:Pop music
{{Short description|Genre of music}}
{{About|a specific music genre|popular music in general|Popular music|other uses|Pop music (disambiguation)}}
{{Redirect|Pop song|other uses|Pop Song (disambiguation){{!}}Pop Song}}
{{Infobox music genre
| name = Pop music
| stylistic_origins = * Traditional pop[http://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/traditional-pop-ma0000002961/artists Traditional Pop, AllMusic] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019011103/https://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/traditional-pop-ma0000002961/artists |date=2017-10-19 }}. Retrieved 25 August 2016
| cultural_origins = Mid-1950s, United States and United Kingdom
| image =
| caption =
| derivatives = * New wave{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/style/new-wave-ma0000002750 |title=Pop/Rock » Punk/New Wave » New Wave |website=allmusic.com |access-date=9 December 2021 |archive-date=8 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308043137/https://www.allmusic.com/style/new-wave-ma0000002750 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/new-wave/the-best-new-wave-albums/ |title=The 50 Best New Wave Albums |work=Paste |date=13 October 2020 |access-date=9 December 2021 |archive-date=1 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171001214341/https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/09/the-best-new-wave-albums.html |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=https://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/9780472115556-qa.pdf |title=Q&A with Theo Cateforis, author of Are We Not New Wave? Modern Pop at the Turn of the 1980s |publisher=University of Michigan |access-date=9 December 2021 |archive-date=25 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211125054854/https://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/9780472115556-qa.pdf |url-status=live }}
- hyperpop{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/hyperpop-genre-2020-charli-xcx-rina-sawayama-b1775025.html|title=Hyperpop or overhyped? The rise of 2020's most maximalist sound|work=Independent|date=27 December 2020|access-date=21 July 2023}}
| subgenrelist = Styles of pop music
| subgenres =
- Alternative pop
- art pop
- bedroom pop
- Brill Building
- bubblegum
- dance-pop
- operatic pop
- orchestral pop
- schlager
- sophisti-pop
- sunshine pop
- synth-pop
- teen pop
- wonky pop
| fusiongenres =
- Ambient pop
- baroque pop
- country pop
- contemporary R&B
- cowboy pop
- dancehall pop
- electropop
- emo pop
- folk-pop
- hypnagogic pop
- indie pop
- popiano
- pop-punk
- pop rap
- pop-soul
- pop rock
- pop metal
- power pop
- psychedelic pop
- space age pop
- street pop
- worldbeat
| regional_scenes = * Austria
- Brazil
- China
- Colombia
- France
- Hong Kong
- India
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Italy
- Japan
- Kazakhstan
- Malaysia
- Mexico
- Middle East
- Morocco
- Netherland
- Pakistan
- Philippines
- Russia
- Scandinavia
- South America
- South Korea
- Sri Lanka
- Sweden
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Turkey
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Vietnam
- Western Europe
| local_scenes =
| other_topics = *African pop
- Afro fusion
- Avant-pop
- experimental pop
- Hyperpop
- New Pop
- K-Pop
- pop music automation
- poptimism
- rock music
}}
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), {{ISBN|0-521-55660-0}}, pp. 95–105. During the 1950s and 1960s, pop music encompassed rock and roll and the youth-oriented styles it influenced. Rock and pop music remained roughly synonymous until the late 1960s, after which pop became associated with music that was more commercial, ephemeral, and accessible.
Identifying factors of pop music usually include repeated choruses and hooks, short to medium-length songs written in a basic format (often the verse–chorus structure), and rhythms or tempos that can be easily danced to. Much of pop music also borrows elements from other styles such as rock, hip hop, urban, dance, Latin, and country.
The terms popular music and pop music are often used interchangeably, although the former more accurately describes all music that is targeted for mass appeal (compare art music) and includes many disparate styles. Although much of the music that appears on record charts is considered to be pop music, the genre is distinguished from chart music.
Definitions and etymology{{anchor|Etymology}}
David Hatch and Stephen Millward describe pop music as "a body of music which is distinguishable from popular, jazz, and folk music".D. Hatch and S. Millward, From Blues to Rock: an Analytical History of Pop Music (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987), {{ISBN|0-7190-1489-1}}, p. 1.
David Boyle, a music researcher, states pop music as any type of music that a person has been exposed to by the mass media.{{Cite journal|last1=Boyle|first1=J. David|last2=Hosterman|first2=Glenn L.|last3=Ramsey|first3=Darhyl S.|date=1981-04-01|title=Factors Influencing Pop Music Preferences of Young People|url=https://doi.org/10.2307/3344679|journal=Journal of Research in Music Education|language=en|volume=29|issue=1|pages=47–55|doi=10.2307/3344679|jstor=3344679|s2cid=145122624|issn=0022-4294|url-access=subscription}} Most individuals think that pop music is just the singles charts and not the sum of all chart music. The music charts contain songs from a variety of sources, including classical, jazz, rock, and novelty songs. As a genre, pop music is seen to exist and develop separately.R. Serge Denisoff and William L. Schurk, Tarnished Gold: the Record Industry Revisited (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 3rd edn., 1986), {{ISBN|0-88738-618-0}}, pp. 2–3. Therefore, the term "pop music" may be used to describe a distinct genre, designed to appeal to all, often characterized as "instant singles-based music aimed at teenagers" in contrast to rock music as "album-based music for adults".{{refn|Musicologist Allan Moore surmises that the term "pop music" itself may have been popularized by pop art.{{cite book|last=Moore|first=Allan F.|title=Song Means: Analysing and Interpreting Recorded Popular Song|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S6DeCwAAQBAJ|year=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-05265-4}}}}
Pop music evolves along with the term's definition. According to music writer Bill Lamb, popular music is defined as "the music since industrialization in the 1800s that is most in line with the tastes and interests of the urban middle class."{{Cite web|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-pop-music-3246980|title=What Is Pop Music?|last=Lamb|first=Bill|website=ThoughtCo.|date=29 September 2018|access-date=4 November 2018|archive-date=17 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190417032933/https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-pop-music-3246980|url-status=live}} The term "pop song" was first used in 1926, in the sense of a piece of music "having popular appeal".J. Simpson and E. Weiner, Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989). {{ISBN|0-19-861186-2}}, cf. pop. Hatch and Millward indicate that many events in the history of recording in the 1920s can be seen as the birth of the modern pop music industry, including in country, blues, and hillbilly music.D. Hatch and S. Millward, From Blues to Rock: an Analytical History of Pop Music, {{ISBN|0-7190-1489-1}}, p. 49.
File: Rolling stones - 11 luglio 2006 - san siro.jpg (pictured here in a 2006 performance).]]
According to the website of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the term "pop music" "originated in Britain in the mid-1950s as a description for rock and roll and the new youth music styles that it influenced".R. Middleton, et al., [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/public/book/omo_gmo "Pop"], Grove music online, retrieved 14 March 2010. {{Subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110113160329/http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/public/book/omo_gmo |date=13 January 2011 }} The Oxford Dictionary of Music states that while pop's "earlier meaning meant concerts appealing to a wide audience [...] since the late 1950s, however, pop has had the special meaning of non-classical mus[ic], usually in the form of songs, performed by such artists as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, ABBA, etc.""Pop", [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/public/book/omo_t237 The Oxford Dictionary of Music], retrieved 9 March 2010.{{Subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171112170116/http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/public/book/omo_t237 |date=12 November 2017 }} Grove Music Online also states that "[...] in the early 1960s, [the term] 'pop music' competed terminologically with beat music [in England], while in the US its coverage overlapped (as it still does) with that of 'rock and roll'".
From about 1967, the term "pop music" was increasingly used in opposition to the term rock music, a division that gave generic significance to both terms.Kenneth Gloag in The Oxford Companion to Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), {{ISBN|0-19-866212-2}}, p. 983. While rock aspired to authenticity and an expansion of the possibilities of popular music, pop was more commercial, ephemeral, and accessible.T. Warner, Pop Music: Technology and Creativity: Trevor Horn and the Digital Revolution (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003), {{ISBN|0-7546-3132-X}}, pp. 3–4. According to British musicologist Simon Frith, pop music is produced "as a matter of enterprise not art", and is "designed to appeal to everyone" but "doesn't come from any particular place or mark off any particular taste". Frith adds that it is "not driven by any significant ambition except profit and commercial reward [...] and, in musical terms, it is essentially conservative". It is, "provided from on high (by record companies, radio programmers, and concert promoters) rather than being made from below (...) Pop is not a do-it-yourself music but is professionally produced and packaged". {{clear}}
Characteristics
{{listen
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| filename = Righteous Brothers - You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'.ogg
| title = The Righteous Brothers – "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" (1965)
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| description ={{As of|2011}}, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" ranks as the most frequently played song in US radio history.{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-15186967 |title=Van's Brown Eyed Girl hits the 10 million mark in US |date=5 October 2011 |work=BBC |access-date=21 July 2018 |archive-date=27 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181027003530/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-15186967 |url-status=live }} It is described by music writers Nick Logan and Bob Woffinden as "the ultimate pop record".{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QWBPAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA101 |title=Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, Volume 2|first=Steve|last=Sullivan|pages=101–103 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=2013 |isbn= 978-0-8108-8296-6 }}
}}
{{listen|filename=|title="All About That Bass" (2014)
|description=An 18-second sample of "All About That Bass", featuring Meghan Trainor
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|align = right
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According to Frith, characteristics of pop music include an aim of appealing to a general audience, rather than to a particular sub-culture or ideology, and an emphasis on craftsmanship rather than formal "artistic" qualities. Besides, Frith also offers three identifying characteristics of pop music: light entertainment, commercial imperatives, and personal identification. Pop music grew out of a light entertainment and easy listening tradition.{{Cite book|last=Rojek|first=Chris|title=Pop music, pop culture|publisher=Polity; 1st edition (June 13, 2011)|year=2011|isbn=978-0745642642|pages=2–3}} Pop music is more conservative than other music genres such as folk, blues, country, and tradition. Many pop songs do not contain themes of resistance, opposition, or politics, rather focusing more on love and relationships. Therefore, pop music does not challenge its audiences socially, and does not cause political activism. Frith also said the main purpose of pop music is to create revenue. It is not a medium of free articulation of the people. Instead, pop music seeks to achieve the instant empathy with cliche personalities, stereotypes, and melodrama that appeals to listeners.{{Cite book|last=Rojek|first=Chris|title=Pop music, pop culture|publisher=Polity; 1st edition (June 13, 2011)|year=2011|pages=2–3}} Music scholar Timothy Warner said pop music typically has an emphasis on recording, production, and technology, rather than live performance; a tendency to reflect existing trends rather than progressive developments; and seeks to encourage dancing or uses dance-oriented rhythms.
File:Amr_Diab_at_World_Music_Awards_2007.jpg, Egyptian pop star, named "El-Hadaba", for achieving high records sales in the Middle East and Africa for the last three decades{{Cite web |last=Maisey |first=Sarah |date=2023-06-27 |title=Amr Diab to perform in Beirut for the first time in 12 years |url=https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/music-stage/2023/06/27/amr-diab-to-perform-in-beirut-for-the-first-time-in-12-years/ |access-date=2023-11-26 |website=The National |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2021-12-27 |title=Egypt's megastar Amr Diab releases 'Katar Men Orbak' song |url=https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/4/111300/Egypt%E2%80%99s-megastar-Amr-Diab-releases-%E2%80%98Katar-Men-Orbak%E2%80%99-song |access-date=2023-11-26 |website=EgyptToday}}]]
The main medium of pop music is the song, often between two and a half and three and a half minutes in length, generally marked by a consistent and noticeable rhythmic element, a mainstream style and a simple traditional structure.W. Everett, Expression in Pop-rock Music: A Collection of Critical and Analytical Essays (London: Taylor & Francis, 2000), p. 272. The structure of many popular songs is that of a verse and a chorus, the chorus serving as the portion of the track that is designed to stick in the ear through simple repetition both musically and lyrically. The chorus is often where the music builds towards and is often preceded by "the drop" where the bass and drum parts "drop out".{{Cite web|url=https://www.cmuse.org/characteristics-of-pop-music|title=Characteristics of Pop Music: An Introduction|access-date=2020-07-07|website=Cmuse.org|date=9 December 2019|archive-date=2020-07-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200708195748/https://www.cmuse.org/characteristics-of-pop-music|url-status=live}} Common variants include the verse-chorus form and the thirty-two-bar form, with a focus on melodies and catchy hooks, and a chorus that contrasts melodically, rhythmically and harmonically with the verse.J. Shepherd, Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World: Performance and production (Continuum, 2003), p. 508. The beat and the melodies tend to be simple, with limited harmonic accompaniment.V. Kramarz, The Pop Formulas: Harmonic Tools of the Hit Makers (Mel Bay Publications, 2007), p. 61. The lyrics of modern pop songs typically focus on simple themes – often love and romantic relationships – although there are notable exceptions.
Harmony and chord progressions in pop music are often "that of classical European tonality, only more simple-minded."Winkler, Peter (1978). "Toward a theory of pop harmony", In Theory Only, 4, pp. 3–26. Clichés include the barbershop quartet-style harmony (i.e. ii – V – I) and blues scale-influenced harmony.Sargeant, p. 198. cited in Winkler (1978), p. 4. There was a lessening of the influence of traditional views of the circle of fifths between the mid-1950s and the late 1970s, including less predominance for the dominant function.Winkler (1978), p. 22.
In October 2023, Billboard compiled a list of "the 500 best pop songs". In doing so, they noted the difficulty of defining "pop songs":
{{blockquote|One of the reasons pop can be hard to summarize is because there’s no real sonic or musical definition to it. There are common elements to a lot of the biggest pop songs, but at the end of the day, "pop" means "popular" first and foremost, and just about any song that becomes popular enough...can be considered a pop song.{{cite magazine |title=The 500 Best Pop Songs: Staff List |url=https://www.billboard.com/lists/best-pop-songs-all-time-hits/ |magazine=Billboard |date=October 19, 2023|first1=Rania|last1=Aniftos|first2=Katie|last2=Atkinson|first3=Katie|last3=Bain|first4=Eric|last4=Renner Brown|first5=Anna|last5=Chan|first6=Ed|last6=Christman|first7=Hannah|last7=Dailey|first8=Stephen|last8=Daw|first9=Kyle|last9=Denis|first10=Frank|last10=DiGiacomo|first11=Thom|last11=Duffy|first12=Chris|last12=Eggertsen|first13=Ingrid|last13=Fajardo|first14=Griselda|last14=Flores|first15=Josh|last15=Glicksman|first16=Quincy|last16=Green|first17=Paul|last17=Grein|first18=Lyndsey|last18=Havens|first19=Rylee|last19=Johnston|first20=Becky|last20=Kaminsky|first21=Gil|last21=Kaufman|first22=Carl|last22=Lamarre|first23=Elias|last23=Leight|first24=Jason|last24=Lipshutz|first25=Joe|last25=Lynch|first26=Meghan|last26=Mahar|first27=Elizabeth|last27=Dilts Marshall|first28=Rebecca|last28=Milzoff|first29=Taylor|last29=Mims|first30=Gail|last30=Mitchell|first31=Melinda|last31=Newman|first32=Jessica|last32=Nicholson|first33=Danielle|last33=Pascual|first34=Glenn|last34=Peoples|first35=Isabela|last35=Raygoza|first36=Kristin|last36=Robinson|first37=Dan|last37=Rys|first38=Marc|last38=Schneider|first39=Andrew|last39=Unterberger|first40=Christine|last40=Werthman|display-authors=5}}}}
Development and influence
=Technology and media=
File:Bing Crosby 1930s.jpg was one of the first artists to be nicknamed "King of Pop" or "King of Popular Music".Gilliland, John (1994). Pop Chronicles the 40s: The Lively Story of Pop Music in the 40s.{{verify source|date=September 2020}}]]
In the 1940s, improved microphone design allowed a more intimate singing style and, ten or twenty years later, inexpensive and more durable 45 rpm records for singles "revolutionized the manner in which pop has been disseminated", which helped to move pop music to "a record/radio/film star system".D. Buckley, "Pop" "II. Implications of technology", Grove Music Online, retrieved 15 March 2010. Another technological change was the widespread availability of television in the 1950s with televised performances, which meant that "pop stars had to have a visual presence". In the 1960s, the introduction of inexpensive, portable transistor radios meant that teenagers in the developed world could listen to music outside of the home. By the early 1980s, the promotion of pop music had been greatly affected by the rise of music television channels like MTV, which "favoured those artists such as Michael Jackson and Madonna who had a strong visual appeal".
Multi-track recording (from the 1960s) and digital sampling (from the 1980s) have also been used as methods for the creation and elaboration of pop music. During the mid-1960s, pop music made repeated forays into new sounds, styles, and techniques that inspired public discourse among its listeners. The word "progressive" was frequently used, and it was thought that every song and single was to be a "progression" from the last.{{cite book|last1=Hewitt|first1=Paolo|last2=Hellier|first2=John|title=Steve Marriott: All Too Beautiful|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CxhzCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT162|year=2015|publisher=Dean Street Press|isbn=978-1-910570-69-2|page=162}} Music critic Simon Reynolds writes that beginning with 1967, a divide would exist between "progressive" pop and "mass/chart" pop, a separation which was "also, broadly, one between boys and girls, middle-class and working-class."{{Cite book|last=Reynolds|first=Simon|author-link=Simon Reynolds|title=On Record: Rock, Pop and the Written Word|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lauJAgAAQBAJ|year=2006|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-93951-0|chapter=New Pop and its Aftermath|page=398}}
The latter half of the 20th century included a large-scale trend in American culture in which the boundaries between art and pop music were increasingly blurred.{{cite book|pages=317, 1233|editor-last=Edmondson|editor-first=Jacqueline|title=Music in American Life: An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars, and Stories that Shaped our Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TQPXAQAAQBAJ|year=2013|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-39348-8|access-date=2016-10-25|archive-date=2023-04-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412035453/https://books.google.com/books?id=TQPXAQAAQBAJ|url-status=live}} Between 1950 and 1970, there was a debate of pop versus art. Since then, certain music publications have embraced the music's legitimacy, a trend referred to as "poptimism".{{cite web|last1=Loss|first1=Robert|title=No Apologies: A Critique of the Rockist v. Poptimist Paradigm|url=https://www.popmatters.com/rockism-vs-poptimism-2495499446.html|website=PopMatters|date=August 10, 2015|access-date=April 16, 2022|archive-date=April 16, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220416202757/https://www.popmatters.com/rockism-vs-poptimism-2495499446.html|url-status=live}}
=Stylistic evolution=
File:The Beatles arrive at JFK Airport.jpg marked a period when the US charts were inundated with British acts such as the Beatles (pictured 1964).]]
Throughout its development, pop music has absorbed influences from other genres of popular music. Early pop music drew on traditional pop, an American counterpart to German Schlager and French Chanson, however compared to the pop of European countries, traditional pop originally emphasized influences ranging from Tin Pan Alley songwriting, Broadway theatre, and show tunes. As the genre evolved more influences ranging from classical, folk, rock, country, electronic music, and other popular genres became more prominent. In 2016, a Scientific Reports study that examined over 464,000 recordings of popular music recorded between 1955 and 2010 found that, compared to 1960s pop music, contemporary pop music uses a smaller variety of pitch progressions, greater average volume,{{cite journal|doi=10.1038/srep00521|pmid=22837813|pmc=3405292|title=Measuring the Evolution of Contemporary Western Popular Music|journal=Scientific Reports|volume=2|pages=521|year=2012|last1=Serrà|first1=Joan|last2=Corral|first2=Álvaro|last3=Boguñá|first3=Marián|last4=Haro|first4=Martín|last5=Arcos|first5=Josep Ll.|arxiv=1205.5651|bibcode=2012NatSR...2..521S| issn=2045-2322}} less diverse instrumentation and recording techniques, and less timbral variety. Scientific American{{'}}s John Matson reported that this "seems to support the popular anecdotal observation that pop music of yore was "better", or at least more varied, than today's top-40 stuff". However, he also noted that the study may not have been entirely representative of pop in each generation.[http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/is-pop-music-evolving-or-is-it-just-getting-louder/ John Matson, "Is Pop Music Evolving, or Is It Just Getting Louder?", Scientific American, 26 July 2012] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160323003615/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/is-pop-music-evolving-or-is-it-just-getting-louder/ |date=23 March 2016 }}. Retrieved 30 March 2016
File:Elton_John_receiving_his_star_on_the_Hollywood_Walk_of_Fame.jpg became one of the biggest pop stars of the 1970s.]]
In the 1960s, the majority of mainstream pop music fell in two categories: guitar, drum and bass groups or singers backed by a traditional orchestra.{{cite web|title=Making Arrangements—A Rough Guide To Song Construction & Arrangement, Part 1 |url=http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1997_articles/oct97/arranging1.html |work=Sound on Sound |access-date=8 May 2014 |date=October 1997 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140508082609/http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1997_articles/oct97/arranging1.html |archive-date=8 May 2014 }} Since early in the decade, it was common for pop producers, songwriters, and engineers to freely experiment with musical form, orchestration, unnatural reverb, and other sound effects. Some of the best known examples are Phil Spector's Wall of Sound and Joe Meek's use of homemade electronic sound effects for acts like the Tornados.{{cite book|last=Blake|first=Andrew|editor-last1=Cook|editor-first1=Nicholas|editor-last2=Clarke|editor-first2=Eric|editor-last3=Leech-Wilkinson|editor-first3=Daniel|title=The Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music|chapter=Recording practices and the role of the producer|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xb0hAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA45|date=2009|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-82796-6|page=45}} At the same time, pop music on radio and in both American and British film moved away from refined Tin Pan Alley to more eccentric songwriting and incorporated reverb-drenched electric guitar, symphonic strings, and horns played by groups of properly arranged and rehearsed studio musicians.{{cite news|last=Pareles|first=Jon|author-link=Jon Pareles|date=October 31, 2008|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/01/arts/music/01pupp.html?_r=0|title=Orchestral Pop, the Way It Was (More or Less)|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=July 4, 2013|archive-date=July 4, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220704004421/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/01/arts/music/01pupp.html?_r=0|url-status=live}} A 2019 study held by New York University in which 643 participants had to rank how familiar a pop song is to them, songs from the 1960s turned out to be the most memorable, significantly more than songs from recent years 2000 to 2015.{{Cite web|url=https://www.smoothradio.com/news/music/best-decade-pop-music/|title=The greatest decade for pop music has been revealed (according to science)|website=Smooth|language=en|access-date=2019-03-31|archive-date=2019-03-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331181339/https://www.smoothradio.com/news/music/best-decade-pop-music/|url-status=live}}
Before the progressive pop of the late 1960s, performers were typically unable to decide on the artistic content of their music.{{cite book|last=Willis|first=Paul E.|author-link=Paul Willis|title=Profane Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y7oWBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA219|year=2014|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-6514-7|page=217}} Assisted by the mid-1960s economic boom, record labels began investing in artists, giving them the freedom to experiment, and offering them limited control over their content and marketing.{{sfn|Moore|2016|p=202}} This situation declined after the late 1970s and would not reemerge until the rise of Internet stars.{{sfn|Moore|2016|p=202}} Indie pop, which developed in the late 1970s, marked another departure from the glamour of contemporary pop music, with guitar bands formed on the then-novel premise that one could record and release their own music without having to procure a record contract from a major label.{{Citation|title=Twee as Fuck: The Story of Indie Pop |first=Nitsuh |last=Abebe |work=Pitchfork Media |date=24 October 2005 |url=http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/6176-twee-as-fuck/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110224073504/http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/6176-twee-as-fuck |archive-date=24 February 2011 }}
The 1980s are commonly remembered for an increase in the use of digital recording, associated with the usage of synthesizers, with synth-pop music and other electronic genres featuring non-traditional instruments increasing in popularity.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/29/arts/rap-music-brash-and-swaggering-enters-mainstream.html | work=The New York Times | first=Glenn | last=Collins | title=Rap Music, Brash And Swaggering, Enters Mainstream | date=1988-08-29 | access-date=2019-07-10 | archive-date=2019-05-01 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190501235441/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/29/arts/rap-music-brash-and-swaggering-enters-mainstream.html | url-status=live }} By 2014, pop music worldwide had been permeated by electronic dance music. In 2018, researchers at the University of California, Irvine, concluded that pop music has become 'sadder' since the 1980s. The elements of happiness and brightness have eventually been replaced with electronic beats making pop music more 'sad yet danceable'.{{Cite news|url=http://www.thefader.com/2018/05/16/sadness-in-pop-music-study|title=New study finds pop music has gotten extremely depressing but also more fun to dance to|work=The Fader|access-date=2018-05-21|language=en|archive-date=2018-05-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180521151022/http://www.thefader.com/2018/05/16/sadness-in-pop-music-study|url-status=live}}
=International spread and crosspollination=
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| footer = Michael Jackson (left) and Madonna (right) have been dubbed respectively as the "King and Queen of Pop" since the 1980s.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2008/oct/28/madonna-pop-art|first=Alan|last=McGee|author-link=Alan McGee|work=The Guardian|date=August 20, 2008|access-date=April 17, 2013|title=Madonna Pop Art|archive-date=June 26, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626225837/http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2008/oct/28/madonna-pop-art|url-status=live}}
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Pop music has been dominated by the American and (from the mid-1960s) British music industries, whose influence has made pop music something of an international monoculture, but most regions and countries have their own form of pop music, sometimes producing local versions of wider trends, and lending them local characteristics.J. Kun, Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005), {{ISBN|0-520-24424-9}}, p. 201. Some of these trends (for example Europop) have had a significant impact on the development of the genre."Star profiles" in S. Frith, W. Stray and J. Street, The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock (Cambridge University Press, 2001), {{ISBN|0-521-55660-0}}, pp. 199–200.
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|source = — Bob Stanley{{cite web|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=2014|url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bn/bn2014-07.php|title=Anti-Rockism's Hall of Fame|work=The Barnes & Noble Review|access-date=August 18, 2015|archive-date=December 20, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191220090210/http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bn/bn2014-07.php|url-status=live}}
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According to Grove Music Online, "Western-derived pop styles, whether coexisting with or marginalizing distinctively local genres, have spread throughout the world and have come to constitute stylistic common denominators in global commercial music cultures".P. Manuel, "Pop. Non-Western cultures 1. Global dissemination", Grove Music Online, retrieved 14 March 2010. Some non-Western countries, such as Japan, have developed a thriving pop music industry, most of which is devoted to Western-style pop. Japan has for several years produced a greater quantity of music than everywhere except the US.{{Clarify|reason=vague|date=April 2017}} The spread of Western-style pop music has been interpreted variously as representing processes of Americanization, homogenization, modernization, creative appropriation, cultural imperialism, or a more general process of globalization.
One of the pop music styles that developed alongside other music styles is Latin pop, which rose in popularity in the US during the 1950s with early rock and roll success Ritchie Valens.{{cite web | title=Los Lobos, Ritchie Valens, and the Day the Music Died | website=Strachwitz Frontera Collection | date=February 16, 2017 | url=http://frontera.library.ucla.edu/blog/2017/02/los-lobos-ritchie-valens-and-day-music-died | access-date=November 18, 2020 | archive-date=November 30, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201130152952/http://frontera.library.ucla.edu/blog/2017/02/los-lobos-ritchie-valens-and-day-music-died | url-status=live }} Later, Los Lobos and Chicano rock gained in popularity during the 1970s and 1980s, and musician Selena saw large-scale popularity in the 1980s and 1990s, along with crossover appeal with fans of Tejano musicians Lydia Mendoza and Little Joe.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}} With later Hispanic and Latino Americans seeing success within pop music charts, 1990s pop successes stayed popular in both their original genres and in broader pop music.{{cite book | last1=Aldama | first1=A.J. | last2=Sandoval | first2=C. | last3=García | first3=P.J. | title=Performing the US Latina and Latino Borderlands | publisher=Indiana University Press | year=2012 | isbn=978-0-253-00295-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a7KXaqig1YwC&pg=PA224 | access-date=February 14, 2020 | page=224}} Latin pop hit singles, such as "Macarena" by Los del Río and "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi, have seen record-breaking success on worldwide pop music charts.{{cite web | last=Villafañe | first=Veronica | title=Still No.1, Record-Breaking 'Despacito' Ties 'Macarena' Streak On Hot 100, But Is Snubbed By MTV | website=Forbes | date=August 14, 2017 | url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/veronicavillafane/2017/08/14/still-no-1-record-breaking-despacito-ties-macarena-streak-on-hot-100-but-is-snubbed-by-mtv/ | access-date=February 14, 2020 | archive-date=May 22, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200522214535/https://www.forbes.com/sites/veronicavillafane/2017/08/14/still-no-1-record-breaking-despacito-ties-macarena-streak-on-hot-100-but-is-snubbed-by-mtv/ | url-status=live }}
Notable pop artists of the late 20th century that became global superstars include Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Madonna, George Michael, and Prince.
= 21st century =
File:Britney Spears.jpg has been named "Princess of Pop" for revitalizing teen pop in the 2000s.Often referred to in interviews, cover stories and promotional material as the new 'princess of pop'{{citation|first=Susan|last=Hopkins|title=Girl heroes: The New Force In Popular Culture|publisher=University of Michigan Press|year=2002|page=60}}|upright]]
At the beginning of the 2000s, the trends that dominated during the late 1990s still continued, but the music industry started to change as people began to download music from the internet. People were able to discover genres and artists that were outside of the mainstream and propel them to fame, but at the same time smaller artists had a harder time making a living because their music was being pirated.{{Cite web |last=Ghoshal |first=Abhimanyu |date=2018-12-28 |title=A nostalgic look back at digital music piracy in the 2000s |url=https://thenextweb.com/news/a-nostalgic-look-back-at-digital-music-piracy-in-the-2000s |access-date=2022-07-27 |website=TNW {{!}} Insights |language=en |archive-date=2022-07-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220727213750/https://thenextweb.com/news/a-nostalgic-look-back-at-digital-music-piracy-in-the-2000s |url-status=live }} Popular artists were Avril Lavigne, Justin Timberlake, NSYNC, Christina Aguilera, Destiny's Child, and Britney Spears. Pop music often came from many different genres, with each genre in turn influencing the next one, blurring the lines between them and making them less distinct. This change was epitomized in Spears' highly influential 2007 album Blackout, which under the influence of producer Danja, mixed the sounds of EDM, avant-funk, R&B, dance music, and hip hop.{{Cite web |last=Hova |first=Tray |date=2011-02-07 |title=Studio Stories: Danja [Pg. 2] |url=https://www.vibe.com/news/entertainment/studio-stories-danja-pg-2-44595/ |access-date=2022-07-27 |website=VIBE.com |language=en-US |archive-date=2022-07-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220727213752/https://www.vibe.com/news/entertainment/studio-stories-danja-pg-2-44595/ |url-status=live }}
By 2010, pop music impacted by dance music came to be dominant on the charts. Instead of radio setting the trends, it was now the club. At the beginning of the 2010s, Will.i.am stated, "The new bubble is all the collective clubs around the world. Radio is just doing its best to keep up."{{Cite magazine |last=Herrera |first=Monica |date=2010-12-10 |title=2010 in Music: The Year That Went Pop |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/2010-in-music-the-year-that-went-pop-949446/ |access-date=2022-07-27 |magazine=Billboard |language=en-US}} Songs that talked of escapism through partying became the most popular, influenced by the impulse to forget the economic troubles that had taken over the world after the 2008 crash, this style of pop music is now known as recession pop.{{Cite web |title=Bopping Through the Bailouts: Why the Great Recession Led to Great Music |url=https://www.afterglowatx.com/blog/2019/2/14/bopping-through-the-bailouts-why-the-great-recession-led-to-great-music |access-date=2022-07-27 |website=afterglow |date=14 February 2019 |language=en-US |archive-date=2022-07-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220708171241/https://www.afterglowatx.com/blog/2019/2/14/bopping-through-the-bailouts-why-the-great-recession-led-to-great-music |url-status=live }} Throughout the 2010s, a lot of pop music also began to take cues from alternative pop. Popularized by artists such as Lana Del Rey{{cite web | url=https://www.grammy.com/news/lana-del-rey-born-die-album-record-year-anniversary | title=For The Record: Why Lana Del Rey's 'Born To Die' Is One Of Pop's Most Influential Albums In The Past Decade | date=April 26, 2024 }} and Lorde{{cite web | url=https://www.grammy.com/news/lorde-pure-heroine-10th-anniversary-royals-team-tennis-court | title=5 Ways Lorde's 'Pure Heroine' Helped Pave The Way For The Unconventional Modern Superstar | date=April 26, 2024 }} in the early 2010s and later inspiring other highly influential artists including Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift,{{cite web | url=https://uproxx.com/pop/taylor-swift-lana-del-rey-influential-pop-billboard-awards/ | title=Taylor Swift Believes Lana Del Rey Is 'The Most Influential Artist In Pop' | date=April 26, 2024 }} it gave space to a more sad and moody tone within pop music.
See also
{{Portal|Pop music|Music|1950s|1960s}}
- Honorific nicknames in popular music
- Origins of rock and roll
- Popular music pedagogy
- List of music genres and styles
- History of music
- Public domain music
- List of largest recorded music markets
- Music genre
- Popular art
- Pop art
{{Clear}}
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
{{refbegin|30em}}
- Adorno, Theodor W., (1942) "On Popular Music", Institute of Social Research.
- Bell, John L., (2000) The Singing Thing: A Case for Congregational Song, GIA Publications, {{ISBN|1-57999-100-9}}
- Bindas, Kenneth J., (1992) America's Musical Pulse: Popular Music in Twentieth-Century Society, Praeger.
- Clarke, Donald, (1995) {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20071231045026/http://www.musicweb.uk.net/RiseandFall/index.htm The Rise and Fall of Popular Music]}}, St Martin's Press.
- Dolfsma, Wilfred, (1999) Valuing Pop Music: Institutions, Values and Economics, Eburon.
- Dolfsma, Wilfred, (2004) Institutional Economics and the Formation of Preferences: The Advent of Pop Music, Edward Elgar Publishing.
- Frith, Simon, Straw, Will, Street, John, eds, (2001), The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock, Cambridge University Press,
- Frith, Simon (2004) Popular Music: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, Routledge.
- Gillett, Charlie, (1970) The Sound of the City. The Rise of Rock and Roll, Outerbridge & Dienstfrey.
- Hatch, David and Stephen Millward, (1987), From Blues to Rock: an Analytical History of Pop Music, Manchester University Press, {{ISBN|0-7190-1489-1}}
- Johnson, Julian, (2002) Who Needs Classical Music?: Cultural Choice and Musical Value, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|0-19-514681-6}}.
- Kent, Jeff, (1983) The Rise and Fall of Rock, Witan Books, {{ISBN|0-9508981-0-4}}.
- Lonergan, David F., (2004) Hit Records, 1950–1975, Scarecrow Press, {{ISBN|0-8108-5129-6}}.
- Maultsby, Portia K., (7907) Intra- and International Identities in American Popular Music, Trading Culture.
- Middleton, Richard, (1990) Studying Popular Music, Open University Press.
- Negus, Bob, (1999) Music Genres and Corporate Cultures, Routledge, {{ISBN|0-415-17399-X}}.
- Pleasants, Henry (1969) Serious Music and All That Jazz, Simon & Schuster.
- Roxon, Lillian, (1969) Rock Encyclopedia, Grosset & Dunlap.
- Shuker, Roy, (2002) Popular Music: The Key Concepts, Routledge, (2nd edn.) {{ISBN|0-415-28425-2}}.
- Starr, Larry & Waterman, Christopher, (2002) American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MTV, Oxford University Press.
- Watkins, S. Craig, (2005) Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement, Beacon Press, {{ISBN|0-8070-0982-2}}.
{{refend}}
External links
{{sister project links|d=Q37073|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|species=no|s=no|c=Category:Pop music}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20170407053620/http://musiclife.mobi/filelist/1017/sabrang_%282017%29_mp3/new2old/1 The Consumption of Music and the Expression of Values: A Social Economic Explanation for the Advent of Pop Music], Wilfred Dolfsma, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, October 1999.
{{Pop music|state=expanded}}
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