Popular music belongs to any of a number of
musical genres, and stands in contrast to
art music, and
traditional music which was disseminated orally. Although popular music sometimes is known as "pop music", the term
pop music usually refers to a specific
musical genre.
Form
Form in popular music is most often
sectional, the most common sections being
verse, chorus or
refrain, and
bridge.
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. 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, such as
ragtime music, the original target generation may have died out almost entirely.
With the increasing social and economic independence of young people, this "generation gap" has grown wider and wider since the second World War. Music hall and other forms before the 1940s were not so clearly marked by generation. From the Depression through the end of the war,
Bing Crosby was the highest-selling recording artist in the United States. His fan base had no age division. The average
Kraft Music Hall listener was 21 years old. But after Crosby's semi-retirement in 1954, a large generation gap emerged.
Elvis Presley became the most popular recording artist among teenagers, while
Frank Sinatra was most popular among adults.
See also
Sources
- Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0-335-15275-9.
- 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.
