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Art & Creativity Quote by Lara St. John

"What is classical music if not the epitome of sensuality, passion, and understated erotica that popular music, even with all of its energy and life, cannot even begin to touch?"

About this Quote

Lara St. John’s provocation flips a tired cultural script: that classical music is cerebral, polite, even sexless, while pop is the sweaty domain of desire. She’s not just defending her genre; she’s reclaiming its body. The phrasing is doing a lot of work. “Epitome” and “understated erotica” carry an almost conspiratorial confidence, suggesting that classical sensuality is for listeners who know how to read the room - and the score. It’s an argument about technique as seduction: tension delayed, release earned, longing stretched across movements rather than delivered in a three-minute dopamine hit.

The subtext is also a critique of how we’ve been trained to recognize “passion.” Pop’s “energy and life” are acknowledged, then dismissed as surface heat. St. John implies that loudness and explicitness aren’t the same as intimacy. Classical music, in this framing, doesn’t need lyrical confession or a beat drop to feel erotic; it can make desire out of restraint, breath, and the microscopic drama of timbre. That “cannot even begin to touch” is strategic overreach - a dare, meant to spark argument, not settle it.

Context matters: St. John has built a career puncturing classical decorum, including the marketing and gatekeeping that make the concert hall feel antiseptic. The quote reads like a manifesto against that sanitization, insisting that the tradition’s real power isn’t museum prestige. It’s the way a melody can flirt, withhold, and devastate - without ever taking its clothes off.

Quote Details

TopicMusic
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
John, Lara St. (2026, January 16). What is classical music if not the epitome of sensuality, passion, and understated erotica that popular music, even with all of its energy and life, cannot even begin to touch? FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/what-is-classical-music-if-not-the-epitome-of-84456/

Chicago Style
John, Lara St. "What is classical music if not the epitome of sensuality, passion, and understated erotica that popular music, even with all of its energy and life, cannot even begin to touch?" FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/what-is-classical-music-if-not-the-epitome-of-84456/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"What is classical music if not the epitome of sensuality, passion, and understated erotica that popular music, even with all of its energy and life, cannot even begin to touch?" FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/what-is-classical-music-if-not-the-epitome-of-84456/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2026.

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Classical Music as the Epitome of Sensuality and Passion by Lara St John
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About the Author

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Lara St. John (born April 15, 1971) is a Musician from Canada.

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