Course Instructor Date Contrast and Comparison between a Classical and Rock Song Music comprises of vocal or instrumental sounds or both combined in a way that produces beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotions. Music is increasing popular in modern life with the amount of music available in personal archives increasing every day. The large amounts of information pose a challenge, especially with the management of the data. Although music classification is not a clear concept, music is classifiable into two broad categories popular and classical music. Each of the categories could further be classified into smaller categories. For example, popular music can further be classified into pop, rock, and jazz. Some of the characteristics used to discriminate different types of music include music structure, melody, tempo, rhythm, and chord. These characteristics make it is possible to differentiate classical and popular music. For example, this paper considers the musical features of Mozarts Symphony number 30 in D 1st movement belonging to the classical category and the song Hey Jude by the Beatles. Similarities and differences between the two songs reveal the way each of them belongs to a different category but enjoy considerable success as a work of art. Background Rock music is a fusion of black and white traditional music in the southern United States. The genre has elements of country, soul, jazz, and folk. Common elements in rock include the use of the 12-bar blue chord that relies on dominant, subdominant chords, and tonic for composition. The genre also relies heavily on the second and fourth backbeats. Classical music refers to music rooted in western traditional music and encompasses a period roughly from the 11th century to date. Classical music is essentially enlightened, natural, and simple. The purpose of adopting simpler, natural, slow moving harmony is to make the music easier for the public to appreciate and understand. Despite the simplicity, the music maintains tonal harmony, which emphasizes melody and bass line (Classical music 19). Technological inventions of the 20th century also played a key role in the evolution of rock. Inventions such as an electric guitar, amplifier, and microphone enabled rock music to develop into the high volume genre that is so recognizable today. A key feature of classical music, such as Mozarts Symphony number 30 in D, is the melody that is short and clearly defined with two or more contrasting themes. This music also has a regular, well-defined rhythm, homophonic texture, and a four-section symphony orchestra that comprises of woodwind, percussion, strings, and brass (Covach 66). Similarities Classical and rock music are different branches of the same art form. It is impossible to say which one is better it simply boils down to a matter of taste. There are great artists in both genres. Outstanding examples include Mozart in classical music and the Beatles in rock music. The most obvious similarity between Mozarts Symphony number 30 in D 1st movement and the Beatles Hey Jude is the song structure. Both have the binary form II A II B II A. Hey Jude by the Beatles is one of the most popular songs in the genres, which follows a 4/4 meter rhythm foundation that is unsyncopated. Mozart achieves this same effect in his Symphony number 30 in D 1st movement by dynamically varying the volume. The Beatles uses a range of harmonies that range from arpeggio to fourth to fifth and cacophonous harmonic successions while Mozart achieves this by using a homophonic texture, which is possible because the melody line and other notes in the music are inline (Classical music 21). The rhythm in Mozarts Symphony number 30 in D 1st movement has great flexibility with differing rhythmic patterns, which is a whole mark of most rock music including the Beatles Hey Jude. The rhythmic diversity in both songs is accompanied by pauses, changes between long and short notes, and syncopation. Both the