Popular Music
Popular music encompasses commercially produced music designed for wide-reaching audiences, aiming to achieve mass appeal and consumption. This genre is a significant element of popular culture, contrasting with "high culture," which has traditionally represented the tastes of more educated or elite classes. Over time, popular music in the United States has undergone substantial evolution, notably influenced by various cultural and technological changes. From its roots in British and Irish folk traditions, it has grown into a diverse landscape that includes genres like jazz, rock, and hip-hop, significantly shaping American social and cultural narratives.
Beginning in the late 19th century, the introduction of technological innovations such as the phonograph and radio helped popularize music, while the invention of the jukebox further democratized music listening in social spaces. Major developments continued through the decades, with influential eras like the birth of rock 'n' roll in the 1950s, the rise of Motown, and the impact of MTV in the 1980s, which visually transformed how music was consumed. Controversy has often surrounded popular music, touching on themes of sexuality, substance use, and anti-establishment sentiments. In recent years, the genre has incorporated electronic influences, resulting in new trends marked by faster tempos and uplifting themes. Today, artists from various genres engage with contemporary issues through their music, exemplifying popular music’s ongoing relevance and adaptability in reflecting societal changes.
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Popular Music
Popular music refers to commercialized music that is performed, marketed, and distributed to wide audiences in an effort to cultivate mass appeal and consumption. "Popular" not only refers to the broad fame of musicians and their music, but also is used in the sociological and anthropological sense in reference to popular culture. Popular (or "pop") culture refers to the recreational and leisurely activities of the masses, while "high culture" has historically been used to refer to the leisurely pursuits of society’s educated elites or upper class. Although popular music has evolved and transformed considerably over the course of American history, it remains a cornerstone of American pop culture and has become highly popular internationally. Recording artists enjoy tremendous celebrity status, and pop music often reflects important social and cultural themes at any given moment in American history. Its influence on the American social landscape has been, and remains, profound.
Background
From the colonial period until the mid-1800s, popular music in the United States was largely influenced by British music styles. In 1790, the US Congress approved the first copyright law, which granted exclusive rights for the production and distribution of artistic works and other inventions to their original creators. The original copyright law protected works for a period of fourteen years, which was then renewable for another fourteen years. This greatly encouraged a proliferation of intellectual, musical, literary, and scientific creativity among Americans. As Ireland became the leading source of immigration to the United States by the mid-1800s, Irish ballads and folk songs began to influence American popular music.
American popular music began to boom in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with the rise of consumerism and leisurely consumption. Technological changes from the 1890s to the 1930s made it possible to produce music on formats that could be listened to by individuals in the privacy of their homes, and rising wages led to a growing number of Americans with the discretionary income to purchase musical recordings. The first such device was the phonograph, which played music by winding an attached handle. The emergence of radio in the early- to mid-twentieth century provided an unprecedented venue for the commercialized music industry to present their recording artists’ songs to the public.
Overview
The music magazine Billboard began presenting a weekly chart ranking the most popular songs in 1936, which continues to this day. Also during the 1930s, the jukebox was invented. The jukebox quickly became a centerpiece at bars and diners throughout the nation, allowing clientele to play songs of their choice from a collection of records for a nickel. By the 1930s and 1940s, two major genres of American popular music had become well established: jazz and traditional pop (popular American music generally performed by white artists from the 1930s to the mid-1950s). Important jazz stars included Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dizzie Gillespie, while major figures in traditional pop included Perry Como, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra.
Since the 1950s, American popular music has evolved and diversified tremendously. The year 1955 is often arbitrarily credited as the start of the rock ’n’ roll era, even though rock music had been produced for years by African American musicians. During the 1950s, performers such as Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and Elvis Presleybecame the first rockers to achieve national fame. With the emergence of television in the 1950s and the immense popularity of Dick Clark’s Philadelphia-based music program American Bandstand, rock music came to define the soundtrack of American youth in the postwar generation.
By the early- to mid-1960s, record producer Berry Gordy had cultivated a distinct genre of soul and rhythm and blues (R&B) known as Motown. The Motown label was based out of Detroit and featured African American talent such as Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Diana Ross and the Supremes, and The Jackson Five. The growing success of several British bands in the United States during the 1960s—known as the British Invasion—profoundly influenced American popular music throughout the Vietnam War era. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were the two most prominent British bands in the United States during this time period.
The advent of MTV (Music Television) on August 1, 1981, transformed popular music by televising videosthus placing a visual emphasis on songs and performers. MTV operated essentially as a nonstop televised radio station throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and the network is considered by music scholars as instrumental in shaping the tremendous popularity of Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Van Halen, Guns N’ Roses, and Mariah Carey during this time period. Three major music genres of the 1980s included heavy metal, rap, and new wave. Michael Jackson’s 1982 album Thriller, which contains the hit singles "Beat It" and "Billie Jean," has sold tens of millions of copies since its initial release. By the early 1990s, rap and grunge music exerted a strong influence on American pop culture. The grunge scene was primarily based out of Seattle and popularized by the bands Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden.
Popular music has long generated controversy in American society. Much of this controversy centers on the sexually suggestive lyrics and antics of many musicians, alcohol and drug use/abuse among musicians, and the anti-establishment messages contained in socially conscious lyrics that encourage listeners to question authority. Artists ranging from Elvis Presley in the 1950s to Madonna in the 1980s, to Miley Cyrus and Nikki Minaj in the twenty-first century have been criticized during their respective eras for sexually provocative on-stage performances.
The anti-Vietnam War themes in rock music and protest songs during the late 1960s and early 1970s sparked outrage among supporters of the war, while the drug-related deaths of several high-profile stars of the era—including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison—also seemed to many to validate criticism of the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle. In 1985, a group led by Tipper Gore known as the Parents Music Resource Center, issued a list of fifteen songs it considered inappropriate for children. By the early 1990s, the corporate music industry in the United States had implemented Parental Advisory warning labels on albums with lyrical content that parents may consider offensive and unsuitable for minors.
The music of the twenty-first century has become increasingly dominated by electronic influences and has shown an increased explicitness of subject matter. The major genres of rap and pop, for example, use very few musical instruments. Much of the music and beat is created through synthesized machines, and vocals themselves are manipulated by technology to create a new sound unique to the genre. Artists such as Beyoncé and Lil Wayne are excellent examples that show the progressive inclusion of electronics and the evolution of subject matter.
The use of electronics to create tension until the beat "drops" and the frequently explicit sexual content of the songs make them ideal genres for dancing. The modern dance hall is filled with rap, pop, and electric dance music (EDM), intended to sexualize the atmosphere and thereby increase appeal. Other genres, such as alternative and indie rock and country, also frequently dabble with sexual subject matter. However, the explicitness is often toned down, dwelling more on the romantic side of the relationship, and although the use of electronic instruments has become increasingly influential, as evidenced by bands such as Walk the Moon, the traditional use of guitars and drums remains an identifying feature. Similarly, as proven by artists such as Luke Bryan, country music also has primarily stuck to traditional instruments, and its subject matter is also primarily about romance and heartbreak.
During the 2020s, the most popular music began exhibiting new trends. The average tempo of popular music tracks reached 122 beats per minute, notably faster than in previous decades. Additionally, a higher percentage of pop songs involved positive themes, such as joy and hope.
Bibliography
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Reeves, Marcus. Somebody Scream!: Rap Music’s Rise to Prominence in the Aftershock of Black Power. New York: Faber, 2009. Print. Savage, Mark. "Pop Music Is Getting Faster (and Happier)." BBC, 8 July 2020, www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-53167325. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
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"What Happens When a Pop Star Isn't That Popular?" The New York Times, 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/08/14/arts/music/pop-musics-middle-class.html. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.