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 is a 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

City pop

Cringe pop

Dance-pop

Electropop

Indie pop

Bedroom pop

Sapphic pop

Twee pop

Operatic pop

Orchestral 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

Disco-pop

Disco-pop is a music genre that emerged in the 1970s, [8] [ failed verification ] blending elements of disco and pop music. It integrates disco's rhythmic base and dance-oriented beats with the melodic and vocal characteristics typical of pop music. Key features of the genre include the use of synthesizers, drum machines, and a pronounced bassline, which produce an energetic and joyful sound. Smooth vocals and catchy hooks are often layered over this musical backdrop. [9] [ unreliable source? ]

Following a marked decline in popularity during the 1980s, disco-pop occasionally saw rare hits in the 2000s[ failed verification ], such as "Sing It Back" by Moloko [10] or "Murder on the Dancefloor" by Sophie Ellis-Bextor. [11] [12] During the late 2010s and early 2020s, the genre experienced a significant resurgence, [13] [14] when artists like Dua Lipa and Jessie Ware, among others, [15] [16] [17] released albums that garnered high chart positions and critical acclaim. [18]

Folk-pop

Hip pop

House-pop

House-pop (sometimes also called "pop-house") [19] is a crossover of house and dance-pop music that emerged in early '90s. [20] The genre was created for make house music more radio friendly. [21] 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. [20]

Jazz pop

Pop-R&B

Pop rock

Baroque pop

Cowboy pop

Emo pop

Goth 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. [23] 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. [24] Luther Vandross is an example of pop soul musician. [25]

Beach pop

Psychedelic pop

Hypnagogic pop

Reggae-pop

Space age pop

Street pop

Street pop, or street hop, is an experimental, hybrid rap genre that blends Nigerian street music, Nigerian hip hop, Afrobeats and pop with African and Western electronic dance music elements like gqom. It features uptempo beats, including slower-paced beats and variation styles. The genre combines Western and Nigerian pop influences to create a distinctive, evolving sound. Key musical artists like Olamide, Asake, Zinoleesky, Naira Marley and Seyi Vibez, highlight its fusion of traditional and modern elements. [26] [27] [28]

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

What are the subgenres of the pop music


Swamp pop

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disco</span> Music genre

Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric piano, synthesizers, and electric rhythm guitars.

<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.

House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's Black gay underground club culture and evolved slowly in the early/mid 1980s as DJs began altering disco songs to give them a more mechanical beat. By early 1988, House became mainstream and supplanted the typical 80s music beat.

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

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">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, 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.

<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."

Dance-pop is a subgenre of pop music that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit radio. Developing from a combination of dance and pop with influences of disco, post-disco and synth-pop, it is generally characterised by strong beats with easy, uncomplicated song structures which are generally more similar to pop music than the more free-form dance genre, with an emphasis on melody as well as catchy tunes. The genre, on the whole, tends to be producer-driven, despite some notable exceptions.

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


Music history of the United States includes many styles of folk, popular and classical music. Some of the best-known genres of American music are rhythm and blues, jazz, rock and roll, rock, soul, hip hop, pop, and country. The history began with the Native Americans, the first people to populate North America.

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

American popular music is popular music produced in the United States and is a part of American pop culture. Distinctive styles of American popular music emerged early in the 19th century, and in the 20th century the American music industry developed a series of new forms of music, using elements of blues and other genres. These popular styles included country, R&B, jazz and rock. The 1960s and 1970s saw a number of important changes in American popular music, including the development of a number of new styles, such as heavy metal, punk, soul, and hip hop.

Psychedelic music is a wide range of popular music styles and genres influenced by 1960s psychedelia, a subculture of people who used psychedelic drugs such as DMT, LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin mushrooms, to experience synesthesia and altered states of consciousness. Psychedelic music may also aim to enhance the experience of using these drugs and has been found to have a significant influence on psychedelic therapy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dance music</span> Music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing

Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance music. While there exist attestations of the combination of dance and music in ancient history, the earliest Western dance music that we can still reproduce with a degree of certainty are old-fashioned dances. In the Baroque period, the major dance styles were noble court dances. In the classical music era, the minuet was frequently used as a third movement, although in this context it would not accompany any dancing. The waltz also arose later in the classical era. Both remained part of the romantic music period, which also saw the rise of various other nationalistic dance forms like the barcarolle, mazurka, ecossaise, ballade and polonaise.

Nu-disco is a 21st-century dance music genre associated with a renewed interest in the late 1970s disco, synthesizer-heavy 1980s European dance music styles, and early 1990s electronic dance music. The genre was popular in the early 2000s, and experienced a mild resurgence in the 2010s.

Post-disco is a term to describe an aftermath in popular music history circa 1979–1986, imprecisely beginning with the backlash against disco music in the United States, leading to civil unrest and a riot in Chicago known as the Disco Demolition Night on July 12, 1979, and indistinctly ending with the mainstream appearance of new wave in 1980. During its dying stage, disco displayed an increasingly electronic character that soon served as a stepping stone to new wave, old-school hip hop, Euro disco, and was succeeded by an underground club music called hi-NRG, which was its direct continuation.

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. ↑ Palmer, Robert (1979-07-08). "The Beat That's Latinizing Disco and Pop". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-06-25.
  9. ↑ Brook, K. A. "Disco Savvy: A Diversity of Sounds in Disco Music". www.discosavvy.com. Retrieved 2024-06-25.
  10. ↑ Dalton, Stephen (2005-09-12). "Moloko : Sing it back". NME . Retrieved 2024-06-25.
  11. ↑ Campbell, Tina (2024-04-20). "Sophie Ellis-Bextor working on 'happy disco music' amid Saltburn success". Evening Standard. Retrieved 2024-06-25.
  12. ↑ Zellner, Xander (2024-01-09). "Hot 100 First-Timers: Sophie Ellis-Bextor Debuts With 'Murder on the Dancefloor' Thanks to 'Saltburn'". Billboard. Retrieved 2024-06-25.
  13. ↑ Sinclair, Kristen (2020-05-20). "Disco Fever Strikes Again". The Indiependent. Retrieved 2024-06-25.
  14. ↑ Kornhaber, Spencer (2020-12-23). "The Eeriness of the 2020 Disco Revival". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2024-06-25.
  15. ↑ Snapes, Laura (2022-07-12). "Carly Rae Jepsen review – huge, feel-good highs for the disco-pop faithful". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-06-25.
  16. ↑ Morris, Damien (2022-07-24). "Lizzo: Special review – next-level irresistible disco-pop". The Observer. ISSN   0029-7712 . Retrieved 2024-06-25.
  17. ↑ Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (2021-08-06). "The Weeknd: Take My Breath review – an instant disco-pop classic". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-06-25.
  18. ↑ Kaplan, Ilana (2020-12-23). "How Dance Music Defined a Year When We Couldn't Dance". The Ringer. Retrieved 2024-06-25.
  19. ↑ "R3HAB Releases "My Pony," A Dancefloor and Radio Friendly Soulful House-Pop Gem". 12 April 2022.
  20. 1 2 "A Brief History of House Pop, Inspired by Robyn's Honey". Pitchfork . 5 November 2018.
  21. ↑ "The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time". Slant Magazine . 15 June 2020.
  22. ↑ "Beach Music Genre Overview". AllMusic .
  23. ↑ "30 Pop Soul Anthem Songs (Playlist)". 19 May 2016.
  24. ↑ "Pop-Soul Music Genre Overview". AllMusic .
  25. ↑ Holden, Stephen (3 October 1982). "Luther Vandross: Pop-Soul Pyrotechnics". The New York Times .
  26. ↑ "The rise of street-hop, Lagos' evolving dance sound". DJ Mag. 2021-04-15. Retrieved 2024-08-11.
  27. ↑ "Sounds From This Side Street Pop". The NATIVE. Retrieved 2024-08-11.
  28. ↑ Ihejirika, Uzoma (2023-02-07). "For Its Next Lap, Nigeria's Street Pop Is Pushing Into Experimental Fields". The NATIVE. Retrieved 2024-08-11.
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