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Pop music is a music genre
Music genre

A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music....
 that features a noticeable rhythmic element, melodies and hooks
Hook (music)

A hook is a musical idea, often a short riff, passage, or phrase , that is used in popular music to make a song appealing and to "catch the ear of the listener"....
, a mainstream style and a conventional structure.

The term "pop music" was first used in 1926 in the sense of "having popular appeal" (see popular music
Popular music

Popular music is music that is accessible to the mainstream and disseminated by one or more of the mass media. It belongs to any of a number of musical genres, and stands in contrast to classical music, which historically was the music of the elite and upper strata of society, and traditional music which was disseminated orally....
), but since the 1950s it has been used in the sense of a musical genre, originally characterized as a lighter alternative to rock and roll
Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a form of music that evolved in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its roots lay mainly in rhythm and blues, Country music, folk music, gospel music, and jazz....
.

standard format of pop music is the song
Song

A song is a musical musical composition which contains vocal parts that are performed, 'sung,' and feature words , commonly accompanied by musical instruments ....
, customarily less than five minutes in duration, with instrumentation
Instrumentation (music)

In music, the word instrumentation is used to refer to the particular combination of musical instruments employed in a composition, and to the properties of those instruments individually....
 that can range from an orchestra to a lone singer.






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Encyclopedia


Pop music is a music genre
Music genre

A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music....
 that features a noticeable rhythmic element, melodies and hooks
Hook (music)

A hook is a musical idea, often a short riff, passage, or phrase , that is used in popular music to make a song appealing and to "catch the ear of the listener"....
, a mainstream style and a conventional structure.

The term "pop music" was first used in 1926 in the sense of "having popular appeal" (see popular music
Popular music

Popular music is music that is accessible to the mainstream and disseminated by one or more of the mass media. It belongs to any of a number of musical genres, and stands in contrast to classical music, which historically was the music of the elite and upper strata of society, and traditional music which was disseminated orally....
), but since the 1950s it has been used in the sense of a musical genre, originally characterized as a lighter alternative to rock and roll
Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a form of music that evolved in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its roots lay mainly in rhythm and blues, Country music, folk music, gospel music, and jazz....
.

Style

The standard format of pop music is the song
Song

A song is a musical musical composition which contains vocal parts that are performed, 'sung,' and feature words , commonly accompanied by musical instruments ....
, customarily less than five minutes in duration, with instrumentation
Instrumentation (music)

In music, the word instrumentation is used to refer to the particular combination of musical instruments employed in a composition, and to the properties of those instruments individually....
 that can range from an orchestra to a lone singer. Pop songs are generally marked by a consistent and noticeable rhythmic element
Rhythm

Rhythm is the variation of the length and accentuation of a series of sounds or other events....
, a mainstream style and traditional structure
Song structure (popular music)

The structures or musical forms of songs in popular music are typically section al forms, such as strophic form. Other common musical form include thirty-two-bar form, verse-chorus form, and twelve bar blues....
. Common variants are the verse-chorus form
Verse-chorus form

Verse-chorus form is a musical form common in popular music and predominant in rock and roll since the 1960s. In contrast to AABA form, which is focused on the verse , in verse-chorus form the chorus is highlighted ....
 and the thirty-two-bar form
Thirty-two-bar form

The thirty-two-bar form, often shortened to AABA, is a musical form common in Tin Pan Alley songs, later popular music including rock and roll and pop music, and jazz....
, with a focus on melodies
Melody

In music, a melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity....
 and catchy hooks
Hook (music)

A hook is a musical idea, often a short riff, passage, or phrase , that is used in popular music to make a song appealing and to "catch the ear of the listener"....
, and a chorus
Refrain

A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in Poetry; the "chorus" of a song. Poetry fixed forms that feature refrains include the villanelle, the virelay, and the sestina....
 that contrasts melodically, rhythmically and harmonically
Harmony

In Western music, harmony is the use of different pitches simultaneously, and chord s, actual or implied, in music. The word is related to the word "harmonic" which implies related wavelengths of waves....
 with the verse. Lyrics in pop music are frequently about love, relationships and life experiences. The primary objectives of the pop music genre are audience enjoyment and commercial success. This of course does not imply that those goals are achieved by every song in this genre.

History

Some musicologists trace the origins of pop music to 1679, when Alessandro Scarlatti
Alessandro Scarlatti

Alessandro Scarlatti was an Italian Baroque music composer especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera....
 composed his first opera, or even earlier, when Francesco Provenzale
Francesco Provenzale

Francesco Provenzale was an Italy Baroque composer and teacher.Before the year 1658, there is virtually no record of Provenzale's existence, although it's thought that he studied at the Conservatorio della Piet? dei Turchini in Naples....
 coined the musical language that Scarlatti popularized: light, lively and catchy. They placed the emphasis on arias, clearly separated from the "recitativo
Recitative

Recitative is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech. The mostly syllabic recitativo secco is at one end of a spectrum through recitativo accompagnato , the more melismatic arioso, and finally the full blown aria or ensemble, where the pulse is entirely governed by the mus...
", and grounded the arias on a strong sense of rhythm and melody. The song "Slide, Kelly, Slide", released by Edison Studios
Edison Studios

Edison Studios was an United States motion picture production company owned by the Edison Company of inventor Thomas Edison. The studio made close to 1,200 films as the Edison Manufacturing Company and Thomas A....
 in 1894, is sometimes credited as the first "pop hit" record.

See also

  • List of popular music genres
  • Traditional pop music
    Traditional pop music

    Traditional pop or Classic pop or Standards music denotes, in general, Western popular music that either wholly predates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s, or to any popular music which exists concurrently to rock and roll but originated in a time before the appearance of rock and roll, and its offshoots, as the domina...


Bibliography

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    Donald Clarke (writer)

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    Simon Frith

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