What is "too much" and "not enough" when it comes to what a student is passionate about? I think there's currently a tremendous, almost unbelievably large, ove

What is "too much" and "not enough" when it comes to what a student is passionate about? I think there's currently a tremendous, almost unbelievably large, over-emphasis on music that has a written score in most music programs, which leaves out literally everything that is popular and contemporary. One has to specifically pursue those subjects in elective classes (there are jazz programs that make it up through the 70s as part of the primary coursework, but popular modern music is practically absent from most college music programs). Even when modern music is covered, it tends to be those pieces written by composers using traditional methods, which includes a written score...which is not what is popular. This is a new phenomenon (though, I guess, studying music in college is also a new phenomenon, when speaking on the time scale of music history). Bach was popular in his time, and he paid attention to other popular composers of his time. What we think of as the "repertoire" that is sort of widely regarded as what someone ought to study as a music major is also pretty new-fangled. There was much less awareness of music from even different parts of the same continent during Bach or Beethoven's time than we have today (I mean, we likely know more about contemporaries of Beethoven from across Europe than he did in his day, and we certainly have better access to history on both sides of his life than he did), and yet we pretend this is how it's always been and that it's the way it should be. There's a good argument to be made about a common language among musicians...and that historically has been the western repertoire that is generally taught in universities, but there are other common music languages that have similar depth and rigorous analysis (jazz being one of them, perhaps surprisingly, given its origins as popular dance and party music). A music education is supposed to prepare someone to make and/or play music (hopefully music that they like) often with others, and always for others. The musical language they use to speak to those other people doesn't have to be deeply informed by Bach to be valuable. Of course, if that is the music someone loves and the music someone wants to make, it's great that it's available to them. But, I think it's Eurocentric and extremely limiting when imposed as a requirement.