Maggie’s Reviews > Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music > Status Update

To the naive 'music lover' there are only two kinds of music that really count. One is classical music, produced by geniuses, invariably isolated, towering figures who are misunderstood by their contemporaries, starve in garrets, and probably die young. The other is folk music, which is mysteriously evolved by illiterate peasants untouched by the nastiness of urban civilization. Nothing else is of any consequence.