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Information about Popular Music

For the music genre, see .
Popular music
Stylistic origins: Traditional music
Cultural origins: Various
Typical instruments: Guitars, Drums, Synthesizers
Mainstream popularity: By definition, always.
Rock music
Popular music is music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and are disseminated by one or more of the mass media. It stands in contrast to art music[1], which historically was the music of the elite and upper strata of society, and traditional music which was disseminated orally.[2] It is sometimes abbreviated to pop music, although pop music is more often used for a narrower branch of popular music.

Definition of Popular Music

Among scholars in the humanities, a broader range of definitions have been proposed about popular music. Frans Birrer (1985, p. 104) gives four conceptions or definitions of "popular" music:
  1. /* Definition of Popular Music */ definitions. Popular music is an inferior type.
  2. Negative definitions. Popular music is music that is not something else (usually 'folk' or 'art' music).
  3. Sociological definitions. Popular music is associated with (produced for or by) a particular social group.
  4. Technologico-economic definitions. Popular music is disseminated by mass media and/or in a mass market.


All of these, according to Middleton (1990,p.4) "are interest-bound; none is satisfactory." According to Hall (1978, p.6-7), "The assumption...that you might know before you looked at cultural traditions in general what, at any particular time, was a part of the elite culture or of popular culture is untenable." Thus popular music must be comprehended in relation to the broader musical field (Middleton 1990, p.11).

Bennett (1980, p.153-218) distinguishes between 'primary' and 'secondary' popular culture, the first being mass product and the second being local re-production, discussed further below.

"While repetition is a feature of all music, of any sort, a high level of repetition may be a specific mark of 'the popular', enabling an inclusive rather than exclusive audience." (Middleton 1990, p.139)

Business

Much popular music is the product of the modern business enterprise disseminated for the purpose of earning a profit. Executives and employees of popular music businesses try to select and cultivate the music that will have the greatest success with the public, and thus maximize the profits of their firm. In this respect, popular music differs from traditional folk music, which was created by ordinary people for their own enjoyment, and from classical music, which was originally created to serve the purposes of the Church or for the entertainment of the nobility. (Today classical music is often subsidized by governments and universities.)

Although the controlling forces of popular music are business enterprises, young people who aspire to become popular musicians are not always driven by the profit motive. Rather, they often want to find an outlet for their sense of expression and creativity, or simply to have fun. Historically, the conflicting motives of business people and musicians have been a source of tension in the popular music industry.

Debate continues about the status of popular music. Some emphasize the commercial motive and suggest the big companies manipulate the audiences and sell them products with no intrinsic value. This is the debate about "authenticity" which rages whenever popular music is discussed. Commercial interests can cause the dilution of music as corporations take over their distribution, and may cause music to move away from the grassroots level of Folk or Blues. Several movements such as punk and Heavy Metal in the 80s, and Indie in the 90s, attempted to ensure this dilution did not occur.

The electric guitar and amplification have had a big impact on modern music. In the 1930s and 40s amplified instruments became necessary to compete with the loud volumes in the Big Swing bands of the era. Gibson introduced the first Gibson Les Paul solid body guitar in 1952. In the 1960s, the tonal palette of the electric guitar was further modified by introducing an effects box in its signal path, the wah-wah pedal. Many people play popular music in amateur "garage bands". These amateur groups are the modern equivalent of folk music, which was composed and performed by ordinary people and transmitted by word of mouth.

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. See also the discussion of complexity below.

Genres

Main article: Genres (popular music).


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. 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 rap. For some genres (for instance, Ragtime), the original target generation may have died out almost entirely.

This "generation gap" in the consumption of popular music is particularly marked since the second world war and the increased economic and social independence of younger people. Music hall and other forms before the 1940s are not so clearly marked by generation. During the depression, the wars, and immediately after the end of the war, Bing Crosby was the highest selling recording artist. His fan base has no age division during this time, with the average Kraft Music Hall listener being 21 years of age. However, after Crosby's decline and eventually semi-retirement in 1954, a large generation gap emerged with Elvis Presley becoming the most popular recording artists for teenagers and Frank Sinatra doing the same with adults.

Classical music and popular music

The relationship between (particularly, the relative value of) classical music and popular music is a controversial question. Some partisans of classical music may claim that classical music constitutes art and popular music only light entertainment. However, many popular works show a high level of artistry and musical innovation and many classical works are unabashedly crowd-pleasing. The elevation of classical music to a position of special value is closely connected to the concept of a Western canon, and to theories of educational perennialism.

The very distinction between classical and popular music has sometimes been blurred in the border regions [3], for instance minimalist music and light classics. In this respect music is like fiction, which likewise draws a distinction between classics and popular fiction that is not always easy to maintain.

Neat divisions between 'folk' and 'popular', and 'popular' and 'art', are impossible to find ... arbitrary criteria [are used] to define the complement of 'popular'. 'Art' music, for example, is generally regarded as by nature complex, difficult, demanding; 'popular' music then has to be defined as 'simple', 'accessible', 'facile'. But many pieces commonly thought of as 'art' (Handel's 'Hallelujah Chorus', many Schubert songs, many Verdi arias) have qualities of simplicity; conversely, it is by no means obvious that the Sex Pistols' records were 'accessible', [trashy?] Frank Zappa's work 'simple', [Frank Zappa is considered by many a serious composer] or Billie Holiday's 'facile'." [light?] (Middleton, 1990)


Complexity

Classical works have greater musical complexity than popular music. For instance, classical music is distinguished by its heavy use of development, and usually involves more modulation (changing of keys), less outright repetition, and a wider use of musical phrases that are not default length--that is, four or eight bars long (however, much minimalist music goes against these tendencies, and thus is considered non-serious by many critics). Popular music is also rarely entirely instrumental. Usually, popular tunes include vocals and catchy lyrics.

It is difficult to imagine how a work of thirty minutes to three hours can be constructed in a manner that isn't built up hierarchically from smaller units like phrases, periods, sections, and movements. Structural levels are distinguished by Schenkerian analysis. Fred Lerdahl (1992), for example, claims that popular music lacks the structural complexity for multiple structural layers, and thus much depth. However, Lerdahl's theories explicitly exclude "associational" details which are used to help articulate form in popular music, while Allen Forte's book The American Popular Ballad of the Golden Era 1924-1950 analyzes popular music with traditional Schenkerian techniques. (Middleton 1999, p.144)

The repertoire of classical music is skewed toward works recognized as excellent by listeners over long periods of time. It follows that genres of popular music that have existed for a long time might also produce works that show staying power. For instance, the work of Scott Joplin, a popular musician of about a century ago, continues to be played--often, curiously enough, by classical musicians. The advent of high fidelity audio recordings in the 1950s meant that the actual performances of popular musicians could be preserved forever, and this has raised the possibility that certain popular works will achieve permanent status in their original recorded form.

See also

External links

Sources

  • 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.

References

1. ^ "Arnold, Denis (1983)
  • "Art Music, Art Song," in The New Oxford Companion to Music, Volume 1: A-J, Oxford University Press, p.111. ISBN 0-19-311316-3
  • "Popular music" in The New Oxford Companion to Music, Volume 2: K-Z, Oxford University Press, p.1467. ISBN 0-19-311316-3
    2. ^ Arnold, Denis (1983).
  • " Art Music, Art Song,"idem
  • " Popular music," Ibid vol.2 p.1467 .
    3. ^ Arnold, Denis (1983). " Art Music, Art Song," in The New Oxford Companion to Music, Volume 1: A-J, Oxford University Press, p. P.111, . ISBN 0-19-311316-3
Traditional music is the modern name for what used to be called "Folk music", before the term "Folk music" was expanded to include a lot of non-traditional material. The defining characteristics of traditional music are that it is:
  • An Oral tradition.

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A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. In principle anything that, produces sound, and can somehow be controlled by a person playing it, can serve as a musical instrument.
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The guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four, seven, eight, ten, and twelve string guitars also exist.
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The drum is a member of the percussion group that can be large, technically classified as a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with parts of a player's body, or with some
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Synthesizer is generally any kind of electronic musical instrument, or electronic device capable of producing or manipulating audio tones, such as musical notes, through audio signal processing.
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Rock music is a form of popular music with a prominent vocal melody accompanied by guitar, drums, and bass. Many styles of rock music also use keyboard instruments such as organ, piano, or synthesizers.
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A music genre is a term that describes the process of dividing popular music into categories. Some treat the terms genre and style as the same, and state that genre should be defined as pieces of music that share a certain style or "basic musical language.
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This article is about the cultural and social sciences term mainstream. For the Hugo-nominated fanzine, see Mainstream (fanzine). For the record label, see Mainstream Records.

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Mass media is a term used to denote a section of the media specifically envisioned and designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. It was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and
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Art music (or serious music or sometimes erudite music) is an umbrella term generally used to refer to musical traditions implying advanced structural and theoretical considerations.
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Traditional music is the modern name for what used to be called "Folk music", before the term "Folk music" was expanded to include a lot of non-traditional material. The defining characteristics of traditional music are that it is:
  • An Oral tradition.

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This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.
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This article has been tagged since October 2007.

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Popularity can refer to:
  • Social status, or the quality of being well-liked
  • Commonness

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Repetition may refer to:
  • Repetition (rhetorical device), a rhetorical device
  • Repetition (music), the use of repetition in musical compositions
  • Repetition (Kierkegaard) a book by the 19th century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard published in 1843

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Folk music can have a number of different meanings, including:
  • Traditional music: The original meaning of the term "folk music" was synonymous with the term "Traditional music", also often including World Music and Roots music; the term "Traditional music" was given

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Classical music is a broad term that usually refers to music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of, Western art, ecclesiastical and concert music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to the 21st century.
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Heavy metal (sometimes referred to simply as metal) is a genre of rock music[1] that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s.[2] With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, heavy,
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In popular music, independent music, often abbreviated as indie, is a term used to describe genres, scenes, subcultures, styles and other cultural attributes in music, characterized by their independence from major commercial record labels and their autonomous,
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Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1900s 1910s 1920s - 1930s - 1940s 1950s 1960s
1930 1931 1932 1933 1934
1935 1936 1937 1938 1939

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- The 1930s
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1920s  1930s  1940s  - 1950s -  1960s  1970s  1980s
1949 1950 1951 - 1952 - 1953 1954 1955

Year 1952 (MCMLII
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Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s
1960 1961 1962 1963 1964
1965 1966 1967 1968 1969

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Their 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive.
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Folk music can have a number of different meanings, including:
  • Traditional music: The original meaning of the term "folk music" was synonymous with the term "Traditional music", also often including World Music and Roots music; the term "Traditional music" was given

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The structures or musical forms of songs in popular music are typically sectional forms, such as strophic form. Other common forms include thirty-two-bar form, verse-chorus form, and twelve bar blues. Popular music songs are rarely through-composed.
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A refrain (from the Old French refraindre "to repeat," likely from Vulgar Latin refringere) is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song.
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bridge is a contrasting section which also prepares for the return of the original material section. The bridge may be the middle-eight in a thirty-two-bar form (the B in AABA), or it may be used more loosely in verse-chorus form, or, in a compound AABA form, used as a contrast to
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The perspective and/or examples in this article do not represent a world-wide view. Please [ edit] this page to improve its geographical balance. Popular music dates at least as far back as the mid 19th century. Below is a list of genres.
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big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the Swing Era from the early 1930s until the late 1940s, although there are many big-bands around nowadays.
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Ragtime (alternately spelled Rag-time) is an American musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1899 and 1918. It has had several periods of revival since then and is still being composed today.
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Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby (May 2, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American pop baritone and actor whose career lasted from 1926 until his death in 1977.

One of the first multi-media stars, from 1934 to 1954 Bing Crosby held a nearly unrivaled command of record sales,
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