Genre Research

Genre research

We also done some further research into the genre of Pop, and how it has developed over the past few years.

• The search engine Google has over 1,570,000 searches for the term pop on the daily basis, but the question is what is pop music and its history? To know what pop is you must know the difference between pop and popular music because they are not the same thing. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (musicologist reference material) claims that popular music dates as far from the 1800th industrialization suited for the taste and interest of the urban middle class. "His could include everything from vaudeville and minstrel shows to heavy metal"- Musicstack.com.
• However pop music is described as 'what derives and evolved from Rock and Roll revolution from the 1950s'.
• From this definition, we certain pop music is aimed for the masses. This means the music genre most sold copies, most downloaded for example on iTunes and countless rotation of radio to attract the largest audience. 
• It is believed when Bill Haleys single "Rock Around The Clock" hit #1 in 1995 charts that most pop music became the music influenced by Rock and Roll.

• In the 1950s pop songs where often close to 2 mins, and sometimes 2:30mins for example Bill Haley "Rock Around The Clock" and through time pop music have lengthened. 
• In the 1960s, pop music 3mins length had become widespread and some exceeded 3 mins for example The Beatles "Hey Jude" (written by Lennon-McCartney) reaching 7:11 min 
• In 1964, the Animals "House Of The Rising Sun" was the first #1 hit to have a playing time of more than four minutes.
• Retail sales of pop music stood at US$7.4 billion in 2009- Musicandcopyright.com 
• In terms of revenue share, pop accounted for 29.2% of global music-retail sales last year despite in fall of other genres such as Rap/HipHop 

Element of pop

• "Pop songs also consist of a constant and obvious rhythmic element as well as a traditional structure"-quote. This has made it easy to remember and is catchy to sing along to which can stick in the audiences head so they can listen to it more. 
• It consist of lyrical content which are commonly about love, relationships and many different life experience with the intention to appeal to a mass audience for example, 'Unfaithful' by Rhianna, which the song is about her relationship going badly and she feels guilty. This can relate to male/female who are experiencing the same thing. 
• Through time as pop evolved, it has become more common to have verse-chorus repetition which is often catchy melodies and hooks which all work well together, for example the high frequent repetition of 'Oh, na, na, what's my name?' - by Rihanna- 'Whats my name' which topped the US Billboard Hot100 chart.

• Pop music genre is interesting because of the transformation it has gone through the years and the variety of sub genre it include for instance; bubble gum, funk, jazz, teen pop, dance pop and many more. Artist such as Jerry Lee Lewis bought the piano to advancement, Buddy Holly brought a mixture of a Rockabilly which was the early styles of rock and roll mixed with hillbilly style reference of country music. 

 Key pop music moment

• The 60's was a turning point for pop music because the legendary band Beatles came to the scene setting a record for album with the longest time spent at #1 for 30 weeks and 2.8 million singles sold on Itunes. 

• At the time many artist didn't write the songs they recorded, there were many song writing teams such as Holland-Dozier-Holland who wrote the #1 hit 'The Happening' by The Supreme. Other successful song writers like Gerry Goffins who wrote the #1 hit "Save my love for you" by Whitney Houston. 
• The Beatles encourage those who can write their own music as they did themselves. The Beatles; John lennon and Paul McCartney wrote numerous songs of their own such as the #1 chart hit " A day in the  life"-written by John Lennon. 
• The Beatles lead the British Invasion which was the popularity increase in the U.S of British pop music in 1963. Though the first British artist to successively break into the U.S was the Scotsman Lonnie Donegan with his debut record single 'Rock Island Land' cover version from the blues artist LeadBelly. The Scotsman was the first to hit top 10 chart in the U.S and also reach #1 in the U.K. 
• Many other artist contributed to the British Invasion, in 1961, another British artist, Acker Bilk hit the top spot on the Billboard charts with his cut “Stranger on the Shore,” as did the Tornados in 1962 with “ Telstar- Musicstack.com 
• The Beatles whom are believed to have started the British Invasion where a skiffle group in the 1950s which is a type of popular music with jazz, folk, blues and roots influences. From the Rock and Roll artists named above we can conclude The Beatles adulation of those artists influenced The Beatles music if you listen to both. However the Beatles took music further with these elements writing most of their own music and making melodies and harmonies that where more improvised then other songs at that time. 
• After The Beatles report on CBS evening news about the Beatlemania (term used to describe the Beatles successful outspread) 15-year-old Marsha Albert wrote to DJ Carroll James "why can't we have music like that here in America?". on December 17th he played " I want you to hold you hand" live on air by The Beatles which reached the chart #1 and same on Billboard's February 1 chart. 
• "On April 4, the Beatles held the top 5 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles char" 
• "The group's massive chart success continued until they broke up in 1970"- Musicstack.com 

Pop Evolution

• through time society has changed and influenced the type of pop music being made. Some songs where about protest for example John Lennons anti-Vientnam war and the song "Give peace a chance". Marvin Gaye wrote songs about peace such as 'whats going on' and 'give peace a chance'. After the second World War the Hippie movement wanted peaceful songs and love which The Beatles brought a long. Artist such as Cher, Melanie, Carol King and Carly Simons wrote songs for womens Lib movement. 'he hit me' written by Carol King was written after she found out about a female artist Little Eva was being regularly beaten by her boyfriend. Carol King also wrote "its too late" which hit #1 on The Billboard 100 charts, the song was about her realizing her once auspicious relationship is over even though she is putting on a brave face but deep inside she is gutted 
• As time past black artist became open to write music not only to the black audience but to the entire world or in general mass audience. Black artist emerged such as Stevie wonder and Micheal Jackson also known as 'The King of Pop' who among others helped take soul music to another level. Motown records was successful for its integration of different culture like African American artist Boys II Men and Stevie wonder which were constantly hitting The Billboard Top ten for example the number 1 hit "you are the sunshine of my life"