Pop music

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Pop music
Stylistic origins:	A variety of influences, especially rock and roll, R&B, reggae, hip hop, funk, and dance
Cultural origins:	1950s United States / 1950s Britain
Typical instruments:	Electric guitar, Bass guitar, Drum kit, Keyboard, Synthesizer, Turntable
Mainstream popularity:	Continuous worldwide from 1950s
Subgenres
Bubblegum pop - Traditional pop music
Fusion genres
Pop rap - Power pop - Dance-pop - Pop folk
Regional scenes
Asia: K-pop, Persian pop, Cantopop, Mandarin pop, Indi-pop, J-pop, String (Thai pop) - Europe: Europop, Austropop, Britpop, Nederpop - Americas: United States, Música Popular Brasileira, Latin America - Oceania: Australia
Other topics
Pop culture - Boy band - Girl group

Pop music is a genre of popular music distinguished from classical or art music and from folk music.^[1] The term indicates specific stylistic traits such as a danceable beat, simple melodies, and repetitive structure so that people can catch on and join in easily. To further expand its accessibility pop music often includes elements of rock, hip hop, reggae, dance, R&B, funk, and sometimes even folk. The pop music genre often involves mass marketing and consumer-driven efforts by major record companies, which makes it an often scorned genre by other musicians.

Contents 1 Demographics of Pop Music 2 History of Pop Music 2.1 1890s through 1920s 2.2 1930s and 1940s 2.3 1950s 2.4 1960s 2.5 1970s 2.6 1980s 2.7 1990s 2.8 2000s 3 Sound and themes 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Demographics of Pop Music

As records, CDs and DVDs became cheaper, the age of the average consumer of pop music dropped dramatically. In the early years of recordings, artists like Frank Sinatra sang about affairs, champagne and night clubs, lyrics that appealed to the investors, business, and classy market. As records became cheaper, teenagers were able to afford to influence the market especially during the promotion of the worldwide Beatles tours. In recent years children's music has become one of the biggest selling music^[2] reducing the age of the average consumer of pop music drastically.

Young people have always been interested in fashions and spend their money on new artists. Whereas older people tend to keep to their favorite artists, young people conform more to peer pressure. This conforming creates waves of commercial support for particular artists and establishes pop music as an important mediator of youth culture. Because of this pop music has historically been the source of numerous moral panics; parents viewing explicit and suggestive lyrics as gateways to immorality blaming pop music for perceived increases in objectionable behaviour within youth culture.

[edit] History of Pop Music

[edit] 1890s through 1920s

The dance music element of western pop music can be traced back to Ragtime, which was initially popular in African American communities, and mainly disseminated through sheet music and player pianos. Ragtime turned into Swing, an early form of Jazz that was enjoyed as much for its danceability as its mutability. It is important to note that the clarity of the instruments (brass in particular) and punchy nature of the rhythm helped to ensure that these music forms were the first to be recorded and pressed onto primitive record discs. Both of these dance forms originated in African communities, and spread to white communities especially through venues that would hire black performers. Even early Jazz in Paris was influenced by Black and white minstrels performing ragtime music. Like Rock’n’roll, widespread popularity in white communities to some extent did not take off until white performers could be found to perform it, and certain stylistic elements of it toned down. The crossing of race-based social boundaries around race, for ragtime, swing, and later Rock’n’Roll, was the source of many moral panics in America inspired by pop music.

[edit] 1930s and 1940s

Styles influencing the later development of pop include the Blues, also originating in African-American communities, (for example, electric guitar Blues in Chicago and Texas), and Country coming also from "hillbilly music" of poor folk, white and black (Sun Records in Tennessee), which blended to become Rockabilly. The most important ingredient in early Rock n' Roll was however the type of Jump Blues / R&B led by Louis Jordan who occasionally broke through in the pop charts. The music was later on mixed with gospel handclaps, boogie woogie and larger emphasis on backbeat by artists such as The Trenierswhich created Rock n' Roll. Leonard Bernstein in 1949 changed the face of popular music with his upbeat West Side Story. Also, the rise of the crying and emotional singers such as Mario Lanza began the pop music vocal style.

[edit] 1950s

Early Western Pop music artists include Tommy Steele, Marty Wilde, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Bobby Darin, Bobbejaan Schoepen, and Peggy Lee, but other artists like Bill Haley and his Comets, Fats Domino and Elvis Presley became popular with the younger generation. In Australia there was Johnny O'Keefe, Col Joy and Bobby Darren. Italian singers such as Mario Lanser sang tunes people could identify and sing along.

In Iran, before the emergence in the early 1950s of Vigen Derderian (known as the "King of pop"), the music industry was dominated by Persian classical singers. He combined Persian melodies and Persian lyrics with Guitar. Compared by some fans to Elvis Presley, Vigen's good looks and tall, fine physique added to his appeal as Iran's first male pop star—especially among women at a time when ideas of emancipation were taking hold in the 1950s and 60s.^[3]

Laïkó was the pop music of Greece in the 1950s and 1960s. Laïkó is similar to Turkish fantasy music. It was criticized from all quarters for its apoliticism and decadence, and its Turkish roots.^{[citation needed]} The influence of Oriental music on laïkó can be most strongly seen in 1960s indoyíftika, Indian filmi (popular music for movies) with Greek lyrics. Manolis Angelopoulos was the most popular indoyíftika performer, while pure laïkó was dominated by superstar Stelios Kazantzidis and Stratos Dionisiou.

Fairuz faces her audience for the first time during the show "Ayyam Al Hassad" (Days of Harvest) where she sang "Lebnan Ya Akhdar Helou" (Lebanon the Beautiful Green) in Baalbeck.

[edit] 1960s

Western Pop music teen idols of the 1960s included the Beatles, The Beach Boys, Cliff Richard, Sandy Shaw, The Who, Lulu, The Rolling Stones, The Small Faces, Gene Pitney, and The Shadows. Other pop musicians included Carole King, Neil Diamond, Burt Bacharach, Aretha Franklin, Isley Brothers, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan, and Simon and Garfunkel, and some of The Beatles' repertoire. Sonny & Cher are considered the hippie icons of the 1960s.

In 1960s Iran's most famous female pop singer ever, Googoosh, found reputation by taking part in various international music festivals. She won the first prize and golden record for her French numbers, "Retour de la vie" and "J'entends crier Je t'aime", at the Cannes Festival in 1971. Her recording of twelve songs in Italian and Spanish for the Sanremo Music Festival in 1973 became an overnight success. She also won first prize at the Carthage Music Festival in 1972 and was honored with the first medal of arts of Tunisia in the same year. Her Spanish song titled "Desde Hacies Tiempo" was an immediate hit in South America in 1973.

In 1962, the first Western popular melody with Turkish lyrics was released, İlham Gencer's "Bak Bir Varmış Bir Yokmuş" (Look Once Upon A Time)^[4]

[edit] 1970s

A proliferation of new sounds from the disco era included ABBA, the BeeGees and the piano-based pop of Billy Joel and Elton John, the country stylings of the Eagles, and the rock-influenced pop of Rod Stewart, Steely Dan, and Fleetwood Mac. Other important pop musicians include Queen, Cat Stevens,Chicago, The Carpenters, Jackson Five, The Miracles, Roberta Flack, Carly Simon, Cher, Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind and Fire, KC and the Sunshine Band, and Donna Summer. Australian John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John (fame of Grease the Musical) commanded big sales in their home market, with crossover into the UK and for Olivia Newton-John, also US.

Arabesque-pop starting in the 1970s, immigration from predominantly southeastern rural areas to big cities and particularly to Istanbul gave rise to a new cultural synthesis. The makeup of Istanbul was to change forever. The old tavernas and music halls of fasıl music were to shut down in place of a new type of music Stokes, Martin. "Sounds of Anatolia" in the Rough Guide to World Music, Volume 1, . These new urban residents brought their own taste of music, which due to their locality was largely middle eastern. Musicologists derogatively termed this genre as arabesque due to the high pitched wailing that is synonymous with Arabic singing. Its mainstream popularity rose so much in the 1980s that it even threatened the existence of Turkish pop, with rising stars such as Muslum Gurses.

This genre has underbeat forms that include Ottoman forms of belly-dancing music with performers like Orhan Gencebay who added Anglo-American rock and roll to arabesque music.

In Turkey, (light western)pop became very popular in the 1970s with stars such as Semiha Yanki, Kamuran Akkor, Ayla Dikmen, Erol Büyükburç, Fikret Şeneş, Gönül Akkor, Hümeyra, İlhan İrem, Nermin Candan, Asu Maralman, Yurdaer Doğulu, Zümrüt, Sezen Aksu, Nazan Öncel and Ajda Pekkan reaching superstar status domestically.

[edit] 1980s

Notable highlights for pop music in the 1980s are Michael Jackson's second Epic label release, Thriller, which went on to become the best-selling album of all time. Jackson was the most successful artist of the 80s, spanning nine #1 singles in the United States alone during that decade, and selling over 133 million copies with only two albums — Thriller, and its follow-up Bad. Since the early nineties, Jackson has been often referred to and regarded as "The King of Pop." Madonna, who is considered "The Queen of Pop", was the dominant female artist of the era producing numerous hit albums. Other top-selling artists included Cher, Prince, Gloria Estefan, Paula Abdul, Tina Turner, Tiffany, Kylie Minogue, Janet Jackson, Olivia Newton-John, Duran Duran, The Go-Go's, Huey Lewis & The News, The Police, Tears for Fears, Cyndi Lauper, Debbie Gibson, Whitney Houston, Juice Newton, Phil Collins, Lionel Richie,Laura Branigan, Talking Heads, Eurythmics, The Bangles, Hall & Oates, George Michael (and Wham), Rick Springfield and Culture Club. The late 1980s saw the rise of the Swedish pop duo Roxette. Pop music in the 80's was heavily influenced by an electronic synthesized sound, and dance type music.

[edit] 1990s

Among the most successful pop acts of the 1990s were R&B-influenced pop acts such as Mariah Carey (the most successful artist of the 1990s in the USA) , Destiny's Child (most successful female band to date), Boyz II Men, En Vogue, Salt N Pepa, Brandy, and TLC. Non-R&B artists such as Cher, Michael Jackson (although many of his songs contain R&B elements), Madonna, Selena, Celine Dion, Michael Bolton, Sheryl Crow, Eric Clapton, Jewel, were also phenomenonally successful during that decade. Eric Clapton was aged, but massive hits like Change The World and Tears In Heaven, made him even more famous.

The 1990s and 21st century were marked by a resurgence of boy band and girl group trends. The U.S. had New Edition, New Kids on the Block (in the late 1980s and early 1990s), followed by the Backstreet Boys, Hanson, *NSYNC, 98 Degrees and the huge pop girl band phenomenon the Spice Girls. Towards the turn of the millennium, the "pop princesses" appeared such as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore, Robyn, and Willa Ford. From the UK came the likes of Take That, Steps, and S Club 7, while Australia had Kylie Minogue and Savage Garden. Irish boy bands during this period included Boyzone and Westlife. 1999 saw the rise of the Latin pop explosion with Ricky Martin at the forefront, followed by Jennifer Lopez, Thalía, Shakira, Enrique Iglesias, Paulina Rubio, and Marc Anthony. Also, there were many pop bands from continental Europe that found their way to topping worldwide charts, such as Aqua (Denmark), a-ha (Norway), Los del Río (Spain), and A*Teens (Sweden).

The 1990s also saw the beginnings of a surgence in pop into the Asian market, known as J-pop, as originated from Japan. Mr Children and Ayumi Hamasaki each selling over 50 million in their respective Asian markets.

[edit] 2000s

In the 2000s, pop music, paved the way for the multi-platinum successes of artists like Kelly Clarkson, Backstreet Boys, Black Eyed Peas, N Sync, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, RBD, Usher, Beyoncé Knowles, Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado and The Pussycat Dolls. Robbie Williams recorded the biggest sales for a male artist, mostly in the European market. In 2002 Russia enjoyed it's first worldwide pop hit from a girl duo, t.A.T.u..

The divas of the 90s artists, such as Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Mariah Carey presented albums that prolonged their rule of the music charts. The Swedish superstar Carola Häggkvist continued her rule of European charts. Other trends included Teen pop singers such as Disney Channel star Hilary Duff, and Lindsay Lohan and "pop punk" acts such as Good Charlotte, Simple Plan, and Avril Lavigne. There is also a trend in which American Idol artists such as Kelly Clarkson and Clay Aiken top the charts as well, sometimes at number 1. Besides Hilary Duff, who is probably the most popular, many other Disney Channel actors have become singers. These artists include Aly and AJ, Ashley Tisdale, Vanessa Hudgens, Corbin Bleu, Raven-Symoné, and Miley Cyrus. Other Disney artists include Jesse McCartney, Cameron Jesse King, B5, and Jordan Pruitt.

In the early 2000s, "pure" pop began to morph into a more blended style of music. 90s pop stars such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera experienced somewhat diminished sales, and proceeded to change their image and sound to a more "R&B" style, largely due to the dominance of urban or hip-hop radio in the United States. As R&B and pop music blended, more and more "Pop / R&B" artists emerged, such as Rihanna, Nelly Furtado,Christina Milian, Tajddin, Justin Timberlake and The Pussycat Dolls.

In response to the onslaught of bubblegum pop, indie-pop bands such as The Nodd emerged as the emo scene kept hardcore in mainstream pop.

Also in the 2000s came new young pop artists who had been born in the late 80's and early 90's, many of them rose to fame competing on a reality-talent show (America's Most Talented Kid, Star Search, American Juniors, America's Got Talent, American Idol, etc.). These artists include JoJo, Cheyenne Kimball, Bianca Ryan, Jordan McCoy, Tiffany Evans, Katelyn Tarver, Tori Kell, Kasey Butler and more.

[edit] Sound and themes

Pop music generally uses a simple, memorable melody and may use stripped-down rhythms. The songs are often about love or dancing. It is considered to be the most popular genre of music today.

Music videos and live performances are often used for exposure in the media, and artists may have extravagant stage shows and use choreographed dancing.

[edit] See also

• Arabesque-pop music
• Bubblegum pop
• Indie pop
• Electropop
• K-pop
• C-pop
• J-pop
• Jazz-pop
• HK-pop
• Indi-pop
• Latin Pop
• Mexican pop
• Noise pop
• Operatic pop

• Pop punk
• Pop rock
• Russian pop
• Sophisti-pop
• Synthpop
• Turbo-folk

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• More than words: musings on music journalism: Losing My Religion an article on pop and moral panics
• Pop music and Youth Culture
• Pop History Now includes the 1950s–2000s Week-By-Week includes all pop music listings
• Pop and Rock An analysis of musical form and technique in pop and rock music
• "It stands for popular, you know..." an article on pop music