Popular music

For the musical genre, see Pop music.
"Popular song" redirects here. For other uses, see Popular Song (disambiguation).
Popular music
Timeline of musical events
List of popular music genres
Look up popular music in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Popular music is music with wide appeal[1][2][3] that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.[1] It stands in contrast to both art music[4][5][6] and traditional or "folk" music. Art music was historically disseminated through the performances of written music, although since the beginning of the recording industry, it is also disseminated through recordings. Traditional music forms such as early blues songs or hymns were passed along orally, or to smaller, local audiences.[4][5][6]

The original application of the term is to music of the 1880s Tin Pan Alley period in the United States.[1] Although popular music sometimes is known as "pop music", the two terms are not interchangeable.[7] Popular music is a generic term for a wide variety of genres of music that appeal to the tastes of a large segment of the population,[8] whereas pop music usually refers to a specific musical genre within popular music.[9] Popular music songs and pieces typically have easily singable melodies. The song structure of popular music commonly involves repetition of sections, with the verse and chorus or refrain repeating throughout the song and the bridge providing a contrasting and transitional section within a piece.[10]

In the 2000s, with songs and pieces available as digital sound files, it has become easier for music to spread from one country or region to another. Some popular music forms have become global, while others have a wide appeal within the culture of their origin.[11] Through the mixture of musical genres, new popular music forms are created to reflect the ideals of a global culture.[12] The examples of Africa, Indonesia and the Middle East show how Western pop music styles can blend with local musical traditions to create new hybrid styles.

Definition

Further information: Folk music

Scholars have classified music as "popular" based on various factors, including whether a song or piece becomes known to listeners mainly from hearing the music (in contrast with classical music, in which many musicians learn pieces from sheet music); its appeal to diverse listeners, its treatment as a marketplace commodity in a capitalist context, and other factors.[6] Sales of 'recordings' or sheet music are one measure. Middleton and Manuel note that this definition has problems because multiple listens or plays of the same song or piece are not counted.[2] Evaluating appeal based on size of audience (mass appeal) or whether audience is of a certain social class is another way to define popular music, but this, too, has problems in that social categories of people cannot be applied accurately to musical styles. Manuel states that one criticism of popular music is that it is produced by large media conglomerates and passively consumed by the public, who merely buy or reject what music is being produced. He claims that the listeners in the scenario would not have been able to make the choice of their favorite music, which negates the previous conception of popular music.[13] Moreover, "understandings of popular music have changed with time".[2] Middleton argues that if research were to be done on the field of popular music, there would be a level of stability within societies to characterize historical periods, distribution of music, and the patterns of influence and continuity within the popular styles of music.[14]

Anahid Kassabian separated popular music into four categories; "popular as populist," or having overtones of liberation and expression; "popular as folk," or stating that the music is written by the people, for themselves; "popular as counterculture," or empowering citizens to act against the oppression they face; and "popular as mass," or the music becomes the tool for oppression.[15] A society's popular music reflects the ideals that are prevalent at the time it is performed or published.[16] David Riesman states that the youth audiences of popular music fit into either a majority group or a subculture. The majority group listens to the commercially produced styles while the subcultures find a minority style to transmit their own values.[14] This allows youth to choose what music they identify with, which gives them power as consumers to control the market of popular music.[14]

Form of Western popular music

Main article: Song structure

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, chorus form *(Middleton pg 30), and 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").[10]

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.[10]

The verse and chorus are usually repeated throughout a song, while the bridge, intro, and coda (also called an "outro") tend to be used only 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).[10]

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).[17] 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.[10]

Development in North America and Europe

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".[18] 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, middle-class music-makers, who could play and sing popular music at home. Amateur music-making in the 19th century often centred around the piano, as this instrument could play melodies, chords and basslines, thus enabling a pianist to reproduce popular songs and pieces. 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".[18] 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 a Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind, who toured the US in the mid-19th century. In addition to living room amateur music-making during the 19th century, more people began getting involved in music during this era by participating in amateur choirs, joining brass bands or playing in amateur orchestras.

The centre of the music publishing industry in the US during the late 19th century 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. A player piano could be used to record a skilled pianist's rendition of a piano piece. This recorded performance could be "played back" on another player piano. This allowed a larger number of music lovers to hear the new popular piano tunes.[18] By the early 1900s, the big trends in popular music were the increasing popularity of vaudeville theaters and dance halls and a 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".[18] The availability of records enabled a larger percentage of the population to hear the top singers and bands.

Radio broadcasting of music, which began in the early 1920s, helped to spread popular songs to a huge audience, enabling a much larger proportion of the population to hear songs performed by professional singers and music ensembles, including individuals from lower income groups who previously would not have been able to afford concert tickets. Radio broadcasting increased the ability of songwriters, singers and bandleaders to become nationally known. Another factor which helped to disseminate popular music was the introduction of "talking pictures"—sound films—in the late 1920s, which also included music and songs. 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.[18]

In the 1950s and 1960s, the new invention of 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 and record producers an increasingly important role in popular music. By using multitrack recording techniques, sound engineers could create new sounds and sound effects that were not possible using traditional "live" recording techniques,[18] such as a singer performing her own backup vocals or having a lead guitarist play rhythm guitar behind her guitar solo. During the 1960s era of psychedelic music, the recording studio was used to create even more unusual sounds, in order to mimic the effect of taking hallucinogenic drugs, some songs used tapes of instruments played backwards or panned the music from one side to the other of the stereo image.

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 conglomerate's television talk shows and magazine arms.[18]

The "introduction of digital equipment (mixing desks, synthesizers, samplers, sequencers)" in the 1990s resulted in what Grove Dictionary of Music dubbed the creation of "new sound worlds", as well as facilitating DIY music production by amateur musicians and "tiny independent record labels".[18] In the 1990s, the availability of sound recording software and effects units software meant that an amateur indie band could record an album—which required a fully equipped recording studio in previous decades—using little more than a laptop and a good quality microphone.

Global perspective

In contrast to Western popular music, a genre of music that is popular outside of a Western nation, is categorized into World music. This label turns otherwise popular styles of music into an exotic and unknown category. The Western concept of 'World Music' homogenizes many different genres of popular music under one accessible term for Western audiences.[15] New media technology has led urban music styles to filter into distant rural areas across the globe. The rural areas, in turn, are able to give feedback to the urban centers about the new styles of music.[14] Urbanization, modernization, exposure to foreign music and mass media have contributed to hybrid urban pop styles. The hybrid styles have also found a space within Western popular music through the expressions of their national culture.[13] Recipient cultures borrow elements from host cultures and alter the meaning and context found in the host culture. Many Western styles, in turn, have become international styles through multinational recording studios.[13]

Africa

Senegalese rapper, Didier Awadi

Popular African music styles have stemmed from traditional entertainment genres, rather than evolving from music used with certain traditional ceremonies like weddings, births, or funerals.[13] African popular music as a whole has been influenced by European countries, African-American and Afro-Latin music, and region-specific styles that became popular across a wider range of people.[13] The genre of music, Maskanda, is popular in its culture of origin, South Africa. Although maskanda is a traditional music genre by definition, the people who listen to it influence the ideals that are brought forth in the music.[19] A popular maskandi artist, Phuzekhemisi, had to lessen the political influence within his music to be ready for the public sphere. His music producer, West Nikosi, was looking for the commercial success in Phuzekhemisi's music rather than starting a political controversy.[19]

Political songs have been an important category of African popular music in many societies. During the continent's struggle against colonial rule, nationalistic songs boosted citizens' morale. These songs were based on Western marches and hymns reflecting the European education system that the early nationalistic leaders grew up in. Not all African political songs were based on Western styles. For example, in South Africa, the political songs during the Anti-Apartheid Movement were based on traditional tribal styles along with hybrid forms of imported genres.[13] Activists used protest and freedom songs to persuade individuals to take action, become educated with the struggle, and empower others to be politically conscious.[20] These songs reflected the nuances between the different classes involved in the liberation struggle.[13]

One of the genres people of Africa use for political expression is Hip hop.[21] Although hip hop in Africa is based on the North American template, it has been remade to produce new meanings for African young people. This allows the genre to be both locally and globally influential.[21] African youth are shaped by the fast-growing genre's ability to communicate, educate, empower, and entertain.[21] Artists who would have started in traditional music genres, like maskanda, became hip hop artists to provide a stronger career path for themselves. These rappers compare themselves to the traditional artists like the griot and oral storyteller, who both had a role in reflecting on the internal dynamics of the larger society.[21] African hip hop creates youth culture, community intelligence, and global solidarity.[21]

Asia

Indonesia

KRAS, also known as Heavy Metal Punk Machine, is an Indonesian heavy metal band

Popular music in Indonesia can be categorized as hybrid forms of Western rock to genres that are originated in Indonesia and indigenous in style.[13] The genre of music, Dangdut, is a genre of popular music specifically found in Indonesia. Dangdut formed two other styles of popular music, Indo-pop and Underground,[22] together to create a new hybrid or fusion genre. The genre takes the noisy instrumentation from Underground, but still makes it easy to listen to like Indo-pop. Dangdut attempts to form many popular music genres like rock, pop, and traditional music to create this new sound that lines up with the consumers' tastes.[23] This genre has formed into a larger social movement that includes clothing, youth culture, the resurgence of Islam, and the capitalist entertainment industry.[13] Another music scene that is popular in Indonesia is Punk rock. This genre was shaped in Indonesia by the local interpretations of the media from the larger global punk movement.[22] Jeremy Wallach argues that while Green Day was seen as the "death of punk," in Indonesia they were the catalyst for a larger punk movement.[22] Punk in Indonesia calls on the English-speaking world to embrace the global sects of the punk culture and become open-minded to the transnational genre.[22]

China

In a study involving young students in Shanghai, youth find that they enjoy to listen to both Chinese, other Asian nationalities, and Anglo-American popular music. There are three ways that young people of China were able to access global music.[16] The first reason was a policy change since the late 1970s where the country was opened up to the rest of the world instead of being self-contained. This created more opportunities for Chinese people to interact with people outside of their country of origin to create a more globalized culture. The second reason is that the Chinese television and music industry since the 1980s has broadcast television shows from their neighboring Asian societies and the West. The third reason is the impact of the internet and smart phones on the accessibility of streaming music.[16] Students in China make up 30.2% of China's internet population and the third and fifth most popular uses of the internet are respectively, internet music and internet video use. The youth described as being able to connect to the emotions and language of the Chinese music, but also enjoyed the melodies found within Anglo-American music. The students also believed that listening to the English music would improve their English language skills.[16]

Middle East

Iranian rock band Kiosk, live in 2007

Modernization of music in the Arab world involved borrowing inspiration from Turkish music and Western musical styles.[24] The late Egyptian singer, Umm Kulthum, stated,

"We must respect ourselves and our art. The Indians have set a good example for us - they show great respect for themselves and their arts. Wherever they are, they wear their native dress and their music is known throughout the world. This is the right way."

She discussed this to explain why Egypt and the Arab world needed to take pride in the popular music styles originating in their culture so the styles were not lost in the modernization.[24] Local musicians learned Western instrumental styles to create their own popular styles including their native languages and indigenous musical features.[24] Communities in throughout the Arab world place high value on their indigenous musical identities while assimilating to new musical styles from neighboring countries or mass media.[24] Through the 1980s and 1990s, popular music has been seen as a problem for the Iranian government because of the non-religious meanings within the music and the bodily movements of dancing or headbanging.[25] During this time period, metal became a popular underground subculture through the Middle East. Just like their Western counterparts, Middle Eastern metal followers expressed their feelings of alienation. But their thoughts came from war and social restrictions on youth.[26] In interviews of Iranian teenagers between 1990 and 2004, the youth overall preferred Western popular music, even though it was banned by the government.[25] Iranian underground rock bands are composed of members who are young, urban-minded, educated, relatively well-off, and global beings. Iranian rock is described by the traits that these band members possess.[25] The youth who take part in underground music in the Middle East are aware of the social constraints of their countries, but they are not optimistic about social change.[26] Iranian rock bands have taken up an internationalist position to express their rebellion from the discourses in their national governments.[25]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Popular Music. (2015). Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia
  2. 1 2 3 Middleton, Richard; Manuel, Peter (2001). "Popular Music". Grove Music Online. Oxford Index. ISBN 9781561592630.
  3. ↑ "Definition of "popular music" | Collins English Dictionary". www.collinsdictionary.com. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
  4. 1 2 Arnold, Denis (1983). The New Oxford Companion Music, Volume 1: A-J. Oxford University Press. p. 111. ISBN 0-19-311316-3.
  5. 1 2 Arnold, Denis (1983). The New Oxford Companion to Music, Volume 2: K-Z. Oxford University Press. p. 1467. ISBN 0-19-311316-3.
  6. 1 2 3 Tagg, Philip (1982). "Analysing popular music: theory, method and practice". Popular Music. doi:10.1017/S0261143000001227.
  7. ↑ Lamb, Bill. "Pop Music Defined". About Entertainment. About.com. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  8. ↑ Allen, Robert. "Popular music". Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage. 2004.
  9. ↑ Laurie, Timothy (2014). "Music Genre As Method". Cultural Studies Review. 20 (2), pp. 283-292.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 Sadie, Stanley, ed. (2001). "Popular Music: Form". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 20. New York: Grove. pp. 142–144. ISBN 0333608003.
  11. ↑ Lashua, Brett (2014). Sounds and the City: Popular Music, Place and Globalization. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 19. ISBN 9781137283115.
  12. ↑ Furlong, Andy (2013). Youth Studies: An Introduction. London: Routledge. p. 237. ISBN 9780203862094.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Manuel, Peter (1988). Popular Musics of the Non-Western World. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 7, 11–12, 20, 85–86, 88, 205, 210, 212, 220. ISBN 0195053427.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Middleton, Richard (1990). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. pp. 46, 136, 155, 249, 293. ISBN 0335152759.
  15. 1 2 Eisentraut, Jochen (2012). The Accessibility of Music: Participation, Reception and Contact. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 41–42, 197–198. ISBN 9781139616294.
  16. 1 2 3 4 Law, Wing-Wah; Ho, Wai-Chung (2015-08-01). "Popular music and school music education: Chinese students' preferences and dilemmas in Shanghai, China". International Journal of Music Education. 33 (3): 304–324. doi:10.1177/0255761415569115. ISSN 0255-7614.
  17. ↑ Middleton, Richard (1990). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. p. 46. ISBN 0335152759.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Middleton, Richard and Peter Manuel. "Popular music" in Grove Music Online.
  19. 1 2 Olsen, Kathryn (2014). Music and Social Change in South Africa: Maskanda Past and Present. Phildephia: Temple University Press. pp. 61–62, 64. ISBN 9781439911389.
  20. ↑ Rojas, Eunice (2013). Sounds of Resistance: The Role of Music in Multicultural Activism. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. pp. 266–267. ISBN 9780313398063.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 Saucier, Paul Khalil (2014). "Continental Drift: The Politics and Poetics of African Hip Hop". In Lashua, Brett. Sounds and the City: Popular Music, Place and Globalization. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 196–197, 199, 201, 203–204, 206. ISBN 9781137283108.
  22. 1 2 3 4 Wallach, Jeremy (2014). "Indieglobalization and the Triumph of Punk in Indonesia". In Lashua, Brett. Sounds and the City: Popular Music, Place and Globalization. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 149, 151–152, 157. ISBN 9781137283108.
  23. ↑ Wallach, Jeremy; Clinton, Esther (2013-01-01). "History, Modernity, and Music Genre in Indonesia: Popular Music Genres in the Dutch East Indies and Following Independence". Asian Music. 44 (2): 3–23. doi:10.1353/amu.2013.0020. ISSN 1553-5630.
  24. 1 2 3 4 Danielson, Virginia (1988). "The Arab Middle East". In Manuel, Peter Lamarche. Popular Musics of the Non-Western World. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 151, 156–158. ISBN 0195053427.
  25. 1 2 3 4 Nooshin, Laudan (2005-09-01). "Underground, overground: Rock music and youth discourses in Iran". Iranian Studies. 38 (3): 463–494. doi:10.1080/00210860500300820. ISSN 0021-0862.
  26. 1 2 Wagg, Stephen (2014). "'How Many Divisions Does Ozzy Osbourne Have?' Some Thoughts on Politics, Heavy Metal Music, and the 'Clash of Civilizations'". In Lashua, Brett. Sounds and the City: Popular Music, Place and Globalization. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 136, 141. ISBN 9781137283108.

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