Your Theories Why Classical Music (Fans) Is Respected, But Pop Isn't

This is the pinnacle of all music:

https://youtu.be/I52SWfrLvHo

The merits of each genre aside, I can think of two reasons.

First, most people are into popular music when young, but don't get interested in classical until later, if ever. You don't see many teens chatting excitedly about the Vivaldi concerto they just discovered. I got bored with pop in my early to mid twenties. It wasn't a deliberate decision, it just started getting stale to me. The way I described it to a friend later was, "I just got sick of hearing the same song, over and over, about some sixteen year old losing his virginity." Actually, now that I write that, I realize there's not a single reason #1 but a #1a and a #1b.

And, pop music is marketed to adolescents more than other groups, and the songs tend to be about adolescents. For every pop song that even mentions marriage there are a dozen "Jack and Dianes."[*] So reason #1a is that because for most people pop music is something they were into as kids but they got into classical as adults, there's a natural tendency to regard classical music itself as a more mature art form, not in terms of how long it's been around but rather its complexity and sophistication. Reason #1b is that pop itself fosters this impression by adolescence being its primary topic matter.

Reason #2 is the class issue you referred to. In the old days, before radio or phonographs, appreciation of the arts was something that went along with being in the upper classes. Poor people were generally too busy working their asses off to have time to attend symphonies, and those out in the country didn't have the opportunity anyway. (Because of high illiteracy rates, these things were probably even more true of written works.) That's not to say the lower classes didn't have their music. Bluegrass is popular here in Kentucky, and it's an art form primarily originated by poor and working class people. And -- again, without commenting on the merits of the music itself -- this probably is part of the reason classical is perceived as more sophisticated than bluegrass.

[*] I've said it before and I'll say it again -- two American kids I don't give a rat's ass about!

I think that the majority of what we listen to now as classical music was the best of the best. It is what survived. It's just like when we go back through the decades of popular music there is so much that has been forgotten about because it just wasn't as good, or that it just wasn't well received at the time. Some of those songs do make it popular later, but those are pretty rare.

There are a lot of pop/rock songs these days that are well received and respected. Give this music 300 years and see what is still around and studied. I think there will be a lot more, because of the recordings we have and not just sheet music.

I think a good deal of it is outlined somewhat by Bull below but I'll also put out there that the people I know who are serious about classical are also very technical about their music. This is like comparing the respectability of someone who really gets under the hood of their cars and can tell you, from the engineering side, about the modifications they're made versus the kids who are zipping around in their spiffy Hondas outfitted with Glasspacks and the 80 dollar AutoZone spoiler.

Jazz seems to be a better genre to examine in the aspect of serious fans to casual listeners. And trust me, there is a very noticeable culture within defined as the Jazz Snob that is much like your perception of classical fans.

As for pop? Most of the reason the genre exists is to suck in money from impressionable kids working out their hormones. Now you've also mentioned Pink Floyd. Far from pop. I guess the early works were pop of the day but they were also part of the target demographics of the music they were producing. Once I got out of high school and away from The Wall crowd I found that most people who were left were more technical in their fandom for Floyd. There's a bit of Prog that seems to have this threshold of fandom, not too unlike the Jazz Snobs but seemingly a bit less technical and a bit more open to general fans.

In a nutshell classical music is for adults and pop music is for kids.

I'd be more interested why anyone respects rap music. I mean we are told to be offended by the lyrics in Baby It's Cold Outside but there are hundreds of rap sons with lyrics much more offensive.

I think there is a lot of pop music respected.

When I think of pop music I think of plastic shit like KPop and Lady Gaga, techno and rap etc

I think it's obvious those types of music are purely mass produced commercial ventures and I doubt it means anything to the people who listen to it.

One comment I always get a lot from people who like that stuff when they listen to what I like they always say "your music is so real".

That's because it is (I mostly like rock, metal,blues, country).

So it is the same for classical music it's real, it has depth. The people who like it take it seriously it means something to them.