Genre History and Technical AnalysisPOP MUSIC & CULTURE

Pop Music

The New Yorker defines how ‘great’ pop music comes from “tension, opposition, progress, and fear of progress” that helps to build the binary oppositions within this genre of music that captivates the widest audience of any other genre of music.

Binary oppositions (Levi-Strauss) and contrasts are created within pop music to ‘pull-in’ a greater audience for that genre of music, which may include tensions such as: “industry and the underground; between artifice and authenticity; between the adventurers and the curators; between rock and pop; between dumb and clever; between boys and girls”, and The New Yorker states that “juggling those contradictions makes the pop genre what it is” today.

Definition

Pop culture is defined as a noun: “cultural activities or commercial products reflecting, suited to, or aimed at the tastes of the general masses of people”.

History

The history of pop culture structures itself around the mainstream trends, thoughts, and ideas of the mass population, which helps build it’s already overflowing audience.

“The book definition says pop culture is a collection of thoughts, ideas, attitudes, perspectives, images… preferred by the mainstream population. A sort of common denominator”

“Each year seems to have its own slang signature, especially with tweens and teens. Terms such as ‘going viral’ are new pop culture – not only the term, but the viral product itself”.

History

Once disposable incomes became “the norm”, the “pop culture revolution began.

In the 1950’s, pop culture started with rock n’ roll, Dick Clark and the hoola hoop, transistor radios, and flooded through the ages.

The 1980’s was when the term “pop culture” became mainstream itself. Prior to this time, anything deemed a part of pop culture was simply referred to as “popular”, leading to the suffix of pop-culture.

History

Pop culture is known for rising stars and trends that help form and create new conventions that flood the mass media to create a new direction for pop culture, although repetitions of the past are ever-present within modern day pop culture.

Pop culture history – specifically American pop culture - includes and uses ideas such as Apple, HBO, & Target, as well as highlighting public figures such as Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Ozzy Osbourne, & Ronald Reagan.

The Audience

Pop culture is designed to incorporate the mainstream audience, which includes people of all ages and backgrounds, that includes the trends of each year – most commonly influenced by the younger generations - and therefore helps guide the flow of pop culture growth and development over time.

Pop culture often uses bright colours, popular brands, and ‘in-the-charts’ artists, as well as ‘overpowering’ social media through the personal advertisements of the audience.