Pop Music Page 1

Pop Music

Pop music is all around us—on television, on the radio and in high-street shops. Ever since
the 1950s, people have used the term “pop” to describe popular music, including jazz, rock,
rap, soul and disco. Popular music has been around for much longer than you might think,
though.

BALLADS, OPERAS AND MINSTRELS

The first popular songs and ballads were printed on large sheets of paper and sold in European cities
in the 18th century. At the time, this was the best way to allow a large number of people to hear
about a song. The Beggar’s Opera, which appeared in 1728, featured simple poems, in English, set to
tunes that were popular at the time.

The comic operettas of William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan became very popular in 19th-century
Britain and contained songs that were often performed by music hall entertainers. British music halls
featured a wide variety of acts, including comedians, novelty acts and singers.

During the mid-19th century minstrel shows became major attractions in the United States. These
shows featured white performers clumsily disguised as African-Americans. Sheet music versions of
the minstrel show songs were sold and had a big impact on the development of songwriting in the
United States.

The first important composer of popular music in the United States was Stephen Foster. His simple,
catchy songs were influenced by the “bel canto” style of Italian opera singers. This light, soft singing
style also influenced the American crooners of the 1920s and 1930s.

FROM JAZZ AND BLUES TO TIN PAN ALLEY

In the late 19th century a style called ragtime emerged. This was an exciting piano-based style of
music that was fun to dance to. It was played by talented pianists such as Scott Joplin. The early
20th century saw the birth of jazz, a musical style based on improvisation, where musicians paid
little time to planning or preparation. Jazz was first played by African-American bands in the city of
New Orleans, Louisiana. The trumpet player Louis Armstrong was one of the first major jazz stars.

At around the same time, black singers in the southern states of the United States were performing a
style of music that developed from the songs that slaves sang on plantations while they worked: it
was called the blues. Bessie Smith and Robert Johnson, two early blues performers, were a huge
influence on later musicians.

From the 1920s to the 1950s, an area in New York called Tin Pan Alley became famous because of
the professional songwriters and music publishers who worked there. Singers such as Al Jolson and
Sophie Tucker performed Tin Pan Alley songs on nationwide tours of vaudeville theatres, which were
similar to Europe’s music halls. From 1927 onwards, films featured sound, and film musicals often
included songs from Tin Pan Alley.

THE ERA OF SOUND

The inventor Thomas Edison developed a method of recording sound on gramophone discs in 1877—
but sheet music was still the most popular way of distributing music until the 1920s. The invention of
gramophone discs gave a huge boost to popular music. Famous performers could now be heard in
any house that had a gramophone. Improved electronic recording techniques meant that singers
could adopt a softer, more intimate vocal style and still be heard clearly. This helped the rise of
singers known as crooners such as Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.

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From the mid-1930s to the mid-1940s, swing music became popular in the United States. Duke
Ellington, Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller all led big bands that performed swing. In the 1940s,
many of these swing bands became smaller and began to play a more rhythmic style of music called
“jump blues”, which was great to dance to. Louis Jordan’s band was one of the most famous jump
blues bands; the band’s songs often had amusing lyrics.

After 1945 many black workers from the southern states of America moved north to industrial areas,
to find better-paid work. They still played blues, but instead of acoustic instruments they now used
electric instruments and amplifiers. These meant that musicians could play louder, but they also
changed the kind of sound they created. Chicago blues stars such as Muddy Waters played loud,
powerful electric guitar blues.

THE RISE OF ROCK AND ROLL

Rock and roll burst onto the music scene in the mid-1950s. The first rock-and-roll stars—such as
Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis—played high-energy music based on
rhythm and blues (“R&B”), with a powerful beat and dynamic vocals. Many white performers who
came after them such as Pat Boone produced watered-down versions of rock-and-roll songs for a
wider audience.

In the early 1960s the pop charts were filled with performers whose songs sounded like weaker
imitations of the first rock-and-roll records. The folk music boom of the early 1960s was partly a
reaction against this. Its biggest star was Bob Dylan, who wrote hard-hitting songs (known as protest
songs) that drew attention to the wrongs in society. Bob Dylan’s lyrics made people realize that a
pop song did not always have to be about love.

Many pop hits of the time were written by teams of songwriters, such as Gerry Goffin and Carole
King, who worked in New York’s Brill Building. Berry Gordy also employed professional songwriters,
such as Smokey Robinson and the Holland/Dozier/Holland team, to write for his Motown label in
Detroit.

Motown produced many black singing stars in the 1960s, including Diana Ross and the Supremes,
the Temptations and Marvin Gaye. The label had a major rival in Stax records. Stax stars such as
Isaac Hayes and Otis Redding became famous singing soul music. Soul singers performed with the
passion of gospel singers, but to a pounding rhythm-and-blues beat.

The Beatles burst on to the British music scene in 1963. Their superb songwriting, fresh harmonies
and powerful beat quickly made them stars and they were greeted by screaming fans wherever they
played. In 1964 they performed their first concerts in the United States, and millions of people
watched their appearance on Ed Sullivan’s popular TV show. After the Beatles, many more British
groups were successful in the United States, including the Animals (who had a British and American
number one with “The House of the Rising Sun”), the Rolling Stones and the Who.

ROCK AND ROLL BECOMES ROCK

From the mid-1960s onwards, bands such as the Beatles and the Beach Boys began to expand their
sound. The Beatles’ 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band included orchestral
instruments, Indian music and strange sound effects created in the recording studio. As rock and roll
became more varied and sophisticated, people started referring to it simply as “rock”.

By the late 1960s, many performers were adopting a more experimental approach to making music.
Acts such as the Doors created long, dramatic songs with intriguing lyrics. Jimi Hendrix was an
extraordinary guitarist, who became a major star after his incredible performance at the 1967
Monterey Pop Festival. Jimi created sounds with his guitar that no one had ever heard before.

Bands such as Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience produced a powerful guitar-led sound based

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on the blues. In the late 1960s, this developed into heavy metal, which produced worldwide success
for bands such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath.

Several different musical styles emerged from R&B in the late 1960s. James Brown developed a
rhythmic form of R&B called funk. Rhythm is much more important in funk than melody or harmony.
Rather than playing melodies, horn sections in funk groups added short, sharp bursts (or stabs) of
sound to drive the rhythm along.

In the late 1960s, country music stars such as Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers and Johnny Cash all had
pop hits. In the 1970s, the Eagles developed country rock, and became one of the most successful
bands in the world.

INTO THE 1970S

For much of the early and mid-1970s, acts such as Yes, Pink Floyd and the Eagles dominated the pop
music scene. Many people felt that these wealthy superstars had lost touch with their fans. Punk rock
bands such as the Sex Pistols, the Clash and the Ramones leapt onto the music scene in 1976 as a
reaction. Punk groups played short, fast, guitar-based music, which often had a social or political
message. The decade also saw the rise of the first reggae superstar, Bob Marley.

From the mid-1970s onwards, disco become internationally successful. Disco was dance music that
developed from R&B and funk, and featured a thumping bass drum on every beat.

FROM THE 1980S TO TODAY

In the 1980s the music video became an important way of promoting pop music. MTV became the
first TV channel to show non-stop music videos. The inventive video for Michael Jackson’s single
“Thriller” helped the song become a huge hit. The album it was taken from, Thriller, became one of
the best-selling albums of all time. Video played a big part in launching some of the most successful
pop stars of the 1980s, including Madonna and Prince.

During the 1980s and 1990s many new musical styles developed from old ones. House music
developed out of disco, but stripped it down to produce a simple, relentless beat accompanied by
sounds created on synthesizers or samplers. Techno, from Detroit, is a faster form of electronic,
percussion-led dance music.

Rap stars such as Public Enemy and Run-DMC also came to fame in the early 1980s. Like most 20th-
century pop music, rap developed from African-American roots.

Rock music remained popular throughout the 1980s. Acts such as U2 and R.E.M. took their
inspiration from punk music and new wave, but went on to become best-selling rock acts. Bon Jovi
and Guns N’ Roses updated the heavy metal sound and became internationally popular too. In the
1990s, Nirvana became the most famous grunge act in the world. Grunge bands borrowed from
heavy metal, but were also influenced by punk rock and dressed in shabby, ripped clothing.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Manchester bands the Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays
combined dance music with rock instruments such as guitars to produce a new cross-over music.
Oasis, who also came from Manchester, became one of Britain’s most successful bands in the 1990s.
Oasis was greatly influenced by the British guitar bands of the 1960s, like many groups at the time,
including its pop rival Blur. People often use the term Britpop to describe these bands.

Madonna is the most famous and successful female pop star of all time, but recently American pop
music has created a stream of other talented female singers. Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey,
Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Beyoncé Knowles have all achieved worldwide success with
their powerful, sweet vocals. Rap star Missy “Misdemeanour” Elliott has become one of the most
famous rap stars in the world—quite an achievement, given that the rap scene is mostly dominated

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by male rappers such as Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, LL Cool J and Eminem.

Today’s pop music is very varied, but it still contains elements that have been part of popular music
for decades. Boy bands and girl bands specialize in smooth vocal harmonies and their songs rely on a
strong rhythm and repetitive, catchy hooks. The most popular themes of pop songs—love, loss, pain
and joy—appeared in the ballads that people sang hundreds of years ago. As long as there are
people, there will be pop music.

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.