Popular music
For the music genre, see Pop music.Popular music is
music belonging to any of a number of
musical styles that are accessible to the
general public and mostly distributed commercially. It stands in contrast to
Classical Music, which historically was the music of elites or the upper strata of society, and traditional
folk music which was shared non-commercially. It is sometimes abbreviated to
pop music, although
pop music is more often used for a narrower branch of popular music.
The term "popular music" is used in broad and narrow senses. At its broadest, it refers to all music other than classical music, also known as art music. In the early 19th century, the traditional songs of the common people were referred to as "popular songs." By the late 19th century these songs were referred to as "folk songs." At that time, a distinction was made between folk music and more recently developed urban popular music. Today, popular music is often described as that distributed via
mass media such as recordings and radio (as classical music is now also). Popular music forms part of
popular culture.
Among scholars in the humanities, a broader range of definitions have been proposed. Frans Birrer (1985, p. 104) gives four conceptions or definitions of "
popular" music:
#
Normative definitions. Popular music is an inferior type.#
Negative definitions. Popular music is music that is not something else (usually 'folk' or 'art' music).#
Sociological definitions. Popular music is associated with (produced for or by) a particular social group.#
Technologico-economic definitions. Popular music is disseminated by mass media and/or in a mass market.
All of these, according to Middleton (1990,p.4) "are interest-bound; none is satisfactory." According to Hall (1978, p.6-7), "The assumption...that you might know before you looked at cultural traditions in general what, at any particular time, was a part of the elite culture or of popular culture is untenable." Thus popular music must be comprehended in relation to the broader musical field (Middleton 1990, p.11).
Bennett (1980, p.153-218) distinguishes between 'primary' and 'secondary' popular culture, the first being mass product and the second being local re-production, discussed further below.
"While
repetition is a feature of all music, of any sort, a high level of repetition may be a specific mark of 'the popular', enabling an inclusive rather than exclusive audience." (Middleton 1990, p.139)
Popular music as a business enterprise
Much popular music is the product of the modern business enterprise, disseminated for the purpose of earning a profit. Executives and employees of popular music businesses try to select and cultivate the music that will have the greatest success with the public, and thus maximize the profits of their firm. In this respect, popular music differs from traditional
folk music, which was created by ordinary people for their own enjoyment, and from
classical music, which was originally created to serve the purposes of the Church or for the entertainment of the nobility. (Today classical music is often subsidized by governments and universities.)
Although the controlling forces of popular music are business enterprises, young people who aspire to become popular musicians are not always driven by the profit motive. Rather, they often want to find an outlet for their sense of expression and creativity, or simply to have fun. Historically, the conflicting motives of business people and musicians has been a source of tension in the popular music industry.
Debate continues about the status of popular music. Some emphasize the commercial motive and suggest the big companies manipulate the audiences and sell them products with no intrinsic value. This is the debate about "authenticity" which rages whenever popular music is discussed. Commercial interests can cause the dilution of music as corporations take over their distribution, and may cause music to move away from the grassroots level of Folk or Blues. Several movements such as
punk in the 80s, and
Indie in the 90s, attempted to ensure this dilution did not occur.
The electric guitar and amplification has had a big impact on modern music. In the 30s and 40s amplified instruments became necessary to compete with the loud volumes in the Big Swing bands of the era. Gibson introduced the first Gibson Les Paul solid body guitar in 1952. In the 1960s, the tonal palette of the electric guitar was further modified by introducing an effects box in its signal path, the wah-wah pedal.
Performance of popular music by amateurs
Many people play popular music together with their friends, often in garages and basements, on a casual amateur basis. This activity is one of the most widespread forms of participatory music-making in modern societies. As participatory music, "garage bands" are in a sense a resurrection of the old tradition of
folk music, which in premodern times was composed and performed by ordinary people and transmitted exclusively by word of mouth. The difference between the old folk music and modern amateur performance of popular music is that the participants in the latter genre are well acquainted with the expert performances that they hear on recordings, and often try to emulate them.
The older folk music of a society often lives on in a popularized version, which is likewise performed by experts and commercially disseminated. Such updated versions of folk music often have heavy amateur participation.
Main article: Song structure (popular music).
Form in popular music is most often
sectional, the most common sections being
verse, chorus or
refrain, and
bridge. See also the discussion of complexity
below.
Main article: Genres (popular music).
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 (for instance,
Ragtime), the original target generation may have died out almost entirely.
This "generation gap" in the consumption of popular music is particularly marked since the second world war and the increased economic and social independence of younger people. Music hall and other forms before the
1940s are not so clearly marked by generation.
Showtunes are between popular and art music. Examples being that "
Memory" (
Cats) is a very acceptable song, while only select groups of people enjoy listening to "One" (
A Chorus Line) , "Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats" (
Cats), "Tevye's Dream" (
Fiddler on the Roof), "Tomorrow" (
Annie), "Over the Moon" (
RENT), etc.
The relationship (particularly, the relative value) of classical music and popular music is a
controversial question. Some partisans of classical music may claim that classical music constitutes
art and popular music only light entertainment. However, many popular works show a high level of artistry and musical innovation and many classical works are unabashedly crowd-pleasing. The elevation of classical music to a position of special value is closely connected to the concept of a
Western canon, and to theories of
educational perennialism.
The very distinction between classical and popular music is blurred in the border regions, for instance
minimalist music and
light classics, and are disregarded as art music. In this respect music is like fiction, which likewise draws a distinction between classics and
popular fiction that is not always easy to maintain.
"Neat divisions between 'folk' and 'popular', and 'popular' and 'art', are impossible to find... arbitrary criteria [is used] to define the complement of 'popular'. 'Art' music, for example, is generally regarded as by nature complex, difficult, demanding; 'popular' music then has to be defined as 'simple', 'accessible', 'facile'. But many pieces commonly thought of as 'art' (Handel's 'Hallelujah Chorus', many Schubert songs, many Verdi arias) have qualities of simplicity; conversely, it is by no means obvious that the Sex Pistols' records were 'accessible', (trashy?)
Frank Zappa's work 'simple', (Frank Zappa is considered by many a serious composer) or Billie Holiday's 'facile'." (light?) (Middleton, 1990)
Complexity
The mode of classical works have greater musical complexity than popular music. For instance, classical music is distinguished by its heavy use of
development, and usually involves more
modulation (changing of keys), less outright repetition, and a wider use of musical phrases that are not default length--that is, four or eight bars long (however, much
minimalist music goes against these tendencies, thus are considered by many non-serious music).
This is not to say that popular music is
definitively or
always simpler than classical. The "default length" of phrases which classical music supposedly deviates from were set as the default by music of the common practice period.
Jazz,
rap and many forms of
technical metal, for instance, make use of rhythms more complex than would appear in the average common practice work, and popular music sometimes uses certain complex
chords that would be quite unusual in a common practice piece. Popular music also uses certain features of rhythm and pitch inflection not analyzable by the traditional methods applied to common practice music.
It is difficult to imagine how a work of thirty minutes to three hours can be constructed in a manner that isn't built up hierarchically from smaller units like phrases, periods, sections, and movements. Structural levels are distinguished by
Schenkerian analysis.
Fred Lerdahl (1992), for example, claims that popular music lacks the structural complexity for multiple structural layers, and thus much depth. However, Lerdahl's theories explicitly exclude "associational" details which are used to help articulate form in popular music, while
Allen Forte's book
The American Popular Ballad of the Golden Era 1924-1950 analyses popular music with traditional Schenkerian techniques. (Middleton 1999, p.144)
Bach had many contempories whose music was mediocre at best, and today their music is forgotten, surviving perhaps in libraries. The repertoire of classical music is skewed toward works recognized as excellent by listeners over long periods of time. It follows that genres of popular music that have existed for a long time might also produce works that show staying power. For instance, the work of
Scott Joplin, a popular musician of about a century ago, continues to be played--often, curiously enough, by classical musicians. The advent of high fidelity audio recordings in the 1950s meant that the actual performances of popular musicians could be preserved forever, and this has raised the possibility that certain works popular music will achieve permanent status in their original recorded form.
Used Music
Works of classical music sometimes achieve a sudden popularity, and thus take on the temporary status of popular music; for details, see
crossover. Moreover, many popular songs over the years have made use of themes and melodies from well-known classical pieces; for a list of examples see
List of popular songs based on classical music. Songwriters such as
Paul Simon have used classical techniques such as, during his early solo career in the 1970s, the
full chromatic (Everett 1997). The popular rock band Incubus has used the classical style of divididing large works into smaller "movements". They used this classical technique with "The Odyssey", a popular work for the Halo 2 Soundtrack.
Axel_F is a modern classical and crossover work. It started out as being very popular.The dominant use of popular music is for
parody, which has the same tune with different lyrics, which is something that people at
Mad Magazine write on occasion.
*
Music radio*
Popular culture*
List of popular music performers*
Tunecaster Online Pop And Rock Music Encyclopedia - United States music charts and popular artists pages.
*
Pop and Rock An analysis of musical form and technique in popular music.
*
The 1950's-2000's Week-By-Week - Looks at pop music/albums/radio and music news through these decades.
*
Pop Culture Madness Features the most requested pop songs 1920s through today
*
Popular Songwriters* Middleton, Richard (1990/2002).
Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0335152759.
* Bennett (1980).
* 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 0195100042.
