Saturday 4th September: Research - Music Pop Genres

Research - Music Pop Genres

Pop

"Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented towards a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple love songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes"

Throughout the years, pop has had influences from a wide range of other genres. It started of having influence from soft ballads, then got influenced by soul and gospel music, then changing due to the influence of rock and roll, then dance and techno music took the main influence, which is where we are at nowadays with what we consider pop to be. In the early 1980's, the promotion of pop music was greatly affected by the TV channels like MTV which publisised their favoured artists like Madonna (below), Micheal Jackson and Prince (below).

Characteristics of the typical pop music genre:

• an aim of appealing to a general audience, rather than to a particular sub-culture or ideology
• an emphasis on craftsmanship rather than formal "artistic" qualitie
• an emphasis on recording, production, and technology, over live performance
• a tendency to reflect existing trends rather than progressive developments
• much pop music is intended to encourage dancing, or it uses dance-oriented beats or rhythms
  

Pop genre songs usually consist of a rhythmic element, catchy hook, simple structure and quite notable obvious chorus with distinctive beat. Very rarely are harminies involved in pop songs and they usually last between 2 and a half minutes - 3 and a half minutes in length.

(above are examples of pop artists. Madonna, Prince, Beyonce (l-r) )

Rock

The rock music genre, is one of the most influential and changing genres, due to its constant change throught the years which has formed several different sub categories of the rock genre. For example blues rock, pop rock, rock and roll, digital electronic rock, folk rock, glam rock and many more.

URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_music (more rock sub genres explained)

"The sound of rock often revolves around the electric guitar, a back beat laid down by a rhythm section of electric bass guitar and drums, and keyboard instruments"

(above are examples of rock artists Foo Fighters (Alternative Rock), Queen (rock) and Elvis Presley (rock and roll) )