What do we make of this? "Metal can be thought of as pop" ... "Beethoven was pop in his day" ... "Green Day is not pop" ... "What is pop?" ... "Pop is not a genre" ...
There's plenty of music that most people would say is modern western pop. For me, there are these elements: Short. Melodic with at least one hook, usually in the chorus, repeated many times (often to a fode out). More often major than minor. Simple lyrics that most times are based on luuurve. No soloing, or a short solo after the second chorus.
Wikipedia puts it like this:
Musicologists often identify the following characteristics as typical of the pop music genre:
- a focus on the individual song or singles, rather than on extended works or albums
- aimed at appealing to a general audience, rather than to a particular sub-culture or ideology
- an emphasis on craftsmanship rather than formal "artistic" qualities
- an emphasis on recording, production, and technology, over acoustic live performance
- a tendency to reflect existing trends rather than progressive developments
We all know there's much overlap between genres in most musical forms. Most times songs that people call pop are popularised (often saccharine) versions of R&B, soul, rock, funk, rap, disco, country, folk, metal etc. Sure, Green Day is a rock band, but the song is pop to my ears. Pop rock if you like. It was chosen as a single and is in the Top 40.
theLimpingToad said:
I don't necessarily like pop music as a genre but a catchy tune is a catchy tune... it sells tickets/albums and i would be thrilled to be as big of a success as the modern pop stars
And so say all of us! I'd say most practised their flammadiddlyruffadoublemacues at some stage.
No accounting for taste. When I see clothes in shops I am amazed that anyone even makes most of them let alone buys them. Same with music. I like music from all genres, although only very few in opera, metal and rap.
I guess the more closely we connect with something the more discerning we become because we come across irritations that superficial connections don't uncover - like snoring and squeezing the toothpaste from the middle. For a lot of people, what is a major passion in our lives - music - is nothing more than "wallpaper" in the "rooms" of their social lives.
Royal, can you you remember the names of the particular bands?