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Pop Music History Scroll down to read about pop music history if you believe that music can

alter people's feelings, moods and actions for the better. Ads by Google Create a Facebook Profile World's Largest Online Community. Join for Free & Enjo y the Benefits! Facebook.com Leonard Bernstein once had said, "Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable". In the history of music, the term 'pop music' was first used in 1926. It was use d to describe 'a piece of music having popular appeal'. Commercially recorded mu sic, consisting of relatively short and simple love songs is known as 'pop music '. It is associated with the 'rock and roll' style, often tailored for the youth market, that utilizes technological innovations to produce new variations on ex isting themes. Music history informs us that the term 'pop music' originated in Britain in the mid-1950s and implied 'concerts appealing to a wide audience' or 'music that induced dancing spirit' or 'the non classical music, usually in the form of songs', performed by such artists as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Ab ba, etc. Pop Music History Timeline 1956: Elvis Presley emerges as one of the world's first rock stars. With so many hit songs, he was referred to as 'The King of Rock n Roll'. He is o ne of the best-selling solo artist in the history of popular music. 1957: John Lennon meets Paul McCartney. In March 1957 John Lennon formed a skiffle group called 'The Quarrymen'. McCartn ey met Lennon on 6 July 1957, and agreed to join the group a few days later. 1957 Jul 9: The first official Quarry Men performance. The first "official" public, albeit unsuccessful, performance by The Quarry Men - they failed to impress when they auditioned before the promoter Carroll Levis. 1958 Feb 6: Paul McCartney invited George Harrison to watch the Quarry Men. According to George Harrison, the first time he saw the Quarry Men was at the Wi lson Hall, opposite the bus depot in Garston, Liverpool. Late 1950s: The English rock music group 'Beatles' was formed. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr were the members of th e group. Most lyrics and music were written by Lennon and McCartney. The decade 1960-70 was dominated by the Beatles. 1958 Aug 16: Madonna is Born. Madonna (born Madonna Louise Ciccone; August 16, 1958), is an American recording artist, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan and raised in Roch ester Hills, she moved to New York City in 1977, for a career in modern dance. 1958 Aug 29: Michael Jackson is Born. Michael Joseph Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana (an industrial suburb of Chicag o, Illinois) to a working-class family on August 29, 1958. The son of Joseph Wal ter "Joe" and Katherine Esther, he was the seventh of nine children.

1960 May 10: The Quarry Men become The Silver Beats. The well-known British impresario Larry Parnes was looking for musicians for his "stars", including Billy Fury and others. He wanted the musicians to accompany them on a tour of Northern England and Scotland. He listened to each Liverpool g roup and selected the best. 1960 Aug 12: Pete Best joins the Beatles. The group invited Pete Best to become their drummer. Four days after hiring him, the group left for Hamburg. Initially, they performed at Bruno Koschmider's Ind ra Club. In October, they moved to the Kaiserkeller and broke their contract wit h Koschmider. They accepted an offer from the rival Top Ten Club due to which th ey were caught up in several legal issues. 1961: The American country singer 'Patsy Cline' becomes a mainstream pop music h it. Cline was the first female vocalist who adapted to the change and became a succe ssful pop singer. "Walkin' after Midnight" (1957), "I Fall to Pieces" (1961), "C razy" (1961), and "She's Got You" (1962) are some of her hits. 1968 Oct 17: Ziggy Marley is born. David Nesta "Ziggy" Marley (born October 17, 1968, Trenchtown, Jamaica) is a fou r-time Grammy-winning Jamaican musician and leader of the band Ziggy Marley and the Melody makers. 1972: Michael Jackson's first solo hit "Ben" reaches No. 1 "Ben" is a number-one hit song recorded by the teenager Michael Jackson for the Motown label in 1972. The song, theme of a 1972 film of the same name, spent one week at the top of the U.S. pop chart. It also reached number-one on the Austra lian pop chart, spending eight weeks at the top spot. 1972 May 19: Rohan Marley is born Rohan Anthony Marley (born 1972) is the son of late reggae artist Bob Marley and Janet Hunt. He is a member of the Rastafari Movement. Marley and the musician L auryn Hill met in 1996. 1973: Karen Marley is born. Karen Marley, second daughter of Bob Marley, was born in England in 1973 but gre w up in Jamaica. 1974: Michael Jackson introduces "The Robot". During a performance on "Soul Train," Jackson introduced a dance called the robo t, made of moves that were mimicked on dance floors across the country. 1975-83: Popularity of disco and hip-hop lead to the popularity of pop. The movie Saturday Night Fever was released. 'Disco Music' gained popularity. 'H ip-Hop' emerged as a blend of rock, jazz, and soul with African drumming in the New York City. Nonstop music videos were released by MTV. Cats began its journey . The debut album of Madonna "Holiday" becomes a hit. 1983: Red Hot Chili Peppers are formed.

Red Hot Chili Peppers (originally Tony Flow and the Majestic Masters of Mayhem) were formed by Fairfax High School alumni: vocalist Anthony Kiedis, guitarist Hi llel Slovak, drummer Jack Irons and bassist Michael "Flea" Balzary. Over thirtee n million copies of the record Blood Sugar Sex Magik, produced by the band, were sold. The band gained tremendous popularity. 1983 Mar 25: Michael Jackson popularizes the moonwalk. The Moonwalk or Backslide is a dance technique that gained worldwide popularity after Michael Jackson, the King of Pop executed it during his performance of his song "Billie Jean" on television special "Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever" . It was considered his signature move. The technique helps create an illusion t hat the dancer is stepping forward while actually he is moving backward. It look s like as if the dancer is moving along a conveyor belt. 1984 Jan 27: Michael Jackson burns hair during Pepsi commercial. While filming a Pepsi Cola commercial at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, M J suffered second degree burns to his scalp after pyrotechnics accidentally set his hair on fire. It was a simulated concert and this happened in front of a ful l house of fans. The incidence was heavily criticized by media. It arouse sympat hy for MJ. 1985: Michael Jackson releases "Thriller". The video becomes a classic. 1985: Britney Spears emerges as a star of the music world. At age 8, she made her musical television debut on Star Search. In 1999, about 1 ,319,193 copies of "...Baby One More Time" were sold in the first week after rel ease. 1989 Dec 13: Taylor Allison Swift is born. Swift was born in the city of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. She is the daughter of S cott, a stock broker, and Andrea Swift, a homemaker. 1990s: Various famous groups made pop music more popular. Grunge rock was formed in Seattle, Backstreet Boys and Blackstreet were formed, the movie "Titanic" and the song "My Heart Will Go On," became popular. 1992 Sep: Radiohead releases their first single, "Creep". "Creep" is a song by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, written by voc alist Thom Yorke. 1993 Feb 10: Oprah Winfrey interviews Michael Jackson. Jackson gave a 90-minute interview with Oprah Winfrey in February 1993, his firs t television interview since 1979. He could not control his emotions when speaki ng of his childhood abuse at the hands of his father, he confessed that he had m issed out on much of his childhood years, admitting that he often cried from lon eliness. 1994: Warped Tour first conceived. The Warped Tour was created in 1994 by Kevin Lyman, who got the idea while worki ng on skateboarding shows such as the Vision Skate Escape and Holiday Havoc whic

h included music with skateboarding contests. 1993 Feb 22: Radiohead releases first studio album, "Pablo Honey". Pablo Honey is the first album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead. T he cover features the baby Tim Coates, the son of close friends of the band. 1995 Sep 12: Red Hot Chili Peppers release One Hot Minute. Dave Navarro's first appearance with the band at the music festival "Woodstock ' 94". The chrome metallic suits made it near-impossible for them to play their in struments. May 1997- Jan 1998: Radiohead releases "Paranoid Android" single, "OK Computer", "Karma Police" Single, "No Surprises/Running from Demon EP", and "No Surprises" . No Surprises / Running From Demons is an EP by Radiohead, released on 10 Decembe r 1997. Keeping in mind the Japanese market, the EP was released in order to pro mote their tour of Japan. 1998 Feb 22: "Coldplay" formed. The band finally chose the name "Coldplay" which was suggested by Tim Crompton, a local student who had been using the name for his group. 2001 Jun 1: Keane releases second single "Wolf at the Door". "Wolf at the Door" is a song performed and composed by English alternative rock band Keane. It was thought that it would serve as a promo item and only 50 copie s were made. It happens to be the rarest Keane item in existence. 2001 Sept. 18: John Mayer releases debut album "Room for Squares". The album reached number nine on the American Billboard 200 albums chart. It can be called 'Mayer's best-selling album'. Over 4,308,000 copies of this album hav e been sold in the United States, as of July, 2009. 2002: Increased impact of television shows. Kelly Clarkson becomes the first American Idol. 2003: Marshall Mathers, known as Eminem, rapper of the evergreen "The Slim Shady LP" gained tremendous popularity. Eminem, the famous radio and video superstar, won an Oscar for the song "Lose Yo urself," from "8 Mile". He was the first rapper to win an Oscar. 2003 May 12: Keane releases "Everybody's Changing" single. The song performed and composed by English rock band "Keane" was included in the ir debut album "Hopes and Fears", as the fourth track. 2006: Mat Kearney Releases "All I Need" Single. It was Kearney's first single and was featured on Grey's Anatomy. It was amongst iTunes top 100 downloaded songs. It reached #94 on the Billboard Pop 100. 2009 June 25: Death of Michael Jackson.

American singer Michael Jackson died at his home in the Holmby Hills neighborhoo d in Los Angeles, California. It was announced that the cause of his death was ' cardiac arrest'. He was treated by paramedics at his home, but was pronounced de ad at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. These were just a few incidents from the history of pop music. There were and th ere are hundreds of music artists who have sold millions of copies of their albu ms around the world, the albums that have topped the charts and are considered a s all time best-selling albums. Factors that Helped Popularize Pop Music If you go through 80's music history, you will notice that pop music, throughout its development has been influenced by most other genres of popular music. Pop music picked up instrumentation from jazz and rock music, vocal harmonies from g ospel music and soul music formed from the sentimental ballads, tempo from dance music, support from electronic music and spoken passages from rap. In 1950s tel evision was introduced and visual presence of pop stars helped to gain more popu larity. In 1960s, inexpensive portable transistor radios were introduced, which helped teenagers to listen to music even outside the home. By 1980s MTV favored the artists like Michael Jackson, Prince and Madonna who had a strong visual app eal. Widespread use of the microphone, multi-track recording, digital sampling w ere the other technological innovations which were responsible for the increasin g popularity of pop music. In 1980s, when video technique was introduced, pop al bums gained tremendous popularity. Every region has its own history of music, th e same rule applies to pop music too. Though pop music had been dominated by the American music industry, most regions and countries have their own form of pop music. The American pop music history provides us information about the fact that the 1960s and '70s saw a number of i mportant changes in the American popular music, for instance, development of a n umber of new styles, including heavy metal, punk, soul and hip hop. Spread of Western-style pop music has been interpreted by people in different wa ys, as representing Americanization, homogenization, modernization, creative app ropriation, cultural imperialism, etc. The history of pop music tells us about t he general process of globalization. The appeal of pop music lies in its supple, energetic rhythms, its catchy vocal lines and in many cases its symbolic associ ations with the plight of the underprivileged. By Leena Palande Last Updated: 1/6/2012 Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/pop-music-history.html

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