To comply with the demands of a new post-Bologna-reality, various countries kick-started PhD-programs, new conference arenas and networks in order to “raise the standard” of conservatory research to that of the traditional university music department. Challenges quickly emerged between two well-established working cultures however, and the following chapter discusses the still unsolved and widespread “culture clash” between the “old” and the “new” conservatory. “Wordplay” deals in particular with the apparent oxymoron between words and musical sound, and how analytical perspectives are struggling with developing an apt descriptive language to performance, and, vice versa, the failure to incorporate levels of formal research in our teaching practices. Becker’s 1963 essay “The Culture of a Deviant Group”, highlights a schism still looming, reflecting a modern conservatory where the “academized” jazz performer cultivates deviance, whilst projecting “squareness” onto more theoretically inclined colleagues. Similar stereotypical attitudes are found amongst theorists, with a widespread belief that research constitutes ‘the written word’, and that performers are both unable and unwilling to describe their practices. The generalization of such thinking needs to be challenged, and this chapter takes a critical stand to conservatories inability to solve the conflicts between camps, whilst also recognizing modern-day developments capable of solving the seemingly unresolvable “culture clash”.