Popular music

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"Popular songs" redirects here. For the album by Yo La Tengo, see Popular Songs.

"Popular song" redirects here. For the song from the musical
Wicked, see Popular (song).

This article is about popular music of various genres. For
the pop music genre, see Pop
music.

The French Electro House band Justice in concert
in 2007.

Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical
genres "having wide appeal" [1]
and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands
in contrast to both art
music [2][3][4]
and traditional
music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller,
local audiences.[2][3][4]
Although popular music sometimes is known as "pop music", the two terms are
not interchangeable. Popular music is a generic term for music of all ages that
appeals to popular tastes,[5]
whereas pop music usually refers to a specific musical
genre.

Contents

1 Overview

2 Form

3 History

4 Genres

5 See also

6 Sources

7 References

8 Further
reading

9 External
links

[edit]
Overview

Musicologist and specialist in popular music Philip Tagg defined the notion
in the light of sociocultural and economical aspects:

"Popular music, unlike art
music, is (1) conceived for mass distribution to large and often
socioculturally heterogeneous groups of listeners, (2) stored and distributed
in non-written form, (3) only possible in an industrial monetary economy where
it becomes a commodity and (4) in capitalist societies,subject to the laws of
'free' enterprise, according to which it should ideally sell as much as
possible of as little as possible to as many as possible" [4]

For Richard Middleton and Peter Manuel, "a common approach to defining
popular music is to link popularity with scale of activity", such as "sales of
sheet music or recordings".[6]
This approach has a problem, in that "repeat hearings are not counted, depth of
response does not feature, socially diverse audiences are treated as one
aggregated market and there is no differentiation between musical styles".[6]
Another way to define popular music is "to link popularity with means of
dissemination" (e.g., being aired on the radio); however, this is problematic,
because "all sorts of music, from folk to avant garde, are subject to mass
mediation".[6]
A third approach to defining popular music is to based on "social group – either
a mass audience or a particular class (most often, though not always) the
working class", an approach which is problematic because social structures
cannot simply be overlain onto musical styles. These three approaches are "too
partial" and "too static". Moreover, "understandings of popular music have
changed with time".[6]

[edit]
Form

Main article: Song
structure (popular music)

Form in popular music is most often sectional, the most
common sections being verse, chorus or
refrain, and bridge. Other common forms
include thirty-two-bar form,
verse-chorus form,
and the twelve bar blues.
Popular music songs are rarely composed using different music for each stanza of
the lyrics (songs composed in this fashion are said to be "through-composed").

The verse and chorus are considered the primary elements. Each verse usually
has the same melody (possibly with some slight modifications), but the lyrics
change for most verses. The chorus (or "refrain") usually has a melodic phrase
and a key lyrical line which is repeated. Pop songs may have an introduction and coda
("tag"), but these elements are not essential to the identity of most songs. Pop
songs that use verses and choruses often have a bridge, which, as its name
suggests, is a section which connects the verse and chorus at one or more points
in the song.

The verse and chorus are usually repeated throughout a song though the
bridge, intro, and coda (also called an "outro") are usually only used once.
Some pop songs may have a solo section, particularly in rock or blues-influenced
pop. During the solo section one or more instruments play a melodic line which
may be the melody used by the singer, or, in blues- or jazz-influenced pop, the
solo may be improvised based on the chord progression. A solo usually features a
single instrumental performer (e.g., a guitarist or a harmonica player) or less
commonly, more than one instrumentalist (e.g., a trumpeter and a sax
player).

Thirty-two-bar form uses four sections, most often eight measures long each
(4×8=32), two verses or A sections, a contrasting B section (the bridge or
"middle-eight") and a return of the verse in one last A section (AABA).
Verse-chorus form or ABA form may be combined with AABA form, in compound AABA forms.
Variations such as a1 and a2 can also be used. The repetition of one chord
progression may mark off the only section in a simple verse form such as the
twelve bar blues.

[edit]
History

The 19th century singer Jenny Lind depicted
performing La
sonnambula

"The most significant feature of the emergent popular music industry of the
late 18th and early 19th centuries was the extent of its focus on the commodity
form of sheet music".[6]
The availability of inexpensive, widely-available sheet music versions of
popular songs and instrumental music pieces made it possible for music to be
disseminated to a wide audience of amateur music-makers, who could play and sing
popular music at home. In addition to the influence of sheet music, another
factor was the increasing availability during the late 18th and early 19th
century of public popular music performances in "pleasure gardens and dance
halls, popular theatres and concert rooms".[6]
The early popular music performers worked hand-in-hand with the sheet music
industry to promote popular sheet music. One of the early popular music
performers to attain widespread popularity was Jenny Lind, who toured the US
in the mid-19th century. During the 19th century, more regular people began
getting involved in music by participating in amateur choirs or joining brass
bands.

In the late 19th century during the US, the centre of the music publishing
industry was in New York's 'Tin Pan Alley' district.
The Tin Pan Alley music publishers developed a new method for promoting sheet
music: incessant promotion of new songs. One of the technological innovations
that helped to spread popular music around the turn of the century was player
pianos; these allowed people to hear the new popular piano tunes.[6]
By the early 1900s, the big trends in popular music were the increasing
popularity of vaudeville theaters and dance halls and the new invention—the gramophone player. The
record industry grew very rapidly; "By 1920 there were almost 80 record
companies in Britain, and almost 200 in the USA".[6]
Radio broadcasting of music, which began in the early 1920s, helped to spread
popular songs to a huge audience. Another factor which helped to disseminate
popular music was the introduction of "talking pictures"--sound films—in the
late 1920s. In the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s, there was a move towards
consolidation in the recording industry which led several major companies to
dominate the record industry.[6]

In the 1950s and 1960s, television began to play an increasingly important
role in disseminating new popular music. Variety shows regularly showcased
popular singers and bands. In the 1960s, the development of new technologies in
recording such as multitrack recorders gave sound engineers an increasingly
important role in popular music. By using recording techniques, sound engineers
could create new sounds and sound effects that were not possible using
traditional "live" recording techniques.[6]

In the 1970s, the trend towards consolidation in the recording industry
continued to the point that the "... dominance was in the hands of five huge
transnational organizations, three American-owned (WEA, RCA, CBS) and two
European-owned [companies] (EMI, Polygram)". In the 1990s, the consolidation
trend took a new turn: inter-media consolidation. This trend saw music recording
companies being consolidated with film, television, magazines, and other media
companies, an approach which facilitated cross-marketing promotion between
subsidiaries. For example, a record company's singing star could be
cross-promoted by the firm's television and magazine arms.[6]

In the 1990s, popular music was changed by the "introduction of digital
equipment (mixing desks, synthesizers, samplers, sequencers)" which allowed the
creation of "new sound worlds" and facilitated DIY music production by amateur
musicians and " tiny independent record labels".[6]
Another trend which affected popular music was the increasing availability and
use of computers and Internet connections, which facilitated the
dissemination—both legal and illegal—of digital recordings and digital versions
of sheet music and lyrics.

[edit]
Genres

Main article: List of popular
music genres

Popular music dates at least as far back as the mid 19th century, and is
commonly subdivided into genres. Different genres often appeal to different age
groups.[citation
needed] These often, but not always, are the people who were young
when the music was new. Thus, for instance, Big band music continues to
have a following, but it is probably a rather older group, on average, than the
audience for hip hop
music; similarly, the average age of the Breakcore or Dubstep aficionado is likely to
be younger than the average hip-hop fan.[citation
needed] For some genres, such as ragtime music, the original
target generation may have died out almost entirely.

[edit]
See also

Music radio

Popular
culture

List of
popular music performers

Popular
music pedagogy

List
of honorific titles in popular music

Music
popularity index

[edit]
Sources

Tagg Philip (1982) "Analysing Popular Music : Theory, Method and
Practice" in Popular Music, 2

Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music.
Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN
0-335-15275-9.

Bennett (1980).

Birrer, Frans A. J. (1985). "Definitions and research orientation: do we
need a definition of popular music?" in D. Horn, ed., Popular Music
Perspectives, 2 (Gothenburge, Exeter, Ottawa and Reggio Emilia),
p. 99-106.

Hall, S. (1978). "Popular culture, politics, and history", in Popular
Culture Bulletin, 3, Open University duplicated paper.

Everett, Walter (1997). "Swallowed by a Song: Paul Simon's Crisis of
Chromaticism", Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis. New
York: Oxford University Press. ISBN
0-19-510004-2.

Hamm, Charles (1979). Yesterdays: Popular Song in America. New
York: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN
0-393-01257-3.

Manuel, Peter (1988). Popular Musics of the Non-Western World: An
Introductory Survey. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN
0-19-505342-7.

Marcello Sorce Keller (2000). "Popular Music in Europe", in James Porter,
Timothy Rice and Chris Goertzen (eds.), Garland Encyclopedia of World
Music: Europe, New York, pp. 204- 213.

[edit]
References

^
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 6th Edition 2003.

^ a
b
Arnold, Denis (1983). The New Oxford Companion
Music, Volume 1: A-J. Oxford University Press. p. 111. ISBN 0-19-311316-3.

^ a
b
Arnold, Denis (1983). The New Oxford Companion
to Music, Volume 2: K-Z. Oxford University Press. p. 1467. ISBN 0-19-311316-3.

^ a
b
c
Tagg, Philip (1982), "Analysing
Popular Music: Theory, Method and Practice", Popular Music (2):
41

^ Allen,
Robert. "Popular music". Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage.
2004.

^ a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
Richard Middleton and Peter Manuel. "Popular music" in Grove Music
Online.

[edit]
Further reading

T.W. Adorno with G. Simpson: ‘On Popular Music’, Studies in Philosophy
and Social Science, ix (1941), 17–48

R. Iwaschkin: Popular Music: a Reference Guide (New York,
1986)

P. Hardy and D. Laing: The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular
Music (London, 1990/R)

R. Middleton: Studying Popular Music (Milton Keynes, 1990)

P. Gammond: The Oxford Companion to Popular Music (Oxford,
1991)

D. Brackett: Interpreting Popular Music (Cambridge, 1995)

Popular music

Timeline of
musical events

2010s • 2000s • 1990s • 1980s • 1970s • 1960s • 1950s • 1940s • 1930s
• 1920s
• 1910s
• 1900s
• 1890s
• 1880s
• 1870s
• 1860s
• 1850s
• 1840s
• 1830s
• 1820s
• 1810s
• 1800s
• 1790s
• 1780s
• 1770s
• 1760s
• 1750s
• 1740s
• 1730s
• 1720s
• 1710s
• 1700s
• 1690s
• 1680s
• 1670s
• 1660s
• 1650s
• 1640s
• 1630s
• 1620s
• 1610s
• 1600s
• 1590s
• 1580s
• 1570s
• 1560s
• 1550s
• 1540s
• 1530s
• 1520s
• 1510s
• 1500s
• Early
history

List of
popular music genres

fr:Volume
! a French scholarly journal dedicated to popular music studies.

[edit]
External links

Famous Music Videos - Music Video Database - YouTube, Google
Video, MySpace TV, MetaCafe, DailyMotion, Veoh, Current.com, ClipFish.de,
MyVideo.de, Break.com and EyeSpot

Pop and Rock Argues that Pop and Rock are inferior musical
genres.

The
1950s-2000's Week-By-Week - Looks at pop music/albums/radio and music news
through these decades.

Pop Culture Madness Features the most requested pop songs
1920s through today

The Daily Vault music reviews

Yale
Music Library Guide to Pop Music Research

Volume ! a French scholarly journal dedicated to the
study of popular music.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_music"

Categories: Popular
music | Popular
culture | Entertainment
| Mass
media

Hidden categories: All
articles with unsourced statements | Articles
with unsourced statements from November 2009

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