical information about Taylor without citing any sources. So, I thought I’d go to her Grove article to see if I could directly quote something.

…Her article is two paragraphs long, and has not been updated since January 31, 2014.

This was before 1989, arguably her biggest album, was released. She is still referenced as a “country pop” singer, and only seven of her current eleven Grammy Award wins are mentioned.

Taylor Swift is one of the biggest musical artists of our time. Why does her Grove page have so little?

Let’s Take a Look at what Grove is all About

Grove’s about page says…

“Grove Music Online is the world’s premier online music encyclopedia, offering comprehensive coverage of music, musicians, music-making, and music scholarship.

Updated frequently, Grove Music Online is an essential tool for anyone interested in researching, teaching, or just learning more about music. Written and edited by nearly 9,000 subject experts, Grove’s 51,000 articles offer clear overviews of topics from a scholarly perspective and include extensive bibliographies, which are curated to guide users through existing scholarship. Grove’s 33,000 biographical articles provide life information and detailed works lists for composers, performers, and other important musical figures. Grove Music Online also features more than 5,000 images, musical examples, and links to audio and video examples. It is the perfect starting point for scholarly research, but with a clear and engaging writing style, Grove is easily accessible to amateur music-lovers as well.”

Grove Music Online

Grove’s about page says nothing about the encyclopedia being exclusively geared towards western classical music (though I didn’t research to see if they have articles on classical composers from the Eastern hemisphere), or that they focus on the common practice period, and aren’t up to date with the current musical climate. 

Let’s take a look at a few musicians’ pages…

Let’s take a look at Beyoncé’s Grove article. It was published online July 12, 2012, and is two paragraphs long. The most recent album mentioned is 4, which was released in 2011. I know for a fact that she has released new music in the last ten years, and she just became the most awarded female musician in Grammy history. She’s a pretty big deal, and Grove touches on so little.

How about Elton John, another highly awarded and respected musician? His Grove article is much more fleshed out–his is six paragraphs long, and even includes a (selective) works list at the end. However, it hasn’t been updated since 2001. Since 2001, he’s composed music for Billy Elliot the Musical, he’s begun a retirement tour, and he was awarded the Legion d’honneur in France, among other work and accomplishments. His article is better than Taylor Swift and Beyoncé’s, but it’s still in need of an update.

Red Hot Chili Pepper’s page is two paragraphs long, and was published in 2016. The most recent date mentioned in the article is 2009. There is no article for Ed Sheeran, nothing for Ariana Grande, Van Halen has one long paragraph, nothing for Billie Eilish (the youngest album of the year Grammy award winner in history), and nothing for Harry Styles.

Let’s look for contemporary “classical” composers

I first searched for Bryce Dessner, who created the orchestrations for Taylor Swift’s most recent albums folklore and evermore, because he’s a “real”, classically trained composer. He’s based in Paris, has composed works for the Kronos Quartet, he’s written a ballet, and he’s worked closely with Steve Reich. He has no Grove article! Steve Reich, on the other hand, has an extensive page.

Jennifer Higdon, a composer and flutist, has four paragraphs and a somewhat lengthy works list. Joan Tower, another American composer, has a much more extensive article (with pictures!) and a long works list and bibliography. Is there a reason why some composers have so much more than others, when their Wikipedia pages are about the same length? Is there something I’m missing?

Conservatory’s Limited Course Requirements

While I’m okay with being considered a “classically trained violist,” the classes offered to me at the conservatory I attended in undergrad and the music school I’m attending for my masters degree are not very diverse. We mainly learn about music from the common practice period (tonal music written from 1650-1900), and a bit about 20th century music written in the “classical” tradition.

The classes I’ve had to take make sense based on the music I typically play as a violist (Baroque to mid-20th century), but if I want to consider myself a world-class musician, shouldn’t I learn about… world music? It seems so wrong to me that I’ve only really learned about music written by European and American composers, and hardly anything about South American composers, or those from the Eastern hemisphere. Why is it so limited??

For anyone wondering, here’s what my theory classes looked like in undergrad:

• Theory 101
• Diatonic Theory and corresponding Ear Training
• Chromatic Harmony and corresponding Ear Training
• Post Tonal Theory and corresponding Ear Training
• Forms and Analysis (we focused on early Classical to late Romantic music)
• Instrumentation
• Orchestration
• 16th Century Counterpoint

And the theory classes for my masters degree:

• Music Since 1950
• Analysis for Performance (we’ve mostly looked at Classical and Romantic era music)

I recall no Asian or South American or “other” music history courses being offered. I didn’t even have a Medieval/Renaissance music history course.

I don’t blame my teachers for this course listing at all–I loved most of my theory and history teachers, and they did wonderful jobs teaching their respective classes!

I feel like I only know most of what I know about pop and rock music because I’m living through it, and from listening to it myself. All music is important, and it all influences each other. Why is there such a divide?

Discrimination of other genres

I’ve almost always gotten this attitude from classical music institutions and some classical musicians that “our” music is “better” than all other forms of music, and that it’s of higher quality and has a deeper meaning. As musicians, shouldn’t we be fans of just music in general? If classical music is “dying,” why don’t we support other genres and collaborate more? None of this makes any sense to me.

One of my friends is also a huge Taylor Swift fan, and she’s told me multiple times that, as a classical musician, she’s been afraid to tell others what kind of music she enjoys, because other classical musicians look down on pop music and make fun of Taylor Swift. I’ve felt this fear too. It doesn’t make sense–it’s all music!

If my teachers want me to respect tapes of found sounds from the 20th century, shouldn’t we also respect other genres of music like pop, country, hip hop, jazz? These forms of music all have chord progressions, a form we can analyze…. It just doesn’t make sense to me. It feels like there’s such a divide between classical music and popular music in my head, simply because my 20th century music classes only covered music written in the Western classical tradition. Shostakovich and The Beatles happened at the same time! Some of Shostakovich’s music sounds so much like rock. Was there any influence between popular music and classical music? I’m sure there was, but my schools haven’t taught me about it. It just… doesn’t make sense.

What I’m doing to help

As a teacher, I’m always helping my students learn pop songs and music from their favorite movies. I first and foremost want my students to have fun making music so they have a lifelong love and understanding of it, so I want to be sure they’re always playing music they really enjoy.

Grove has a section of their website titled Revising Grove Music Online, where you can suggest articles and edits. I plan on contacting them with my concerns.

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What are some other ways we can help change the attitude of the classical music industry? If you have any ideas, please let me know down in the comments!