These days when most young people hear the mention of Classical music they might think it's boring, they might think it's only listened to by old people - but the stereotype will end here! What many people - young and old - don't realise is that pop music has been influenced by Classical music for years - fact!  

You may not believe it, but even N-Dubz have used classical music in their hit "We Dance On" - the introduction is taken from Pachalbel's Canon. One of Nas's biggest hits "I Know I Can" samples Beethoven's well known piano piece "Fur Elise"; and on their new album "Plastic Beach", Gorillaz included The National Orchestra of Arabic Music in their track "White Flag" - an example of Arabic classical music. So there you were thinking you hated classical music when it's been in some of your favourite songs all along!

Classical music has strict forms such as the fugue, sonata form and the more broad forms of symphonies and concertos.  These names might not mean much to some, but pop music too has forms which are followed - admittedly mostly by the generic pop song - but the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure is one that most people are all too familiar with.

Lots of pop music, jazz being the most obvious, is improvised. This takes us back to the roots of classical music when scores were not written, and music such as folk songs were varied from family to family, and village to village.  This compares with pop music today where songs are written, but a score is never made; covers are made endlessly, and a song can be varied so much so that it's almost unrecogniseable from the original.

There are endless links between classical music and the pop music of today, from sampling to structure, that there should be no prejudice against either style by either listener. Stereotypes are made about both genres of music, however seeing as they are so closely linked shouldn't people be bit more open minded about music in the 21st century? I know I can...