Styles of pop music

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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. [1] The terms popular music and pop music are often used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular and includes many disparate styles. 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.

Contents

Although much of the music that appears on record charts is seen as pop music, the genre is distinguished from chart music. Identifying factors 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 pop music also borrows elements from other styles such as rock, urban, dance, Latin, and country.

Below are list of styles of pop music.

Stylistic origins

Traditional pop

Traditional pop (also known as classic pop and pre-rock and roll pop) is Western popular music that generally pre-dates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. The most popular and enduring songs from this era of music are known as pop standards or American standards. The works of these songwriters and composers are usually considered part of the canon known as the "Great American Songbook". More generally, the term "standard" can be applied to any popular song that has become very widely known within mainstream culture.

AllMusic defines traditional pop as "post-big band and pre-rock & roll pop music". [2]

Rock and roll

Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. [3] It originated from black American music such as gospel, jump blues, jazz, boogie woogie, rhythm and blues, [4] as well as country music. [5] While rock and roll's formative elements can be heard in blues records from the 1920s [6] and in country records of the 1930s, [5] the genre did not acquire its name until 1954. [7]

Earliest form

Early pop music drew on the sentimental ballad for its form, gained its use of vocal harmonies from gospel and soul music, instrumentation from jazz and rock music, orchestration from classical music, tempo from dance music, backing from electronic music, rhythmic elements from hip-hop music, and spoken passages from rap. [1] [ verification needed ]

Subgenres

Below are genres that exclusively considered as subgenres of pop.

Note that music styles like dance, electronic, opera, and orchestra are not considered as standalone genres.

Art pop

Brill Building

Bubblegum pop

cringe pop

Dance-pop

Electropop

Operatic pop

Orchestral pop

Sad pop

Schlager

Sophisti-pop

Sunshine pop

Teen pop

Wonky pop

Fusion genres

Below are styles of pop music that mixed with other standalone genres.

Ambient pop

Country pop

Dancehall pop

Folk-pop

Hip pop

House-pop

House-pop (sometimes also called "pop-house") [8] is a crossover of house and dance-pop music that emerged in early '90s. [9] The genre was came for make house music more radio friendly. [10] The characteristic of house-pop is similar to diva house music, like over-the-top vocal acrobatics, bubbly synth riffs, and four-on-the-floor rhythm. House-pop also has hip-hop influence. [9]

Jazz pop

Pop-R&B

Pop rock

Baroque pop

Cowboy pop

Emo pop

Goth pop

Indie pop

Jangle pop

Pop metal

Pop punk

Power pop

Pop soul / Motown

Pop soul / Motown is a genre of soul music that has upbeat tempo and given a commercially viable, crossover production. [12] The vocals are still raw, but the material and the sound of the record could easily fit onto pop radio stations' playlists. Motown was the pioneering label of pop soul, and through much of the 1960s, it was one of the most popular pop music genres. In the 1970s, pop soul became slicker, and it eventually metamorphosed into disco. [13] Luther Vandross is an example of pop soul musician. [14]

Beach pop

Psychedelic pop

Hypnagogic pop

Reggae-pop

Space age pop

Synth-pop

Worldbeat

Below are pop music that related to avant-garde culture.

Experimental pop

Hyperpop

Industrial pop

Noise pop

Progressive pop

Regional scenes and subgenres

Contemporary Christian music

Motown

New wave

Rock music

Smooth jazz

Smooth soul

Other genres

Below are 'pop' genres that are not considered as pop musics.

Avant-pop

Bitpop

Britpop

Chamber pop

Dream pop

Futurepop

Swamp pop

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Funk</span> 1960s music genre

Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the mid-20th century. It deemphasizes melody and chord progressions and focuses on a strong rhythmic groove of a bassline played by an electric bassist and a drum part played by a percussionist, often at slower tempos than other popular music. Funk typically consists of a complex percussive groove with rhythm instruments playing interlocking grooves that create a "hypnotic" and "danceable" feel. It uses the same richly colored extended chords found in bebop jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths, and dominant seventh chords with altered ninths and thirteenths.

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm and blues, boogie-woogie, electric blues, gospel, jump blues, as well as country music. While rock and roll's formative elements can be heard in blues records from the 1920s and in country records of the 1930s, the genre did not acquire its name until 1954.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhythm and blues</span> Music genre originated in the 1940s

Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to African Americans, at a time when "rocking, jazz based music ... [with a] heavy, insistent beat" was becoming more popular. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands usually consisted of a piano, one or two guitars, bass, drums, one or more saxophones, and sometimes background vocalists. R&B lyrical themes often encapsulate the African-American history and experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy, as well as triumphs and failures in terms of societal racism, oppression, relationships, economics, and aspirations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soul music</span> Genre of music

Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became popular for dancing and listening, where U.S. record labels such as Motown, Atlantic and Stax were influential during the Civil Rights Movement. Soul also became popular around the world, directly influencing rock music and the music of Africa. It also had a resurgence in the mid-to late 1990s with the subgenre neo-soul, which added modern production elements and influence from hip-hop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doo-wop</span> Style of rhythm and blues music

Doo-wop is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Detroit, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. It features vocal group harmony that carries an engaging melodic line to a simple beat with little or no instrumentation. Lyrics are simple, usually about love, sung by a lead vocal over background vocals, and often featuring, in the bridge, a melodramatically heartfelt recitative addressed to the beloved. Harmonic singing of nonsense syllables is a common characteristic of these songs. Gaining popularity in the 1950s, doo-wop was "artistically and commercially viable" until the early 1960s, but continued to influence performers in other genres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music of the United States</span>

The United States' multi-ethnic population is reflected through a diverse array of styles of music. It is a mixture of music influenced by the music of Europe, Indigenous peoples, West Africa, Latin America, Middle East, North Africa, amongst many other places. The country's most internationally renowned genres are traditional pop, jazz, blues, country, bluegrass, rock, rock and roll, R&B, pop, hip-hop/rap, soul, funk, religious, disco, house, techno, ragtime, doo-wop, folk, americana, boogaloo, tejano, reggaeton, surf, and salsa, amongst many others. American music is heard around the world. Since the beginning of the 20th century, some forms of American popular music have gained a near global audience.

Jump blues is an up-tempo style of blues, jazz, and boogie woogie usually played by small groups and featuring horn instruments. It was popular in the 1940s and was a precursor of rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Appreciation of jump blues was renewed in the 1990s as part of the swing revival.

The music of Louisiana can be divided into three general regions: rural south Louisiana, home to Creole Zydeco and Old French, New Orleans, and north Louisiana. The region in and around Greater New Orleans has a unique musical heritage tied to Dixieland jazz, blues, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms. The music of the northern portion of the state starting at Baton Rouge and reaching Shreveport has similarities to that of the rest of the US South.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African-American music</span> Musical traditions of African American people

African-American music is a broad term covering a diverse range of musical genres largely developed by African Americans and their culture. Its origins are in musical forms that developed as a result of the enslavement of African Americans prior to the American Civil War. It has been said that "every genre that is born from America has black roots."

Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contemporary radio stations feature a playlist made up entirely of Black genres such as R&B, pop-rap, quiet storm, urban adult contemporary, hip hop, Latin music such as Latin pop, Chicano R&B and Chicano rap, and Caribbean music such as reggae and soca. Urban contemporary was developed through the characteristics of genres such as R&B and soul.

The origins of rock and roll are complex. Rock and roll emerged as a defined musical style in the United States in the early to mid-1950s. It derived most directly from the rhythm and blues music of the 1940s, which itself developed from earlier blues, the beat-heavy jump blues, boogie woogie, up-tempo jazz, and swing music. It was also influenced by gospel, country and western, and traditional folk music. Rock and roll in turn provided the main basis for the music that, since the mid-1960s, has been generally known simply as rock music.

Beach music, also known as Carolina beach music, and to a lesser extent, beach pop, is a regional genre of music in the United States which developed from rock/R&B and pop music of the 1950s and 1960s. Beach music is most closely associated with the style of dance known as the shag, or the Carolina shag, which is also the official state dance of both North Carolina and South Carolina. Recordings with a 4/4 "blues shuffle" rhythmic structure and moderate-to-fast tempo are the most popular music for the shag, and the vast majority of the music in this genre fits that description.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American popular music</span>

American popular music has had a profound effect on music across the world. The country has seen the rise of popular styles that have had a significant influence on global culture, including ragtime, blues, jazz, swing, rock, bluegrass, country, R&B, doo wop, gospel, soul, funk, pop, punk, disco, house, techno, salsa, grunge and hip hop. In addition, the American music industry is quite diverse, supporting a number of regional styles such as zydeco, klezmer and slack-key.

This article includes an overview of the events and trends in popular music in the 1960s.

This article includes an overview of the major events and trends in popular music in the 1950s.

References

  1. 1 2 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.
  2. "Traditional Pop | Music Highlights". AllMusic . Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  3. Farley, Christopher John (July 6, 2004). "Elvis Rocks But He's Not the First". Time . Archived from the original on August 17, 2013. Retrieved July 3, 2009.
  4. Christ-Janer, Albert, Charles W. Hughes, and Carleton Sprague Smith, American Hymns Old and New (New York: Columbia University Press, 1980), p. 364, ISBN   0-231-03458-X.
  5. 1 2 Peterson, Richard A. Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity (1999), p. 9, ISBN   0-226-66285-3.
  6. Davis, Francis. The History of the Blues (New York: Hyperion, 1995), ISBN   0-7868-8124-0.
  7. "The Roots of Rock 'n' Roll 1946–1954". 2004. Universal Music Enterprises.
  8. "R3HAB Releases "My Pony," A Dancefloor and Radio Friendly Soulful House-Pop Gem". 12 April 2022.
  9. 1 2 "A Brief History of House Pop, Inspired by Robyn's Honey". Pitchfork . 5 November 2018.
  10. "The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time". Slant Magazine . 15 June 2020.
  11. "Beach Music Genre Overview". AllMusic .
  12. "30 Pop Soul Anthem Songs (Playlist)". 19 May 2016.
  13. "Pop-Soul Music Genre Overview". AllMusic .
  14. Holden, Stephen (3 October 1982). "Luther Vandross: Pop-Soul Pyrotechnics". The New York Times .