Popular Music
Music occupies an important place in our life. We can’t live without it. Actually people have different musical tastes depending on their age, education and even mood. Some people like classical music, others prefer rock, pop or jazz, but nobody is indifferent to it.
Popular Music refers to the kind of music that appeals to the general
public, unlike Highbrow or Classical. It places a premium on
accessibility, employs various means to boost both instant appeal and
memorability - distinctive syncopation, novel instrumental flourishes,
danceable rhythms, repeated riffs - but its signal feature is melodic
emphasis. It has now since diversified to such an extent that it is
now most easily defined in terms of its market.
Popular Music 1950 - 1998
At the end of World War II in the U.S., White middle class fears of
communism and a new independent - minded Black society emerged
simultaneously. Since they both threatened the status quo, any
cross-cultural performance took on the appearance of being subversive.
The songs of the early fifties reflected this and generally had light
melodies, sweet lyrics and wholesome singers. Innocent and inoffensive
“feel-good” tunes, performed by artists like Pat Boone, Rosemary
Clooney and Perry Como dominated the pop charts. Major Record
Companies (Capitol, Decca, Columbia, Mercury, and RCA Victor) decided
to abandon the majority of black artists’ race records and their black
audience, creating an opportunity for Independents such as Sam
Phillips’ Sun Label or Chess Records to sign them up.
Artists like Bill Haley and the Comets adapted the work of the Black
artists to come up with their own sound. The music’s solid rhythm and
heavy back beat inspired new forms of dancing. Soon there were stars -
Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and Carl Perkins. Due to
the prejudices of the times, Disc Jockey Alan Freed coined the name
“rock and roll,” ironically using a term that was slang for sex in the
Black community at that time. Its initial appeal was to middle class
white teenagers who soon came to feel it was their own. In this era,
so called ‘race music’ was largely censured by America’s white
establishment as being too rebellious, sexual and anti-social to be
acceptable.
If Rock and Roll was formed from a fusion between Black music and
White entrepreneurship, then the foremost of the fair-skinned founding
fathers must be Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Their writing genius,
combined with the kinetic energy of Elvis made Rock and Roll history
by recording Hound Dog, and Elvis Presley became a household name.
(Leiber & Stoller also penned hits for Ben E King, The Searchers, the
Drifters, and The Coasters).
There were also scandals (i.e. The Payola Scandal which would lead to
the demise of the career of Alan Freed) in the early days’ which did
nothing to foster either parental or governmental confidence in the
new music. Near the end of the decade, a plane crash killed Buddy
Holly and also took the lives of Richie Valens and The Big Bopper.
Since all three were so prominent at the time, February 3, 1959,
became known as ‘The Day The Music Died.’
Female vocal groups began to produce songs that mixed Doo-wop
harmonies with Rhythm and Blues music. The groups were usually trios
or quartets in which one vocalist sang a lead part while the others
contributed a background vocal. Most notable were The Shirelles, The
Marvelettes, and The Crystals who flourished during the early 1960’s.
By 1962 ‘The Brill Building’ in Broadway, New York had housed over 165
music businesses and more significantly hosted Don Kirshner and his
star collection of songwriters, (Carole King / Gerry Goffin, Neil
Sedaka / Howard Greenfield, and Barry Mann / Cynthia Weil) that were
responsible for hundreds of charted hits. Record Producer Phil Spector
(A prodigy of songwriters Leiber and Stoller) was churning out unique
classics by artists like The Ronettes, The Righteous Brothers and
finally Ike and Tina Turner with his legendary ‘Wall of Sound’.
In the 1950’s Britain had not recovered from the effects of World War
Two; economic hardship and shortages of goods and services were
common. In ‘provincial’ cities (fiercely independent of London) such
as Liverpool and Manchester, the latest imports were less scarce,
(i.e. American Rhythm & Blues and Rock and Roll records) and as a
result, an independent musical culture developed.
Liverpool produced the Merseybeat sound led by The Beatles, taking the
British charts by storm in 1963, while in London the Rolling Stones
heralded a boom in the British Rhythm and Blues that included the
Animals from Newcastle, Spencer Davis from Birmingham and scores more.
The conquest of America followed. Between 1964 and 1966, dozens of
British groups made fortunes in the States, doing much better there
than at home.
Folk inspired artists, like The Byrds, and even America’s most
influential contemporary performer Bob Dylan also turned to sound of
the Beatles for new direction. The quintessential Californian group,
The Beach Boys, helped fly the flag for Surf Music, although chief
member Brian Wilson was pressured into illness in his efforts to
progress, both commercially and artistically.
Black Soul Music (containing the beat of Rhythm and Blues combined
with the exuberance of Gospel), may have been overshadowed in the
media but it still made as indelible an impression as British Beat via
Atlantic and Motown, the best known and most successful soul labels
ever.
Between them, they had all the early soul stars of note, including The
Drifters, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, The Supremes, The Four Tops,
Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye.
‘The Godfather of Soul’, James Brown, through the rest of the ’60s
dispensed with melodies in favour of chunky rhythms, horn interplay
and scratching guitar giving a whole new sound which would become
essential ingredients of what is known as Funk. With ‘The Summer of
Love’ in 1967, focus shifted to San Francisco Bay. The Flower Power
era embraced extravagant clothes, weird lyrics and music that seemed
to have few rules and less form: names like The Grateful Dead,
Jefferson Airplane, and the The Doors became synonymous with
meditation, levitation and drugs.
By then America began to worship the posturing and volume of what
became known as Heavy Metal. Pioneered by Cream, Jimi Hendrix, and
Jeff Beck and culminated by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep
Purple, the term ‘Heavy Metal’, was coined by critic Lester Bangs from
certain passages in author William Burroughs ‘Naked Lunch’. The music
itself was characterised by heavy guitar riffs/ostinato, a high
register male vocal and more punch particularly in the lower
frequencies of the bass drum and bass guitar.
Britain started the 1970’s pointing towards a hybrid known as
‘Glam-rock’, which produced Marc Bolan, David Bowie, and groups such
as Slade and The Sweet. Their theatrical style of dress (which
consisted of heavy make-up and women’s clothes) further emphasised the
sartorial overkill of Psychedelia.
The advance in technology would give birth to a genre of Progressive
rock groups such as Genesis and Yes, followed by E.L.O., Supertramp,
Queen, and 10cc - The recording process itself had become much more
sophisticated and the expansion of multitracking enabled artists to
isolate each instrument and use a myriad of multi-layered harmony
vocals creating an orchestral sound which would give these bands their
trademark.
Bob Marley and the Wailers introduced Reggae and Ska to the
international community after being signed to London’s Island Records.
(Reggae is a Jamaican form of Rhythm and Blues with accents on the
half beats.)
Another popular style of reggae was known as ‘Dub’. In Jamaica
whenever a song was put out on a 45 single, the’B’side was called the
Dub. It was the same song (often times with a different mix) that did
not include the lead vocal. Jamaican MC’s started talking, chatting
and singing over the Dub version of a song for a particular sound.
When this music reached their Jamaican counterparts, then residing
within New York’s inner-city neighbourhoods in the Bronx and Brooklyn,
it gave birth to what is now known as Rap, or Hip Hop.
Another scene to emerge from its underground existence in New York was
the dance 70’s phenomenon known as Disco. Disco began as far back in
the sixties with the Motown sound, but it came in a rapid in the early
and mid-seventies when extended versions of the popular songs were
played in the city’s gay clubs. When the 12″ single was commercially
available in 1976 the public became more aware of Disco. The
soundtrack album from the movie ‘Saturday Night Fever’ featuring The
Bee Gees when it came out sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.
During the last three years of the 1970’s, British youth, many of whom
in the cities had become the unemployed victims, of an economic slump,
could find little relevance in the sun kissed utopia in which
country-rockers The Eagles seemed to live. They didn’t have much time
for the biggest stars of the era - Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Pink
Floyd and all the rest-who spent much more time in America, where they
were better appreciated and could earn infinitely more than in
economically divided Britain. Neither were they greatly moved by the
seamless efficiency and catchy songs of Abba, the Swedish quartet who
sold more records than anyone internationally during the decade, and
topped the UK charts nine times in all.
Rock music has always been the rallying call of rebellious youth, and
in 1977 the Anarchic Punk generation produced disenchanted Britons
like The Sex Pistols and The Clash. Ironically by the end of the
decade, New York had spawned Punk’s godparents Lou Reed, The New York
Dolls and Patti Smith, as well as producing stars like The Ramones and
Blondie.
The Eighties in the UK began where the 70’s left off with the Ska
hybrid ‘2 Tone’, performed by racially integrated groups like The
Specials and Madness. It also witnessed the commercial finale of Punk
with the Jam, and polished Post-Punk as purveyed by The Police and
XTC.
In 1981 the music scene underwent a significant change. Technological
developments in the form of Music Television, and the compact disc,
changed the music world in a way that a different approach was
necessary. In fact, major record labels would view music videos as
essential as TV-commercials.
The Boom of Synth-Pop and New Romanticism spawned Duran Duran, Spandau
Ballet and Culture Club. They all came from Britain, and for several
months during the second quarter of the decade, these acts and others
like The Human League and Wham! helped Britain rule the waves of the
Atlantic, although with less domination than 20 years earlier.
Michael Jackson dominated the music world with his 1982 release
‘Thriller’. It became the biggest selling album in history with over
40 million copies sold. During a time when MTV made headway, Jackson
adapted to this and accompanied his single-releases with videos of
high quality. Another artist to achieve Megastardom in a similar way
was Madonna. Her popularity was also achieved by the way she
challenged the mainstream on issues as race, gender, sexuality, and
power.
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five brought a new lyrical intensity
to Rap with the song ‘The Message’. Def Jam label artists Run DMC and
the Beastie Boys mixed heavy metal guitars rather than the usual funk
and disco samples for an aggressive impact that helped the first Rap
album to reach a number one chart position.
Bob Geldof will forever be admired for his charitable work in
organising Band Aid, which consisted of dozens of British stars who
recorded a charity single in an attempt to save lives in
drought-stricken Africa. Later he organised Live Aid - a concert on
both sides of the Atlantic, which also involved numerous stars such as
Phil Collins, Bruce Springsteen, U2, and Queen.
In the UK Producers Stock, Aitken, & Waterman clocked up 31 number one
hits and 35 million records sold around the world. (And that was just
1987.) For theirs was the sound that dominated the charts, dance
floors and airwaves of Britain with its instantly recognisable bouncy,
chattering dance rhythms and chirpy, catchy pop tunes, no matter who
the chosen vocalist - Mel & Kim, Rick Astley, Kylie Minogue,
Bananarama, etc
Another dance phenomenon was to emerge, this time from the holiday
resort of Ibiza. It would enter the UK as Acid House (The Culture
associated with the drug Ecstasy.) and transmogrify into the 90’s
genres, Trance and Rave. (Music that was dominated by what machines
were good at - repeating monotonous rhythmic patterns that could go on
and on.)
The 90’s followed the avaricious 80’s with a softer sound - Country
Music. Garth Brooks and Shania Twain carried the sound of Nashville
into the mainstream, effectively making it the music capital of the
world. At the other end of the musical spectrum, Nirvana, Pearl Jam,
and Soundgarden took the raw sound of American Grunge music and
slapped it screaming onto radios everywhere. By the mid 90s, a new
crop of young British bands influenced by the Manchester Indie scene
(The Stone Roses, and the Happy Mondays) rediscovered the Beatles,
giving birth to Britpop. Blur and Oasis fought, fell out and made up.
Take that paved the way for legions of Boy Bands such as Boyzone and
Westlife. However the biggest-selling British export of the 90’s was
the Spice Girls, who kick-started a resurgence in Teen Pop music.
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