The two articles on the health of marching band musicians and the one on Irish traditional musicians in this issue of the journal are the most recent examples of research on the health of performing artists who participate in non-classical art forms. While it may not be easy for everyone to agree on the definitions of classical (or, more broadly, “art”) versus popular music (or dance), that hasn’t stopped scholars from trying. The point of this editorial is not to debate the relative merits of art music or dance with popular music or dance—each art form has its passionate practitioners and supporters, some of whom do all the debating that is needed. What I will try to do is to review how much attention we have paid to the more popular art forms as the field of performing arts medicine has evolved over the last three decades.