This document provides a brief history and overview of mainstream pop music. It lists popular mainstream pop artists from 2000s-2010s and notes that the term "pop music" originated in 1926 to describe commercially recorded music meant to appeal to general audiences rather than a particular ideology. The document explains that pop music consists of short, simple love songs with catchy choruses and originated in Britain in the 1950s with artists like The Beatles and ABBA. It also discusses how television and visual elements helped pop stars gain popularity starting in the 1950s and how pop music has incorporated styles from other genres over time.

1. MAINSTREAM POP

2. Bruno Mars Chris Brown Ed Sheeran Jessie J Lady Gaga Olly Murs One Direction JLS Justin Bieber Katy Perry Ke$ha Maroon 5

3. Beyonce Rihanna Pixie Lott Taylor Swift Tinie Tempah Kelly Clarkson Ellie Goulding Cher Lloyd The Wanted Miley Cyrus The Saturdays Enrique Iglesias

4. The History of Pop Music The term ‘pop music’ (originally an abbreviation of ‘popular’) was first used in 1926 and is generally thought of as a genre which is commercially recorded and aims to appeal to a general audience, rather than to a particular ideology. Pop consists of short, simple love songs which have an up beat catchy repeated chorus. This genre originated in Britain in the mid-1950’s with artists such as The Beatles and Abba. Also in the 1950’s television was introduced and the visual appearance of pop stars helped them to gain more popularity. By 1980s MTV favored the artists like Michael Jackson, Prince and Madonna who had a strong visual appeal. Throughout its development pop music has been influenced by most other genres of popular music. It picked up instrumentation from jazz and rock, tempo from dance music with vocal harmonies from gospel and soul music forming the sentimental ballads. Even now pop music still borrows elements from other styles such as urban (Chris Brown), rock (Kelly Clarkson), latin (Enrique Iglesias) and country (Taylor Swift).