Many of the aspiring anti-intellectual performers kept putting out the
question "How is this going to help me play better?" with regard to their
theoretical studies.  Apparently neither the theory teachers nor the
performance faculty was answering that question.

Much of the underlying structure of popular and commercial music is a
subset of what is available to classical composers.  Aspiring pop stars
who say "I don't use theory" are often alleging that their work comes from
"pure inspiration" whereas "that other stuff" is just a bunch of academic
exercises and hence not worth anyone's time.  The work of these people can
often be explained with a very small slice of the theory that they claim
not to use.

Aaron J. Rabushka
[log in to unmask]