Pop

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Originating Location: Worldwide

Originating Era: The beginning of recorded music / early 60s as an actual genre

Key Artists[]

Key Albums[]

The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Madonna - Confessions On A Dance Floor
Lady Gaga - Born This Way
Taylor Swift - 1989

Genre Description[]

Pop music is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it is consided as simply popular music. On the other hand it is a genre that emerged in the early 60s as a reaction to the more brash sounding rock & roll. When using the term as a genre, it is usually coupled with another genre (like pop-rock, pop-country, folk-pop, psychedelic pop), which is used to further describe the sound. This is done due to the overarching boundaries that the style is able to encompass. Since it's inception, pop has always been the biggest money maker as well as the most popular in the mainstream, which could almost be considered synonomous. The teen idol craze in the early 60s kicked off the style as a genre, enlisting youthful and attractive artists along with simple song structures and catchy melodies to compel to the listening audience. Interestingly, these simplistic techniques as well as a brighter, smoother and almost bubblier sound became one of the most competitive of the large musical genres. This meant that only the most skillful and innovative musicians, songwriters and singers could truely make it to the top and make the most money, henceforth the business of popular music was created and still remains prominent today. Throughout the decades, the style of pop most popular has varied immensely which has made the music business extremely fickle and demanding with audience tastes constantly changing. Some of these styles include (but nowhere are limited to) the pop-rock, bubblegum and Motown of the 60s, the soft rock, AM pop and Blue-eyed soul of the 70s, the synth pop and adult contemporary of the 80s, the teen idols of the 90s and in the last decade the emergence of pop-punk.