I'm not so sure I agree with the idea that most artists come from a poor background but that's neither here nor there. I think the answer to your question has to do with the fact that conservative people tend to favor the status quo and frown on things that are edgy or envelope-pushing. And since envelope-pushing and experimentation are such a big part of art, conservatives generally, by their very nature, self-select out.

I don't have statistics to back it up but I think they do. But Im being specific too music and not any other art form. I think musical artists tend to come from a poorer background, and a lot of the time, its about image aswell. Can you imagine a rock band formed in a high class private school? They'd be ridiculed if they were too release music.

Its also the fact that the poorer you are, the more likely you would start a band or go into music because there for more less options out for you. This indirectly increases the pool of artists.

Well, isn't all rock music rooted in the idea of rebellion? Fifties rockers were rebelling against their parents' music, (among lots of other things), seen as dull boring and pedestrian with little or no fire, and each new generation just kind of picks up the torch as it goes along, like an almost century-long relay race. You usually rebel against the status quo, the natural order, so it stands to reason that since right-wing/conservatives normally want to preserve the sq that rock bands would rebel against them.

Totally simplistic I know, but it's late and I'm an old man; I need my sleep!

Blur - Goldsmiths College
Radiohead - Abingdon School
Vampire Weekend - Columbia University
Hell, even members of Minor Threat and many of the early DC hardcore scenesters went to high school at a semi-elite private school called Georgetown Day School.

I'm sure the list of musicians educated in "high class" institutions goes on and on..

But on the other hand conservatism is about small government & private enterprise which feeds into the whole punk DIY ethic.

Pink Floyd especially.

Indeed. Add members of the Clash and Television to the list as well.

Well, Clash and Blur were ridiculed.

I don't really like either of those bands either. But they didn't exactly get booed off the stage for being educated (well maybe Blur did, I didn't closely follow that whole britpop thing).

Anyway, I forgot one of the more relevant ones (and one of my personal favorites), Steve Albini, who formed Big Black while attending Northwestern University. Granted it was just him and a drum machine at the time.

He's a good example of a musician with a high class education and, while he didn't align with the in-your-face right wingers in punk rock at the time, he was decidedly not a lefty.

But if your point is that there are more lefty musicians because there are more poor, uneducated people in the world who had few options in life besides becoming professional musicians... I don't think that's sound logic.

Only Strummer went to an exclusive school. The rest of the Clash went to art school, and in the 60s & 70s any idiot from any background could go to art school in the UK, there was nothing exclusive about it.

Strummer would be the member I was referring to. But as far as I'm aware it's not like the rest of the band grew up in poverty.