Pop music originated in the 1950s as a modification of rock and roll. It uses elements of various genres like dance, electro, urban, rock and country to create music that is pleasurable to listen to. Some key subgenres include rock pop, soul pop, dance pop, and indie pop. Important early artists who helped shape pop music include Aretha Franklin, The Beatles, and ABBA. Pop music continues to evolve through new styles, bands, technology, and blending of genres. It remains popular due its wide appeal and ability to incorporate diverse influences.

1. Genre Research
Pop

2. Introduction
 Pop music is an abbreviation of the original: “popular music”
 It originated in its modern form in the 1950s, a modification
of rock and roll
 The term “popular music” can be used interchangeably, and
can include any style.
 It can use elements of, dance, electro, urban, rock,
alternative and country.
 Its usually pleasurable to listen to rather than holding artistic
depth.

3. Sub- genres
 Rock pop  Pop puck
 Soul pop  Disco
 Bubblegum pop  Indie pop
 Christian pop  Acoustic pop
 Dance pop  Folk pop
 Power pop  Rap pop
 Synthpop
 Teen pop

4. Pop origins
 The term "pop music" "originated in Britain in the mid-1950s as a description
for rock and roll and the new youth music styles that it influenced…
 Aretha Franklin (1942): American singer/song writer. Crowned the “Queen of
Soul”, She revolutionised the lyrics of pop and many other genres.
 The Beatles (1960): one of the most successful bands to date, who thought of new
ways to produce music. Experimenting with genres including pop, ballads and
progressive rock.
 ABBA (1972): Swedish band topped charts with their pop music. Won in 1974
Eurovision and were one of the first non-English pop bands.

5. Pop – evolution
 "a body of music which is distinguishable from popular, jazz
and folk music“
 Thus "pop music" may be used to describe a distinct genre,
aimed at a youth market, often characterized as a softer
alternative to rock and roll.
 many events in the history of recording in the 1920s can be
seen as the birth of the modern pop music industry,
including in country, blues and hillbilly music.

6. Pop – Evolution
 Pop music charts as such didn't exist until 1952, when the
first Top Twenty was recorded. It came at an interesting
time, as "teenagers" really came into being. Historically
there'd been no transitional period between childhood and
adulthood
 New styles have briefly emerged, but nothing appears to
have gained a major foothold besides modern R&B, which
owes little to its soulful predecessor, but a lot to hip-hop -
which itself has become a pop style.

7. Features in pop music
 Appealing to a general audience
 More about the production, recording and technology rather than live
performance.
 Follows trends rather than developments.
 Encourages dancing
 Has a beat
 Uses a wide range of instruments
 May include background noises of synchs, or rhythmic elements
 Simple melodies
 Last for 3-4 minutes average.
 Artist usually have a single released as well as album
 Can include instrumentals

8. Top40 Charts
 Top 40 is a music industry shorthand for the currently most-
popular songs in a particular genre. it typically refers to the
best-selling popular music songs of the previous week.
 Top 40 became the dominant radio format of the 1960s,
1970s, and 1980s.
 Its popularity overlapped with the rapid changes in recording
technology in the 1950s and 1960s.
 Radios now have top album charts to determine the best
selling artists.

9. Focus on Pop soul/Blue-eyed soul
 Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the United States in the
1950s and early 1960s, combining elements of African American gospel
music and rhythm and blues.
 Blue-eyed soul is a media term that was used to describe rhythm and
blues and soul music performed by white artists, with a strong pop music
influence.
 Similar to the music of the Motown.
 Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps and extemporaneous body moves, are
an important feature of soul music.
 Tense vocal sound
 The style also occasionally uses improvisational additions, twirls and auxiliary
sounds.

10. Focus on Power pop/Pure pop
 Spurred on by the emergence of punk rock and new wave, power pop enjoyed a prolific
and commercially successful period in the late 1970s and early 1980s
 Instrumental solos are usually kept to a minimum
 draws its inspiration from 1960s British and American pop and rock music.
 Recordings tend to display production values that lean toward compression and a
forceful drum beat.

11. Key bands/artists – Otis Redding
(1941 – 1967)
 Known for his talented, open throat music Otis is in the sub genre
of Pop-soul.
 He influenced other soul singers in the 1960s and crafted his own
style to the R&B series.
 He became popular quickly with his lyrical creativity and is still a
worldwide legend

12. Key Bands/Artist – Stevie Wonder
(1950 – present)
 One of the most ever awarded solo artist, receiving 22
Grammys.
 He has recorded thirty top ten US hits.
 Sets the standard for pop soul
 Well known albums such as Talking Book and Songs to
the Key of Life.
 His style of writing/song evolved as he grew and got
older as he went from susses to classic to commercial
gain to his worldwide status now.

13. Wonder's songs are renowned for being quite difficult to sing. He has a
very developed sense of harmony and uses many extended chords
utilizing extensions such as ninths, elevenths, thirteenths, diminished
fifths. Many of his melodies make abrupt, unpredictable changes. Some
of his best known and most frequently covered songs are played in keys
which are more often found in jazz than in pop and rock.

14. Key Artist/Bands – Bob Dylan (1941 –
present)
 American sing-song writer, musician and artist – Genre: Folk pop
 Dylan's early songs became anthems for US civil rights and anti-war movements – giving Dylan
popularity.
 Many of his songs were heavily criticized for his used of electronic instruments.
 Dylan's six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" has been described as radically altering the
limitation of popular music in 1965
 He holds raw talent for music and is extremely gifted in being able to play with numerous
instruments - performs with guitar, keyboards, and harmonica.
 in the late 1970s, Dylan became a born-again Christian and released two albums of Christian gospel
music.
 Dylan was included in the Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century where he was
called "master poet, caustic social critic and intrepid, guiding spirit of the counterculture
generation"

15. Key Artist/Bands – The Beatles (1960
– 1970)
 The Beatles are the best-selling band in history, with estimated sales of over
one billion units.
 Internationally famous
 They acquired the nickname the "Fab Four“
 Experimental with genres and music style, “no limits”
 From 1966 they produced what many critics consider to be some of their finest
material, including the innovative and widely influential albums Revolver
(1966), Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), The Beatles (1968) and Abbey
Road (1969)

16. Key bands/artist – The Saturdays
(2007 – present)
 The band rose to fame when they released their debut single
“Up “
 To date the band have released thirteen singles in the United
Kingdom alone.
 They are currently due to star in their own TV show on
American cable network E!, in 2012
 They have furthermore written a book titled, The Saturdays:
Our Story.

17. Key Artist/Bands – Eliza Doolittle
 Eliza Sophie Caird, better known
by her stage name Eliza
Doolittle, is a British singer–
songwriter from London.
 She chose the stage name of Eliza
Doolittle, the My Fair
Lady character, because it was
her nickname as a child
 her song “Skinny Genes” had
featured in a television advert for
an online retailer

18. Instruments
 Influenced my the traditional structure of a song, using
vocals, electric guitar, bass guitar, drums, keyboard,
synthesizer and keyboards.
 Template laid out by Stevie Wonder and The Beatles for
experimentation.
 Classical instruments often used – nowadays even mixed
with rap.

19. Vocals
 Sometimes synths added to voice for immersion and effect.
 Open throat originated from Otis Redding
 Artist will sing it own accent.
 Use materials, stage performance to highlight and illustrate
the meaningful lyrics.
 Notable vocalists: Bob Dylan, Otis Redding

20. Guitar – (bass, electric and acoustic
 Originally in pop, guitarist must be
very versatile able to switch between
rock and classical styles at the drop of
a hat, like Bob Dylan. There is a large
emphasis upon sonic exploration and
creating different sounds using music
technology and unusual tunings.
 Nowadays guitar is often kept at a
simple melody and often
computerised.
 Solo artist cant often play instruments
and relie on their own band to provide
their overall sound

21. Synthesizer
 A sound synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing a wide
range of sounds. Synthesizers may either imitate other instruments or generate
new timbres. They can be played via a variety of different input devices
(including keyboards, music sequencers and instrument controllers).
Synthesizers generate electric signals (waveforms), and can finally be converted
to sound through the loudspeakers or headphones.
 Used to produce quick music for commercial reasons.
 Development means becoming more popular, especially with dance, electro
and pop artists.
 Revolutionised music, some electro artist, like Example relie heavily upon
these for their musical style.

22. Sampler
 A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to
a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that
are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of the
sampler program itself, a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to
perform or compose music.
 Samples are now usually stored in digital memory the information can be
quickly accessed, used by artist such as Rihanna and Jessie J.

23. Drum Kit
 Pop drummers have to be good; they have to be able to play
everything from straight rock to jazz. Polyrhythm's,
awkward and unusual time signatures are the backbone of the
music.

24. Pop 1950s- present
 Popular music has remand at the forefront of musical evolution because of its appeal
to a wide, changing audience.
 Even though musical influence has died there music continues to encourage
upcoming artist, who craft new styles by adding their personal touch
EVOLUTION
 Early pop music drew on the sentimental ballad for its form, gained its use of vocal
harmonies from gospel and soul music, instrumentation from jazz, country, and rock
music, orchestration from classical music, tempo from dance music, backing
from electronic music, rhythmic elements from hip-hop music, and has recently
appropriated spoken passages from rap.

25. Pop 1950s - present
 As pop music is influenced by every genre of music it
often suits everyone's tastes
 Pop is often criticized for the lack of real talent and the
want for commercial and financial gain, which brings to
the industry the fame hungry artists.
 Pop music used the technological development to their
gain and arguably created innovative ideas used across
the musical board.

26. New pop
 Jessie J
 Rihanna
 The Saturdays
 The Wanted
 Justin Beiber
 Alphabeat
 Olly Murz
 Maroon 5
 Flo Rida
 Katy Perry

27. Singles
 Pop groups/artist use singles to promote their album
 A single is the most catchy up beat tune in an album to get
the audiences attention, it is highly publicised
 Experimentation and a range of different songs are often on
the album to keep a range.
 Many albums may relate to events in the artists personal life,
or political matters at the time. Audiences can relate to this

28. New technology
 Synthesier
 Sampler
 Recording equipment
 New ways of performing
 DJ tables
 Amplifiers