Pop Music Unit 9

What is Pop Music? Pop music is simply any form of popular music for each time period. In the 1920’s, it was Jazz and Big Band. In the 1930’s it was Swing. In the 1950’s it was Rock and Roll. In the 1960’s, it was Motown and Soul. Even Classical music was once considered as popular music.

What is Pop Music? Pop music started to become a Genre around the mid-1950’s when Rock & Roll began to become popular. Although Pop music is usually seen as “Singles Charts”, Pop music is not only the songs that hit #1 on the Billboard 100 Pop music is eclectic, taking aspect of other forms of music such as urban, dance, rock, Latin, and country music. Pop songs are usually short to medium in length, written in a basic form (Verse- chorus) and often has repeated verses and/or vocal riffs.

Pop Style As Pop music began to grow, especially in the 1970’s and 1980’s, producers began noticing that Pop Stars needed better stage presence. They began getting lavish clothing, big sets for performances, and backup dancers for live performances. This new look started grabbing audiences’ attentions and made the artists even more popular. One artist in particular was Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson Child star from the hit motown group, The Jackson 5 He began his solo career in 1971 while at Motown Records. His album Thriller is the best selling album of all time, selling over 65 million copies worldwide. He was given the nickname “The King of Pop”, and was considered to be one of the best entertainers in the world, with his catchy songs, innovative music videos, and his signature dance moves, including his famous “moonwalk”. Jackson died in 2009 from a drug overdose. However, even in death, he is still one of the most successful artists of all time.

Michael Jackson Jackson’s music video for Thriller has been considered as one of the best music videos of all time. His Super Bowl performance in 1993 is also considered as one of the most popular Super Bowl Halftime performances of all time.

Pop Music 1990’s The 90’s brought new styles to pop music. Music tended to have a lot of electronic sounds in them, including electronic drums, and synthesizer sounds. The 90’s also became the era of boy bands. These boy bands would be made up of 3-5 members who sang well-blended harmonies, and would dance during their videos and stage performances. Although many of the groups are not together anymore, they have paved the way for many solo artists. Two of the most popular boy bands were The Backstreet Boys and N-SYNC.

Pop Music Today Pop music today has had a lot of success with the younger generation. It still has a lot of electronic sounds, but as distorted as they were in the 80’s and 90’s. Many performers, such as Lady GaGa, tend to be very theatrical with their music and performances, which is demonstrated in her Super Bowl performance in 2017. Other artist are much more calm and just sing their songs from the heart, such as Adele.

Pop Music Today While pop music is very successful, it has begun to take the “music” out of it. With the use of technology, producers can take an average person who can’s actually sing, and make them sound like a professional. While this helps the music industry make more money, it hurts those who are having to use this technology, because it makes their live performances very shaky.