Pop muisic

muisic genre

Pop muisic (a term that oreeginally derives frae an abbreviation o "popular") is a genre o popular muisic that oreeginatit in its modren form in the 1950s, derivin frae rock an roll.[1] The terms popular muisic an pop muisic is aften uised interchyngeably, tho the first o thaim is a description o muisic that is popular (an can include ony style).[1]

As a genre, pop muisic is vera eclectic, aften borraein elements frae ither styles includin urban, dance, rock, Laitin an kintra;[1] naetheless, thare core elements that define pop. Sic elements include generally short-tae-middlin lenth sangs, written in a basic format (aften the verse-chorus structur), as well as the common employment o repeatit choruses, melodic tunes, an catchy heuks.[1]

"pur pop" muisic, like pouer pop, featurs aw o thir elements, uisin electric guitars, drums an bass for instrumentation;[1] in the case o sic muisic, the main goal is uisually that o bein pleasurable tae listen tae, rather than haein hintle airtistic depth.[1] Pop muisic is generally thocht o as a genre that is commercially recordit an desires tae hae a mass audience appeal.[1]

Definitions

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David Hatch an Stephen Millward define pop muisic as "a body o muisic that is distinguishable frae popular, jazz an fowk muisics".[2] Tho pop muisic is afttimes seen as orientit taewart the singles chairts it isnae the sum o aw chairt muisic, that haes aye contained sangs frae a variety o sources, includin classical, jazz, rock, an novelty sangs, while pop muisic as a genre is uisually seen as existin an developin separately.[3] Thus "pop muisic" mey be uised tae describe a distinct genre, aimit at a youth mercat, aften characterisit as a softer alternative tae rock an roll.[4]

Etymologie

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The term "pop sang" is first recordit as bein uised in 1926, in the sense o a piece o muisic "haein popular appeal".[5] Hatch an Millward indicate that mony events in the history o recordin in the 1920s can be seen as the birth o the modren pop muisic industrie, includin in kintra, blues an hillbilly muisic.[6]

Accordin tae Grove Music Online, the term "pop muisic" "originatit in Breetain in the mid-1950s as a description for rock an roll an the new youth muisic styles that it influencit ...".[7] The Oxford Dictionary of Music states that while pop's "earlier meanin meant concerts appealin tae a wide audience ...[;] syne the late 1950s, housomeivver, pop haes haed the special meanin o nan-classical muis[ic], uisually in the form o sangs, performit bi sic airtists as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, ABBA, etc."[8] Grove Music Online states that "... in the early 1960s [the term] ‘pop muisic’ competit terminologically wi Beat muisic [in Ingland] an aw, while in the USA its coverage owerlappit (as it still is the day) wi that o ‘rock an roll’."[7] Chambers' Dictionary mentions the contemporary usage of the term "pop art";[9] Grove Music Online states that the "term pop muisic ... seems tae hae been a spin-aff frae the terms pop airt an pop cultur, coined slichtly earlier, an referrin tae a whole range o new, aften American, media-cultur products".[7]

Frae aboot 1967 the term wis increasinly uised in opposeetion tae the term rock muisic, a diveesion that gied generic signeeficance tae baith terms.[10] Whaur rock aspired to authenticity an an expansion o the possibilities o popular music,[10] pop wis mair commercial, ephemeral an accessible.[11] According tae Simon Frith pop music is produced "as a matter o enterprise no art", is "designed tae appeal tae awbody" an "disnae come frae ony particular place or mark aff ony particular taste". It "isnae driven by ony significant ambition apairt fae profit an commercial reward ... an, in muisical terms, it is essentially conservative". It is, "provided frae heid anes (by record companies, radio programmers an concert promoters) rather than bein made frae fowk ablo ... Pop isnae a dae-it-yersel muisic but is professionally produced and packaged".[12]

Notes

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  1. a b c d e f g Bill Lamb, "What Is Pop Music? A Definition" Archived 2005-10-20 at the Wayback Machine, About.com, retrieved 8 March 2012.
  2. D. Hatch and S. Millward, From Blues to Rock: an Analytical History of Pop Music (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987), ISBN 0-7190-1489-1, p. 1.
  3. R. Serge Denisoff and William L. Schurk, Tarnished Gold: the Record Industry Revisited (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 3rd edn., 1986), ISBN 0-88738-618-0, pp. 2–3.
  4. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Firth2001
  5. J. Simpson and E. Weiner, Oxford English Dictionary(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), ISBN 0-19-861186-2, cf pop.
  6. D. Hatch and S. Millward, From Blues to Rock: an Analytical History of Pop Music, ISBN 0-7190-1489-1, p. 49.
  7. a b c R. Middleton, et al, "Pop", Grove music online, retrieved 14 March 2010. (subscription needit)
  8. "Pop", The Oxford Dictionary of Music, retrieved 9 March 2010.(subscription needit)
  9. A. M. Macdonald, ed., Chambers' Twentieth Century Dictionary (Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap, 1977), ISBN 0-550-10231-0, cf. pop.
  10. a b Kenneth Gloag in The Oxford Companion to Music, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), ISBN 0-19-866212-2, p. 983.
  11. T. Warner, Pop Music: Technology and Creativity: Trevor Horn and the Digital Revolution (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003), ISBN 0-7546-3132-X, pp. 3-4.
  12. S. Frith, "Pop music", in 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. 95–6.