The article is devoted to the problem of the dialogue between elite and mass cultures, in its own way manifested in music, which was topical in the XX and early XXI centuries. The theoretical foundation of the article is the culturological works of prominent modern scientists: O. Astafieva, A. Kostina, N. Kirillova, etc. It is based on the methodology of culturological research, including complex, interdisciplinary and historical-comparative approaches, as well as methods of cultural interpretation and musicological analysis. Using the example of the work of the outstanding Russian composer of the St. Petersburg school Sergey Slonimsky - a representative of the generation of the “sixties” - his views on the conflict of the “two musics”, “serious” and “light”, are investigated, as well as the ways of overcoming their contradictions (on the example of the First, Second, Thirty-fourth symphonies, the Concerto for a symphony orchestra, three electric guitars and solo instruments, “The Magic Nut” ballet, vocal compositions, piano pieces). As a result of the study, it is concluded that the composer follows two paths in solving this problem: the path of active opposition to the poppy “music” of the mass media and all the products of pseudoculture and the path of organic interaction of classical traditions and genres of mass musical culture, which raises the everyday mass stylistics to the highest artistic level.