ABSTRACT
Popular music is not alone in embracing stylistic diversity; this exists also in classical music, a term that is often used loosely to include a range of European musical styles going back several hundred years. The performance environment has an impact on the status of both classical and popular music, but in distinct ways. The group vs. soloist opposition so often found in the classical concerto is also a feature of much popular music. The majority of popular musicians, despite their emphasis on original music, are not composing works. Pop is certainly more visually oriented than classical music, and there is nothing new in the argument that the classical performer's standard garb is an attempt to produce an anonymous body. The question popular music has to answer – how does the soloist relate to the group? – is one that classical music has had to deal with, and the problems are similar in each case.
