History of Pop

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Pop

Pop music (often called simply pop) is a genre of popular music distinguished from

classical or art music and from folk music. The term indicates specific stylistic traits suchas a danceable beat, simple melodies and a repetitive structure. Pop music often includeselements of rock, hip hop, reggae, dance, R&B, funk, and sometimes even folk. The popmusic genre often involves mass marketing and consumer-driven efforts by major recordcompanies, which makes it an often scorned genre by other musicians.

Demographics of Pop Music

As records, CDs and DVDs became cheaper, the age of the average consumer of pop musicdropped dramatically. In the early years of recordings, artists like Frank Sinatra sang aboutaffairs, champagne and night clubs; lyrics that appealed to the investors, business, andclassy market. As records became cheaper, teenagers were able to afford to influence themarket especially during the promotion of the worldwide Beatles tours. In recent yearschildren have become one of the largest music markets, reducing the age of the averageconsumer of pop music drastically.

Young people have always been interested in fashions and spend their money on newartists. Whereas the previous generation tend to keep to their favourite artists, young peopleconform more to peer pressure. This conforming creates waves of commercial support forparticular 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 and blaming popmusic for perceived increases in objectionable behaviour within youth culture.

History of Pop Music

1890s through 1920s

The dance music element of western pop music can be traced back toRagtime, which wasinitially popular in African American communities, and mainly disseminated through sheetmusic and player pianos. Ragtime turned into Swing, an early form of Jazz that was enjoyedas much for its dance ability 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 thatthese 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 whitecommunities especially through venues that would hire black performers. Even early Jazzin Paris was influenced by Black and White Minstrels performing ragtime music. LikeRock n Roll, widespread popularity in white communities to some extent did not take offuntil white performers could be found to perform it, and certain stylistic elements of ittoned down. The crossing of race-based social boundaries around race, for ragtime, swing,


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and later RocknRoll, was the source of many moral panics in America inspired by popmusic.

1930s and 1940s

Styles influencing the later development of pop include the Blues, also originating inAfrican-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 Recordsin Tennessee), which blended to become Rockabilly. The most important ingredient inearly Rock n' Roll was however the type of Jump Blues / R&B led by Louis Jordan whooccasionally broke through in the pop charts. The music was later on mixed with gospelhandclaps, boogie woogie and larger emphasis on backbeat by artists such as TheTrenierswhich created Rock 'n' Roll. Leonard Bernstein in 1949 changed the face ofpopular music with his upbeat West Side Story. Also, the rise of the crying and emotionalsingers in the late 1940s such as Mario Lanza began the pop music vocal style.

1950s

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

In Iran, before the emergence in the early 1950s of Vigen Derderian (known as the "Sultanof Pop"), the music industry was dominated by Persian classical singers. He combinedPersian 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 the1950s and 60s.

Lak was the pop music of Greece in the 1950s and 1960s. Lak is similar to Turkishfantasy music. It was criticized from all quarters for its apoliticism and decadence, and itsTurkish roots. The influence of Oriental music on Lak can be most strongly seen in 1960sindoyftika, Indian filmi (popular music for movies) with Greek lyrics. ManolisAngelopoulos was the most popular indoyftika performer, while pure lak was dominatedby superstar Stelios Kazantzidis and Stratos Dionisiou.

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

1960s

Western Pop music teen idols of the 1960s included the Beatles, The Beach Boys, CliffRichard, Sandy Shaw, The Who, Lulu, The Rolling Stones, The Small Faces, Gene Pitney,


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and The Shadows. Other pop musicians included Carole King, Neil Diamond, Gary Lewisand the Playboys, Matt Monro, the BeeGees, U2, Burt Bacharach, Aretha Franklin, IsleyBrothers, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan, andSimon and Garfunkel, and some of The Beatles' repertoire. The 60's also saw the firstemergence of what was later coined as being boy bands with the most infamous from this

era being The Monkees.

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

In 1962, the first Western popular melody with Turkish lyrics was released, lham Gencer's"Bak Bir Varm Bir Yokmu" (Look Once Upon A Time).

1970s

A proliferation of new sounds from the disco era included ABBA, Engelbert Humperdinck,the BeeGees, the piano-based pop of Elton John, the country stylings of the Eagles, and therock-influenced pop of Rod Stewart, Steely Dan, and Fleetwood Mac. Other important popmusicians include David Bowie, Rex Smith, Barry Manilow, Queen, Cat Stevens, Chicago,the Village People, The Carpenters, Jackson Five, The Miracles, Lionel Richie, RobertaFlack, 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 ofGrease the Musical) commanded big sales in their home market, with crossover into theUK and for Olivia Newton-John, also US.

Arabesque-pop starting in the 1970s, immigration from predominantly south-eastern ruralareas to big cities and particularly to Istanbul gave rise to a new cultural synthesis. Themakeup of Istanbul was to change forever. The old taverns and music halls of fasl musicwere to shut down in place of a new type of music Stokes, Martin. "Sounds of Anatolia" intheRough Guide to World Music, Volume 1, . These new urban residents brought their owntaste of music, which due to their locality was largely middle eastern. Musicologistsderogatively 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 thatit 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 withperformers like Orhan Gencebay who added Anglo-American rock and roll to arabesquemusic.


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In Turkey, (light western) pop became very popular in the 1970s with stars such as SemihaYanki, Kamuran Akkor, Ayla Dikmen, Erol Bykbur, Fikret ene, Gnl Akkor,Hmeyra, lhan rem, Nermin Candan, Asu Maralman, Yurdaer Doulu, Zmrt, SezenAksu, Nazan ncel and Ajda Pekkan reaching superstar status domestically.

During the 1970s in Britain, New Wave and Punk brought bands like Siouxsie and theBanshees, Ian Dury, Elvis Costello, The Police and The Stranglers into the pop charts. Amod revival spearheaded by The Jam and Madness followed and opened the way for TheSpecials, UB40 and Dexys Midnight Runners.

1980s

Notable highlights for pop music in the 1980s are Michael Jackson's secondEpic labelrelease, Thriller, which went on to become the best-selling album of all time. Jackson wasthe most successful artist of the 80s, spanning nine #1 singles in the United States aloneduring that decade, and selling over 133 million copies with only two albums Thriller,

and its follow-upBad. Since the early nineties, Jackson has been often referred to andregarded as "The King of Pop." Madonna, who is considered "The Queen of Pop", was thedominant 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, Michael Bolton, Depeche Mode, Billy Joel, Tearsfor Fears, Cyndi Lauper, Thompson Twins, Debbie Gibson, Whitney Houston, JuiceNewton, Phil Collins, Air Supply, Laura Branigan, Talking Heads, Eurythmics, TheBangles, 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. Now in thepresent the 80's is viewed as having many one-hit wonders, and the style and fashion senseand "look" in the music videos has been influenced and has been brought back in presentclothes and style.

1990s

Among the most successful pop acts of the 1990s were R&B-influenced pop acts such asMariah Carey (the most successful artist of the 1990s in the World) , Destiny's Child (mostsuccessful 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, Ndine, Sheryl Crow, Eric Clapton, AlanisMorissette, Jewel, were also phenomenonally successful during that decade. Eric Claptonwas aged, but massive hits like Change The World and Tears In Heaven, made him evenmore famous.

The 1990s and 21st century were marked by a resurgence of boy band and girl grouptrends. The U.S. had New Edition, New Kids on the Block (in the late 1980s and early1990s), followed by the Backstreet Boys often referred to as 'the best-selling boy band' of


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all time, Hanson, *NSYNC, 98 Degrees and the huge pop girl band phenomenon the SpiceGirls. Towards the turn of the millennium, the "pop princesses" appeared such as BritneySpears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore, Robyn, and Willa Ford. Fromthe UK came the likes of Take That, Steps, and S Club 7, while Australia had KylieMinogue 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, Thala, Shakira, Enrique Iglesias, Paulina Rubio, and MarcAnthony. Also, there were many pop bands from continental Europe that found their way totopping worldwide charts, such as Aqua (Denmark), a-ha (Norway), Los del Ro (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 50million in their respective Asian markets.

2000s

In the 2000s, pop music, paved the way for the multi-platinum successes of artists likeBackstreet Boys, Beyonc Knowles, Black Eyed Peas, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera,Kelly Clarkson, Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado, N Sync, RBD, ThePussycat Dolls and Usher. Robbie Williams recorded the biggest sales for a male artist,mostly in the European market. In 2002 Russia enjoyed its first worldwide pop hit from agirl duo, t.A.T.u..

The divas of the 90s artists, such as Madonna, and Mariah Carey presented albums thatprolonged their rule of the music charts. The Swedish superstar Carola Hggkvist continuedher rule of European charts. Other trends included Teen pop singers such as Disney

Channel star Hilary Duff, and "pop punk" acts such as Simple Plan, and Avril Lavigne.There is also a trend in which American Idol artists such as Kelly Clarkson and Clay Aikentopped the charts as well, sometimes at number 1. In South Africa South African Pop DivaNdine topped the South African Charts.

There has also been a major trend which has created multiple tiers of pop singers, with onedesigned for "14 year old girls" and gay or bisexual men. While this is not necessarily anew development, it is seen by many as detrimental to music as a whole, as it has furtheredthe departmentalization for music. 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-Symon, and Miley Cyrus. Other

Disney artists include Jesse McCartney, B5 and Cameron Jesse King.

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


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Sound and Themes

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

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

Documents

History of Pop