# Composers influenced by modern Pop



## chipia (Apr 22, 2021)

Many of the great composers of the past were influenced by the music that was popular with the common folk, e.g. Chopin and Bartok. So I've wondered are there any living composers who in the same way draw from modern Pop?
I think it would be interesting if composers used elements from hip-hop, rock or EDM.
Are there any such composers, that you would recommend?


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Thomas Ades uses EDM influences in 'Asyla'...
Culture and Pop Culture in the Music of Thomas Adès. - Lancaster EPrints

From around 2 mins in, you can hear the '4 to the floor' drums with repeated hooks (alla synths) in the orchestra...


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Missy Mazzoli
Ann Cleare
Nico Muhly
Judd Greenstein
Mason Bates... and countless others

As Missy Mazzoli says: “It’s become kind of a cliché to say, oh I have so many diverse interests, I’m interested in pop music as well as classical music, but I think it’s kind of a natural state growing up in the ‘80s. I wouldn’t even call it a trend. It’s as if the whole palette of sound is available for composers now from throughout history. It’s not as much a self-conscious choice as just sort of pulling from everything you’ve encountered in your life.

Bates' _Blues 7_ is a hodgepodge: Hip-hop beats float under watery piano sounds and 12-string guitar samples.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

mikeh375 said:


> Thomas Ades uses EDM influences in 'Asyla'...
> Culture and Pop Culture in the Music of Thomas Adès. - Lancaster EPrints
> 
> From around 2 mins in, you can hear the '4 to the floor' drums with repeated hooks (alla synths) in the orchestra...


Thomas Adès also made a chamber arrangement (clarinet, bass clarinet, viola, cello, double bass and piano duet) of Madness's hit single _Cardiac Arrest_. Michael Daugherty has quoted Cream's _Sunshine of Your Love_ and various Motown songs in his work. Even the venerable Michael Tippett used pop/rock elements in some of his later output.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

This is the beginning of An Index of Metals, by Fausto Romitelli. I think the pop reference is clear:


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## KlassikerDronning (3 mo ago)

chipia said:


> Many of the great composers of the past were influenced by the music that was popular with the common folk, e.g. Chopin and Bartok. So I've wondered are there any living composers who in the same way draw from modern Pop?
> I think it would be interesting if composers used elements from hip-hop, rock or EDM.
> Are there any such composers, that you would recommend?


As a hardcore fan of classical and neo-classical speed metal, I can see rock and EDM, but rap? hell no! It's just way too mono-tonal and the whole structure and dynamics clash way too much.


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## HansZimmer (11 mo ago)

chipia said:


> I think it would be interesting if composers used elements from hip-hop, rock or EDM.


Hip-hop, rock and EDM are not pop. Pop is a distinct musical genre of popular music, like hip-hop, rock and EDM.

The folk music, by definition, is still a different thing in respect to popular music (popular music is the industrial music, while folk music is the traditional music that existed before the birth of the music industry) and I believe that the classical music composers borrowed elements from folk music, not from popular music.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Richard Kastle




variations on "Ole Ole" from piano concerto No.9

btw, there's also some other interesting stuff by him-


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## RandallPeterListens (Feb 9, 2012)

Well, at a stretch, you might cite Philip Glass' "Low Symphony" which is based on musical themes from David Bowie, if I am not mistaken.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

RandallPeterListens said:


> Well, at a stretch, you might cite Philip Glass' "Low Symphony" which is based on musical themes from David Bowie, if I am not mistaken.


I have both the _Low_ and _Heroes_ symphonies, and but I find it impossible to discern any connective tissue with Bowie/Eno - correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Glass extrapolate mere 'cells' from the source material rather than any recognisable extracts?


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

There should be a thread on whether Einaudi is considered a Classical composer. Just kidding. Seems he did write out his music as this video shows (at around 0:56).


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I think that nowadays many composers incorporate various influences coming from outside of classical. A few not mentioned: Joe Hisaishi and Matthew Hindson, whose influences include techno; Huang Ruo and John Corigliano, whose influences include metal (check out the _String Quartet_ by the latter, his _Symphony #2_ is an orchestral version of the same piece).


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

HansZimmer said:


> Hip-hop, rock and EDM are not pop. Pop is a distinct musical genre of popular music, like hip-hop, rock and EDM.


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## HansZimmer (11 mo ago)

Ethereality said:


>


*Pop music* is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. 

Pop music - Wikipedia


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

HansZimmer said:


> *Pop music* is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.
> 
> Pop music - Wikipedia


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

An all-time great right here, sometimes called the "Rock Symphony":






Latvian composers are amazing. Kalniņš, the other Kalniņš, and especially Žilinskis.


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## Andrew Kenneth (Feb 17, 2018)

_from the cd booklet_ =>
"*Thomas Wally*, though being a classically trained violin player and composer, was inspired by *Pet Shop Boys* and based his 2012 piece *Hommash : Caprice (V) Anglois – Assez Vicieux* on nearly 200 quotes from approximately 100 of their songs. These motives are intensely embedded in Wally's complex harmonic and metric language, and they only briefly shine through the texture."


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