The purpose of this article is to analyse three case study examples of musical folkbildning in Sweden. The first case study is from the establishment of the state-funded Framnas Folk High Music School in the middle of the last century The second case study, Hagstrom's music education, is from the same time but describes a music school run by a private company The third case study concerns a contemporary expression of folkbildning, namely hip-hop. The theoretical framework that inspired this article stems from the work of Pierre Bourdieu. The double feature of folkbildning appears in terms of elitist and democratic tendencies, high and low taste agendas, control and freedom.