ELP isn't pop
Yes it is.
(lordly British accent)
Ahem...could somebody please ask the butler to open a window in here. The pretentiousness in here is becoming a touch trifling...
(...and back to my normal craptastic gravelly NJ tone...)
Let's not overlook how many classical musicians seem to remain small, annoying, and petulant little children for their entire lives. While I won't go to bat for ELP's classical arrangements, I at least respect the facts that they weren't sitting around on a piano web forum talking trash and making sweeping generalizations back in 1970 when they put their earliest album out. It's pretty obvious that neither of you f**king geniuses are working half as hard at whatever it is you do and probably couldn't come across 1/100th as entertaining for better or worse, so get over yourselves. 
Ha yes, some how i was expecting this reply. As usual from industrial, all ad hominem and no substance.
Before this becomes another whiny classical-is-better shitstorm, why not ask yourselves why the hell you feel the need to berate other genres so often. Does that make you a big smarty-pants classical musician who should be trusted to set music back on the righteous path? Is that the unspeakable brilliance that rock and jazz musicians are missing out on?
Yes yes, it's all about feeling superior to others, nothing to do with believing in a certain standard and expect others to do the same. No sir.

"Do your own thing" they say, "If it
feels right then it IS right" they say, but when society begins to crumble and all standards drop like a stack of cards, ho no, can't complain, that would be ELITIST. Ho, the horror.
In the mean time, everything turns to sh*t. Our arts become a joke, our educational systems dumped down beyond recognition, our scientific achievements degrade more and more, and our social manners and sanity disappear. But hey, at least everybody is doing what they want. What a brilliant f*cking way to run a civilization.