This is just something that came into my mind during tuition few hours ago.

I have another friend (I'll call her Bin) who shares almost the same level as me in music (we're both pursuing our first diploma certificates in piano now). The only difference is: She majors in classical music; I prefer playing contemporary.
Well, it's not that she can't play modern pop, nor can I not settle with old 1600-1900 pieces, in fact both of us are perfectly fine with playing both (even though I stumble a lot if I don't practise enough), but it's just that I don't feel "me" when I'm bound with rules from respective music eras and she doesn't like contemporary.

Now this is the problem.

I realised that the society hardly ever give their credits to contemporary musicians.

I'm not saying that they think that contemporary styles are useless, but I feel like they only regard people who can comfortably present a classical piece as "skillful", even though a pop musician could probably play better, and heck, are more experienced with music.

People around me only look at Bin because:
1) Her music foundation is really strong and she is always seen as the girl who can flawlessly play two vertasile instruments (violin and piano, everybody's favourite)
2) People who know the both of us only compare our levels based off our practical and theory exam results.
3) Her attitude is more "lovable" (I don't see why I should think of her like this, but there's a specific even that happened that made me have a negative impression on her)
4) Well because the useless Jin Seollin, that's why.

We go to the same tuition (and used to share the same piano teacher until she thought that my teacher wasn't professional enough) and they're pretty much the only two people who understand our differences. Bin plays classical pieces, I improvise modern pop songs the way I want to play them.
Nonetheless, only my tuition teacher who has zero percent of music knowledge agrees with me that contemporary music is overshadowed by classics. My piano teacher probably thinks the same way, but she still acted like she wished I haven't ever been this obsessed with playing by ear instead of reading piano sheets and playing my Mozart and Beethoven. It takes me forever to introduce myself to people as somebody who can actually play the piano AND ACTUALLY COMPOSE MINI CLIPS, but all Bin had to do was tell everybody she got distinction for Grade 8 practical and the boys fall for her.

I'm not saying that I should have more boys chasing after me, but you get what I mean.

To say that contemporary musicians are not provided scholarship is a totally absurd lie, because there actually are schools specially made for contemporary music; but it's very difficult for people like me who don't feel comfortable playing classical than modern to actually gain acknowledgement from the public because in their eyes it's stigmatized (is that even the word I should be using I hope I'm not distorting the truth) that contemporary is not, and will never be able to be compared with the aesthetics that can only be found in classical music.
For example, I could totally learn classical music, get my certificates, it all of the techniques and skills I've learned and use them while I improvise and remake modern music, but only people who share the same interest as me would enjoy and think I'm "good", had I came from a family that totally shuns contemporary, I would have been looked as the disgrace of music. (I was exaggerating, but certain family members really think that I'm dumb because I only want to play K-pop and it had been sound pollution.)

I kind of feel stupid asking for opinions here because we're mostly made of people who only enjoy K-pop and hardly ever care less to venture into really old stuff (excluding the 20th century because UGH 20TH CENTURY MUSIC IS GOLD), but do you guys actually agree with me that the society is not exactly impressed with modern pop than they are with classics? Is that actually the reason why I'm always compared between peers and always the loser because I don't even know how to play Fur Elise (believe me, I DON'T KNOW HOW TO PLAY FUR ELISE)? I really want an unbiased opinion, and I don't want to focus on comparisons between only K-pop and classics, but the entire 21st century pop culture and the past 5 centuries: Is it a really fair comparison between these two eras?