Elitism in Classical Music | Why does the classical music industry hate pop music?

This is a topic that's been on my mind a lot recently. Why does it feel like the classical music industry treats other genres of music as "less than?" How can we change that? Also, I fully acknowledge that this is not the most dire aspect of classical music that we need to change. What's your experience? If you're a classical musician, do you like other genres of music?
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#classicalmusic #popmusic

[@ElizabethKnaub]

Please keep all comments productive and relevant to the conversation. Any comments that don't move the conversation forward will be removed. Thank you for being respectful!

[@Taylorc131996]

never hurts to branch out tbh i think it would be stupid of people to only focus on one circle of music and it's even stupider to look down on other people's opinions

[@ElizabethKnaub]

Exactly! Most of us are musicians because we love music. Shouldn't we appreciate it all?

[@Harry777]

I think you really make some excellent points in this video and I'm proud of you for not being afraid to voice your opinions ♥️

[@ElizabethKnaub]

Thank you ❤️

[@gios7752]

It’s a very interesting and complex topic. The root of the problem is how music is taught. There is a lack of music history and appreciation. This is what I try to teach my students. I expose them to different genres, variety of musicians (ethnicities, genders…), languages… Music is a constant River of knowledge, contributions, feelings, cultures… Let’s look at Jazz now. It’s taught now as a major. It has become an elitist style. Jazz was pop music in its time and took the popularity away from Classical music. Unfortunately there is racism mixed into these perceptions and attitudes. Musicians and their listeners are humans that have biases. Most of the time music reflects unity and a lot of the times the hypocrisy of our own prejudice. Our goal as educators should be to inspire, educate and encourage.

[@ElizabethKnaub]

Thank you for your thoughtful comment. My goal is always to inspire, and to cultivate the interests of my students. I want to do more research myself into music I haven't been exposed to so I can share it with my students. Music is so universal, and only learning about some of it feels like such a disservice.

[@ElizabethKnaub]

@Confusion It's absolutely the people and not the genre. I don't understand why many classical musicians feel that their music is elite, and everything else is trivial. I'm a classical musician, but I love and respect music from all genres, and I try to teach as many different types of music to my students as I can.

[@Adela4444]

I totally agree.Not to mention the reactions you get if you dare to play anything else. It is considered a sort of blasphemy. Or even small things,like experimenting with the score or improvising on a classical work…a lack of creativity in the educational system that is just incredible,not to mention bad suited for the state of the industry today and what it prepares you(or doesn’t prepare you) for…

[@NicoleMiller77]

i love that you're mentioning taylor swift!!! i'm kind of shocked you don't even have a world music class?? i had to take one last semester (i'm in undergrad) and i am a music industry major, but the world music class was required for music ed and performance as well. we learned about gamelan and lots of other eastern genres (also eastern is a Eurocentric term, but my prof explained there's not really a replacement term yet that he's aware of). then of course the industry students are required to take pop music theory and history of pop music (which were amazing classes) but the majority of my education has been soooo classically focused which is kind of frustrating as i won't be teaching or performing it and want to work for a label or publishing company. i appreciate you pointing this out and not being one of the "ed or performance students" who have been incredibly stuck in the classical mindset. before the industry degree was around for long enough and had enough students in it, we were looked down upon immensely by the other students in the music building and by some of the staff even. times are changing and that's where a lot of money is being made though! but idk at the same time i do appreciate my classical theory background because it's allowed me to strengthen my contemporary songwriting. and the idea of the classical world kind of dying in every other area of music is sad. people i know who aren't music students have no appreciation or knowledge of it. but then anyone who does, has no appreciation for pop music. really frustrating!

[@NicoleMiller77]

also as i finish watching, you are so right about the avant garde sounds of the 20th century like the pure just sounds and that being respected as music but something with definite structure and progressions (even though it's pop music) is not?? lol it makes no sense. also just because someone does pop music, as you said with disney songs, doesn't mean they're not classically trained, shit they might even be doing it because it has a higher chance of success in today's world. adele literally went to music school, she is a full on pianist. she cannot and should not be written off. i really want to make a video after i graduate about what they don't tell you about being a music industry student, which would include some of the getting looked down upon experiences and this gave me the courage!!

[@ElizabethKnaub]

You're so lucky you had a world music class 😍 I really want to do research on Eastern music (thanks for the clarification on the term!) after I graduate in a few months, because it's something I need to know more about, and I'd love to incorporate music from other cultures while teaching my own students. It's so terrible that the industry students were looked down on. We're all working towards one goal- to share music with others, so why do we put each other down??? I was raised around pop music, and I was always learning pop and movie music in my piano lessons, so I never truly saw the divide between classical and other until I came to college and saw it happening. Aside from Adele's piano training, she has such an incredible voice! If she used her voice for something in a more classical idiom, would she be more highly respected in the classical world?

[@enki2958]

Grove Music Online does NOT have an article about the Band Dream Theater.

[@andreasvandieaarde]

Daamn that sucks, they're awesome

[@kenmcguire5837]

I am an amateur cellist. What you say about much of the classical gehto is good. But you should be aware that major reference works like Groves takes years to be updated. So the fact that the articles are out of date like you said is expected.

[@andreasvandieaarde]

I'm tempted to make my own video about this topic in a similar style to yours here. It's very inspiring. I just took a look at Grove myself because your examples were quite, y'know...lackluster in terms of written content, and I wanted to see the scale at which they go into depth for the canon composers and...well...GOOD GRIEF. Beethoven has about 20 subsections all about his life?! Meanwhile, BEYONCE gets less than five as you demonstrated?! Sure, she's not a classical composer...but still, I absolutely see the massive bias, and I have a problem with that too. Frankly, I think about this kinda thing all the time. I agree with literally everything you say in this video. All music should be respected, because there's at least *one person* out there who relates to different kinds of music and if that for some reason doesn't matter, because it's not classical music, then none of it should. That's how I see it. It's either *all okay, or not okay.* It took me a very, very long time to get to a place of being truly eclectic when it comes to music on the surface level - y'know, with literal sound being what the music is made up of. Now, I see music in stories. It's like music encompasses archetypes within its nature. I'm yet to fully articulate my thoughts on this even for myself, because I find myself always thinking about this topic on a daily basis and getting lost in unorganized ideas. It's very stimulating to me, and it's part of what motivates me to keep doing what I'm doing, which is study classical music of all things. I currently study classical Piano, to be specific. And well, let's just say it's pretty harsh and frankly uncomfortable in many aspects. Dudes will perform Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff concertos and the feedback will be along the lines of, *can you make it more musical?* Yikes. There seems to be a slight ultimate goal in studying here, which is to become a good classical performer, I guess - whatever that means. I don't intend on pursuing a career in classical music per se, but it's part of it. I've found myself asking, while studying here (I'm in my first year for a bachelor of music), *what do I want to achieve as a performer?* And I think I've found my dream goal...which I hope, if I were to be successful, could bring classical culture down from its high horse. I find myself extremely interested in learning about traditional instruments from all kinds of cultures around the world; I want to learn as many as I can from masters and learn about the instruments' history and music, because to me, music is the number one strongest catalyst you can use to connect with a culture and people on an individual, emotional level. Ask *anyone* what their favorite music is and I can guarantee you can spark a conversation purely about music for hours on end. Now, learning all kinds of instruments is one thing. I don't exactly have an end-goal, because my dream is intentionally impossible - or at least, seemingly so - to achieve. That's why I want to commit my life to it. Even if I don't see it come to full fruition in my lifetime, I hope to set something in motion that will allow it to happen. *I want to let all kinds of music be engaged with in the same settings, as equals.* Whether it's through me directly or not, that's what I want to achieve. I've thought about how I might go about this and well, to start, I'm willing to spark some slight rebellion within classical culture - that's one direction that can be taken (no pun intended). Things like simply questioning the etiquette we have to follow for whatever reasons, things like why classical styles are so limited and isn't open to more interpretation approaches, and of course - rocking up to concerts in questionable (and directly questioning) attire, in the spirit of being yourself. If I were to perform at a pop concert, say, for some reason - not that I necessarily have that on my to-do list - I would go as myself, in whatever clothing I feel like wearing, and just having a good time performing some music. I've seen jazz legends perform (particularly Chick Corea, RIP) and have people comment on his attire looking like a *high school janitor,* and that in fact they loved that he looked that way. I've also seen some heavy metal bands (thinking specifically of Meshuggah, circa 1996) perform with really casual looks, I think it was the rhythm guitarist who wore a coca-cola shirt...and they rocked it. SOAD comes to mind for me as well, they just wear whatever. But I don't want to do it on my own, I want to spread the ideas you're talking about too in discussion and simply bring it to light - the real elephant in the room about the image of classical culture, which I see as a complete mess of snobs at the end of the day trying to keep their favorite old-ass music alive - that being primarily Russian, 100-300-year-old repertoire that is simply canon as usual. It's utterly sad, completely sad, and I've found myself sometimes having to hold my emotion back when I merely think about it, let alone talk to people about it or perform it. The worst is *watching it* - being a bystander in a sub-society that inherently treats other music styles like trash in comparison. Even at my conservatory, where pop and jazz are majors that you can study, it's largely a classical institution, and I get the general feeling that most of the teachers in the classical department have a bit of disdain for them. Of course, I can't totally assume what they think individually, that'd be unfair. Lowkey, though...I've heard some disses to pop music written off as implied jokes, but there's always a bit of truth to humor as they say. And as you can read between the lines from Grove, I'm trying to make an educated guess as to what the perspective is there. So...in short. Everything you said here resonates with me. I hate music snobbery, it makes me sad. Sometimes it makes me mad. What's the worst about it for me is that I was there at a stage in my life, and that's why it's particularly an emotional thing for me. People who see styles of music as superior/inferior literally shut themselves out to *music.* I'm studying music, not classical. That's my view. I honestly didn't know what I was intending on achieving when I auditioned, but all I know is that I'm glad I know where I'm going now. And I'm glad there are people like you who speak their minds about this overarching issue, which has plagued the culture from the inside out. Thank you.

[@ElizabethKnaub]

Thank you so much for your comment. I also agree with everything you're saying, and commend you on your goal! That's fantastic. I hope I can achieve something similar. Best of luck, and I hope the classical music world evolves into something more open minded!

[@RamiHaxhi]

I really love all kinds of music including popular music. Pop music is everywhere, and I don't see people clamoring for more classical music in popular music concerts. I would really prefer it if Taylor Swift sticks t what she's good at. When people go to a classical concert, it's because they love that music, and would probably stay away if the concert incorporated pop music. Not because they don't like pop music, but because it's not the right place for it.

[@ashleythorpe7933]

I am a violist too!

[@ElizabethKnaub]

Yay, that's so exciting! Viola is the best ❤️

[@otsmah]

You are right

[@jacobmalek8578]

Hey! I watched your video and can’t help but respond. I’m a tuba player of over 10 years, finishing my last year of my Bachelors in music as I try to win an orchestra job. I hear your concern and frustration, and I empathize with it and understand it, however, I can’t agree at all with the conclusion being drawn here. My thesis statement against this idea is the philosophy that “music is music,” because through listening alone, you can very simply understand that what Swift and Bach were trying to accomplish artistically with their music is completely different. To me, I think there is too much equating happening in the minds of the laymen and the classical enthusiast, in that, they appeal to the idea that Swift and Bach are comparable because they are both music. I think this does more to distort the message of both and take away from both of their qualities, because instead of recognizing what makes each of them distinct, we need to compare them and see which one is better. The classical music umbrella term is very broad and means almost nothing anyway, in that, you can put Bach and Stravinsky next to each other and call them the same. I will defend the labeling of classical music- Bach and Stravinsky are MORE comparable than Bach and the Beatles because they were trying to create a similar effect from their compositions being played. I think it is wrong to say that one experience is better or worse than another, when more often they are completely different from each other completely. It’s like comparing the finest sashimi to the greatest burger: they are fundamentally different, even though they are both food. I want you to imagine a scenario that perfectly describes what I’m thinking. Imagine you are a great sushi chef coming from one of the greatest sushi restaurants from Japan, and you want to be a capitalist in the U.S to give yourself and your children the best life you can, as you could make a TON of money in the U.S. You arrive in Utah, where the housing market is the cheapest and the best place to set up a new restaurant, as they don’t have any sushi restaurants as good as you and it’s much cheaper to start there; also, the ingredients are fresh and easy to get. You make the best sashimi and classic rolls you can, and in Japan, they would be considered perfection. In Utah however, either through pure racism, or classism based on racism, or just an unwillingness to try something new, the locals don’t even try any of your amazing sushi rolls. You start to panic, wanting more business, and thus, you start looking for outs, seeing how to increase the profit of your business. You come to the conclusion that it must be the lack of customers, because you fly back to Japan and have the greatest chefs you can find, test and try your food. They think it’s up to their standards, in fact, it’s quite excellent. So you look to the area and see that American comfort food is nothing like Japanese food. So you make a LOT of changes, and the biggest one, is you make burgers instead, because that's what the locals want. You rebrand, but still no luck. You have your burger compete against the burgers in the area, and they are no match. You realize that even though you can make a burger, it’s a GREAT burger that the public wants, and yours was just not up to par. The conclusion you come to is that either you can try to keep making mediocre knock offs, or just go back to Japan. Of course, seeing as though it makes more money, you go back to Japan, for the betterment of you and your family. Now no one in Utah will have your sushi, and you figure that must be better for everyone. In this story, I wanted to show how the expectations of the audience can affect the brilliance of art or things being consumed. I assumed the sushi chef was great, and yet, no one wants to try their food. This is the state of the classical music industry today: even the greatest musicians in the major symphonies cannot compete with Taylor Swift, in terms of butts in chairs (ticket sales). But just like in the story, the burgers the other burger chefs made were better than the sushi chef making knockoffs. Even though the sushi chef is a great chef in his own respect, he cannot do what the locals in Utah can. To me, the sadness of this story is the locals' unwillingness to try something outside their comfort zone, making the sushi chef change to meet their demands. In truth, I would rather live in a world where all things were good and we didn’t have to choose, but this is happening in our industry more often than not. I can’t tell you the number of pop gigs I’ve played. Playing Jazz and popular tunes because it draws in more numbers. It’s hard being a tuba player- I’ve never once played in any ensemble playing Mozart, Schubert, Haydn, Schumann, and many others. Even in the big works I do get to play on, where I go to school we often program a lot of new music, and because of it, I’ve never played a Prokofiev Symphony, a Bruckner symphony, a Nielsen symphony, anything by Ravel, anything by Copland, and as I said, anything pre romantic. I’ve never even played Berlioz! There is so much classical music in the world, and I don’t even get to play most of it. Without bad mouthing pop music, why is it ok that I have been playing for over 10 years, and yet, I have almost no job availability because of the lack of demand. And also, why is it fair when my non-music friends talk about music, that mine isn’t in the picture at all? It makes me sad that I could send ads to everyone I know to come to one of my concerts that I think is great, and I already know that they won’t show up, even though they’ve never heard any of the music on the program and they’ve never really even seen an orchestra. In fact, there probably won’t be more than 50 people who show up. I get stopped on the street when I carry my case around and most people don’t even know what I play, they ask, is that a cello? Is that a Trumpet? I don’t think we need to bow down and say it’s unfair that Taylor Swift isn’t getting enough credit from our industry, because most people don’t even know who Ravel is or a single piece by him. My goal is to be a great artist, and I want to make classical music because it’s my passion, it’s what I care about almost more than anything, and if you feel that way about Taylor Swift, I implore you to shower the world with her praise and become an acolyte, as I have for Haydn. I would just hope that you reconsider it being about the music itself, and please, I would hope that you can show your students that Mozart is fun, because from my viewpoint, it really is! I’ll address one more thing, the music conservatory. Music colleges are designed right now to teach classical music, as that was what people went to study. Things take large amounts of time to change, and most music schools, including mine, have a jazz department now. Most of these schools didn’t, for a very long time. Innovation and change is something that takes structural change from the fundamental premise, so I understand why you want that, but give them time, pop music WILL enter our schools, like it or not. However, I’ll ask you this, if I WANT to learn about western classical music, what is so wrong with studying one thing? I took a philosophy class at my school, and instead of focusing on one philosopher to study, we went all over the place. I know more names and basic ideas, but I have none of the depth I’d actually want. I tried reading Aristotle's Organon and was completely confused, because to me, it was almost completely incomprehensible (though I am not the smartest person, so maybe someone else could idk). I think there should be a class on other music theories, but I want to learn about Mozart, and there are 1,000’s of pieces of classical music: there is always a TON more to learn. I think these classes should be taught separately, but given the same attention. I’ll finish by saying that I want people to feel like classical music is more approachable: there is nothing hard or confusing about listening to a great work by Mozart, just pay attention to it, be present, and try to have a good time; there is nothing pretentious about wanting to have amazing sashimi to me. Anyways, I don’t mean to attack you on this at all, but I hope my answer to your rant is satisfying, as you gain the perspective of a tuba guy trying his best to play some Haydn.

[@ElizabethKnaub]

Hi Jacob, thank you so much for your thoughtful response. I agree so much with what you're saying. I pursued two classical music degrees because that's the type of music I enjoy playing as well! I love playing Bach, Mozart, Stravinsky, Ravel... but I feel that schools emphasize the traditional white Western composers over everything else. And yes, our degrees are in Western Classical music, but it just seems like such a small scope in terms of music. For my own teaching, I do show my students that Mozart is fun! The majority of my students love playing and listening to the classical music that I teach them. But, as humans in 2021, Classical music isn't the main focus, just like you were saying, and I want them to be able to make the music they enjoy listening to outside of lessons, because I've found it to be super rewarding myself. For me, I want to show my students that music is a form of self-expression, and it comes in so many different styles. I hope they can find at least one style that really speaks to them! I teach mostly beginner students right now, which is probably why my opinion is the way that it is. I guess the main message I wanted to get across in this video (I made it a few months ago and my opinions may have slightly changed) is that overall, music is evolving faster than music schools are. I wish schools had more flexible tracks for students wishing to play only classical music/maybe those who want symphony jobs, students who want to record pop music, students who want to perform jazz, students who want to focus on new music--and maybe it was just the schools I went to that had a lack of this. I only know what I have singlehandedly experienced. Since graduating after creating this video, I've found that my schools hardly prepared me for "real life"--taxes, insurance, marketing myself as a musician. Learning about music written by dead white men feels trivial in the time of covid and being out in the real world, but I do love performing that music. It's such a complicated topic with so many aspects. Thanks again for your comment, it really got me thinking. Good luck getting an orchestra job, and I hope you're able to perform the music you love! :)

[@samueltaylor4019]

I was surrounded by classical musicians for years. Their self worth has always come from the prestige of classical music, so they are angered when they are confronted with other types of music that are incredibly well made. The main thing I've noticed is that they hate any kind of heavily "produced" music. This is utter hypocrisy because classical composers worked hard for centuries to improve orchestration techniques to achieve the same thing that good production acheives - a clear, concise and moving sound within a space, which in the case of production can include anything from having music sound amazing in headphones, to in a car or whatever. Classical musicians trade in the currency of prestige and their prestige is exponentially reduced if other musical genres are considered equal to or greater than theirs. Just like governments need to prop up currencies and large brands need to prop up the value of their brand name, classical musicians need to artificially prop up their currency of prestige in order to both continue making a living playing classical music, but more importantly, to maintain their high status in society. This is a pretty straightforward psychological phenomenon.

[@bargledargle7941]

Hello there! I am a classical elitist like those that pissed you off, I assume... I hate pop music in terms of my own taste and I understand it feels to you as if I am disrespecting the music you love. What more from the video, how you speak and your vibe - it feels like you were hurt. I understand this because I was deeply hurt too when trying to share the music that I like. So I can relate to that. When people look down on music you love, for the passionate musician it could be hurtful and disappointing as heck. I know my writing is a bit wacky. But! I am hoping nothing I'll say will sound like an insult or a personal attack or a round-about personal attack. 1. The first point of the video is talking about how grove music site is treating pop artists not rightfully, they are not updated in there despite the fact they are the musicians of their time. I wouldn't say that Grove site is the best place to learn about a musician. I suppose it depends on the musician, Grove perhaps is not a good site for those musicians, but that doesn't have to do directly with how classical elitists like myself view pop musicians. It has to do with site problems. 2. The second point of your video (as far as I understand, correct me if I understood wrongly). You are showing how many awards those musicians have. How successful are they and so on. I don't care for awards or public success of art as to evaluate it. I hope that other classical elitists like myself would agree. Even if they don't, I hope you'd focus on my point of view on this one. To me it doesn't matter if someone is famous, awarded or successful all because of their music. Composition and sound are the most important aspects to music in my opinion, no matter how successful it is. And the reason that is the case is simply because it's a challenge to compose that. It's a challenge to compose in the style of Baroque for example, that's why Bach is celebrated. I think Bach is great not because he is a genius, I don't care what he is. When I say "Bach" I simply mean "The music that happened to be written by Bach". That music is great, because it's very challenging to compose. Pop music is not challenging to compose often times, in fact its repeating 4 chords on a loop. To me, great composers like Bach, Beethoven and so on... They also wrote some pieces which are absolutely cheap, just like pop music is cheap. And when I say cheap I don't mean in taste, I only mean "easy to write". That is what cheap is. Cheap is not something bad. If pop music is "Bad" whatever bad means, how come people like it? Of course it's not bad. It's just cheap and easy to write and compose. If you don't believe me try your hand at writing a fugue like BWV 853. You must be thinking now "But I don't like this music, so BWV 853 is cheap?" No, it's not cheap it's just not to your taste. I already mentioned, cheap = easy to write. I didn't say pop is not beloved. I said pop is cheap, means pop is easy to write. So in short, no matter how many awards Taylor Swift got, her music is still cheap unless you can show me something that is difficult to compose in her music. The next point you may raise on this, rightfully, is that her sound design is superb. Sound design is actually very related to composition but of course it's a bit different. Sound design doesn't come close in it's challenge to composition. Not even close... Which is why composition (something all those old-fashioned composers seem to do well) is appreciated more by the classical peeps. As well as of course staying a little bit behind, not moving forward from the past. The next thing you may ask is, so what about jazz? Isn't jazz supposed to be taught in the classical world then? Jazz doesn't come close to Bach, but it comes close to many other classical composers and also it has a lot of wonderful black artists who write beautiful music. An example is "So What" it's a jazz standard that is absolutely amazing to me, highly suggesting a listen. 3. One of the points you said in the video "Why those schools focus on classical music when our society is clearly drawn into pop music?" The reason is from pop music, in terms of composition, there's not much to learn. Don't be angry at my statement, I am not saying pop has no value. You may enjoy pop and listen to pop if that's what you like. But writing lyrics and writing notes are two different arts... And pop music is not a world where you can really explore much note writing beyond the basics. And harmony modulations and such is like a spice without a dish. Adding this statement because many people bring it up as if the only difference is that classical music has modulations. 4. About eastern music, hopefully as you said no one is offended from that term. It's not nearly as difficult to compose. 5. About looking down on music: "Why would the teacher expect me to respect some strange tape of everyday sounds that they call 'Music' but not respect Taylor Swift." On this, I agree. When I called pop music 'cheap' I didn't mean in a disrespectful way. To me what you mentioned a tape of every day sounds! That is of course cheap and not something I hold in high regard. Which leads to the next thing. I don't disrespect any music. But also I don't hold absolutely everything in high regard when it comes to music. 6. About teaching your students playing something more fun: Again, with this I agree. A lot of the time children are sent by their parents to play an instruments against their will. It's important teachers will understand that as I went through the same thing, and try to make the lesson fun for the student and not some kind of traumatic experience. Even if the student wants to be there, it's good to not enforce on people the music you care about but rather think about their heart and feelings. Sorry for the paragraph or if my comment made you more angry. My only request is don't tell me "Go read this book and that book" as an argument. People who argue like this can't use the knowledge in the book to explain anything then either they didn't read or the book is useless. Anyway cheers!

[@MalushJ]

So by your logic if a composer wrote a piece that was in the literal sense of the word "impossible" that would be a masterpiece no? what is the point of a difficult piece if it doesn't sound pleasant. (I am not implying classical music is unpleasant) but writing a difficult piece for the sake of it being difficult sounds kind of pointless to me. For example I personally do not enjoy some pieces written by Paganini simply because there are better pieces (in my opinion) out there to listen to. Are they impressive? sure. But from a musicality perspective I think writing a piece for the sake of it being difficult is not musical.

[@bargledargle7941]

@@MalushJ That's a very good question. Thank you for reading my boring paragraph! Haha It depends in what way it's difficult to write. Is it difficult musically to write it? Is it difficult because it was carved in wood? The main point is that the highest quality of music is completely musical. If a piece of music is impressive only mathematically and not musically - then it's a good piece of math but not music. But a good piece of music still exists. Another important point for me - you said "Writing a piece for the sake of it being difficult is not musical". I think it's incorrect for another reason other than the reason I've just said. The intentions of the writer do not matter. I've once written a piece that is purposefully easy to prove a point about how easy it is to please people who casually listen to music. The intentions were not to write something beautiful but to prove a point - yet the audience of the piece enjoys it. So for what sake the piece was written is irrelevant as well! Thanks for reading and again for being respectful! I appreciate your good question.

[@MalushJ]

@@bargledargle7941 While I understand your position, I can't agree with you on your stance on the relevancy of the purpose of a piece. I do think it matters what a musician's intentions are. For example in many classical pieces, phrasing is very important. You could technically play the piece hitting every note correctly but you will not get the right phrasing the composer intended. If the composer wants to tell a story and you ignore their intentions, you are not gonna get the story right. I do agree with you it is easy to write a catchy song, especially nowadays with the technology available. While I personally like songs and pieces that have more depth than just how catchy they are, I still think they have their purpose and am glad they exist.