Pop vs. Classical

Yes, on the radio you hear the same studio mix every time, sometimes performed by studio musicians. But the most exciting pop music is never static- everything from scat singing to guitar solos varies every time, and the anarchic construction of most rock bands means the interaction between freely improvising musicians changes with each performance.

Raw Emotion gets expressed by the pop/rock music much more personally than in classical, and in many cases its a much more crucial part of the experience. When the late Lowell George (of Little Feat) played slide guitar solos, you were hearing his soul, and it was always different, always alive and new. When the Grateful Dead took an old blues standard as the skeleton on which to build a 30 minute jam, it differs substantially from a symphony score, and the unexpected is what interests me, anyway, about this type of "pop" music. read more