Along with the rise of the modern concepts, pop music has won the public heart for decades, leading to the higher income of the singers. Those pop stars even make more money than the classical artists. From my point of view, the pop music industry has more advantages than the traditional ones, which makes it reasonable for the mentioned income gap.
One of the reasons contributing to pop stars’ superior income is the audience sector, which is much more diverse than classical music. From the mediaeval time, such classy music has been believed to be a sign of the higher class within the society. Thereby, it consists of sophisticated notes and symphonies, which require fundamental musical knowledge to enjoy. As a result, the classical performances tend to be popular among the more wealthy/affluent/well-off households – a minor part of the population. In contrast, pop music is more accessible to a wide range of people since it is a result of the public culture, conveying daily life emotions via the familiar tunes and straight-forward lyrics. During its evolution, pop music even combines traditional materials such as folk songs, thus, becoming viral among the vast majority of the audiences. Therefore, pop stars’ albums and their merchandise might gain more profit due to the larger demand from a crowder customer pool. Indeed, famous pop singers like Beyonce and Shakira have become millionaires thanks to the enormous album sales.
Moreover, as pop stars’ activities are more entertainment driven, they tend to enjoy various opportunities to earn money than their counterparts. As classical music’ nature, the performers are expected to maintain the glamorous and professional looks. Hence, they are not likely to appear as the ideal applicants for commercials or events, which target the middle class household and the youth but not the elderly or high-class citizens. Meanwhile, pop stars, with their famous songs and the idol culture, in which the admirers unconditionally support these stars, become the representative faces for the advertisements. In addition, as pop songs usually include upbeat tunes, they allow the performers to stir up the atmosphere, enabling them to become indispensable parts of global events. It means that the pop stars are able to graph more profitable opportunities.
From the aforementioned points, I believe that because pop singers catch up with the current customer’s taste and put their efforts into engaging in different musical jobs, they should receive more financial resources.