Pop music (or "pop") is a subgenre of contemporary popular music that typically has a dance-along and happy rhythm or beat, simple melodies and a repeating structure. Pop song lyrics are often emotional, commonly relating to love, loss, emotion, or dancing.
Pop music is distinguished from classical (or art music) and from folk music[1]. Pop songs are often written by professional songwriters, and performed and popularized by singers, as opposed to other popular music genres, such as rock and hip hop, where performers tend to write their own songs.
Pop is distributed by major record companies as part of a global music market through mass marketing through radio, television.In the recorded music era, the single (a single song) and the album (a collection of songs) are the usual methods of distributing pop music. Pop has been distributed in many formats included vinyl records, cassette tapes, compact discs, and Internet downloads. Pop music is arguably the world's biggest music genre
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History
Blues women such as Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, Alberta Hunter, Ida Cox, Victoria Spivey and many others were among the first to record popular music in the United States. Their music came to be marketed as race records and made Columbia Records millions. Evidence of their success as popular music artists could be found in the New York Times on advertisement columns of Columbia Records. These advertisements were entitled, "Out Today" where they would advertise the titles and prices of best-selling music such as: Dance Music, Popular Songs, Minstrels, Hawaiian Duets, Scotch Songs, and Symphony and Concert Selections. [2] Blues songs were always categorized as "Popular Music" in these columns. Also, Blues women sold many records, which reflects their popularity. As LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka points out, "Mamie Smith's, "Crazy Blues" sold 8,000 copies a week for months, and Victoria Spivey's "Black Snake Blues" sold 150,000 copies in one year (Jones 100). [3] and Bessie Smith's Gulf Coast Blues sold almost 1,000,000 copies!
American communities (for example: electric guitar Blues in Chicago and Texas), and Country coming also from "hillbilly music" of poor folk, white and black (Sun Records in Tennessee), which blended to become Rockabilly. The most important ingredient in early Rock n' Roll was, however, the type of Jump blues / R&B led by Louis Jordan who occasionally broke through into the pop charts. The music later on was mixed with gospel handclaps, boogie woogie and larger emphasis on backbeat, by artists such as The Treniers, which created Rock 'n' Roll. The rise of the crying and emotional singers in the late 1940s such as Mario Lanza began the pop music vocal styles
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Did Britney Spears make a bad album, or do her universally panned media blunders sabotage her success?
On October 30th Britney Spears’ latest attempt at a career comeback was met with resistance with opening week sales of her 5th studio album entitled Blackout coming in at approximately 290,000 total units (according to a Nielsen Soundscan chart release to Billboard.com).
Were Opening Week Sales Legitimate?
While some would not consider 290,000 units a failure, the common knowledge fact that most record labels personally purchase thousands of copies of their artists’ albums in an attempt to gain a #1 debut on music charts such as Billboard's Top 200 should be taken into account. Even the efforts of Britney’s die-hard fans at Breatheheavy and MySpace websites to support Ms. Spears by purchasing multiple copies of the album from different sources (so that each sale would count as an individual unit); should be considered. Britney’s self-proclaimed biggest fan Chris Crocker was personally seen in x17 video purchasing approximately 20 copies of Blackout (10 for himself and 10 to distribute to the homeless). It makes you wonder how many of the sales were genuine and how many were from those trying to manipulate the system.
Music versus Personal Drama
Reviewing this album created an interesting dilemma. In order to be objective, Britney’s personal dramatics had to be left out of the equation. However, since some of the songs on the album reflect her personal issues, her personal life was inevitably considered. The truth is, for every positive on the album, there were two negatives. A song like “Break The Ice” mixed an urban pop beat with a catchy melody (sung by her backup singers) was countered by a song like “Hot As Ice” which had Britney singing in a childish, whining voice while referring to herself as a “living legend” and unfortunately did nothing but add to the speculation that she refuses to accept the fact that she is not 16 anymore. Similar sentiments could be made about “Heaven and Earth” whose 80’s style production sounded really out of place among the other urban dance songs.
Superficial Pieces of Britney
Another song like “Piece of Me” had Britney’s voice shrouded by semi-fun, studio-created robot vocals and was more along the lines of what she needed to do to make this album work for her. But songs like “Radar” which showcased her minimal vocal talent and “Get Naked (I Got A Plan)" -- which had a male vocalist singing a nerve-grating rubber band twang while Britney sang the deeply intuitive lyrics “get naked” over and over again -- didn’t quite step up to par.
Is Blackout enough to resurrect the career of a troubled pop star? Read more about the albums' overall production and Britney's chance of success in: Blackout Stalls a Career Comeback
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modern pop music
In the 2000s, pop music chart-toppers included Black Eyed Peas, Fergie, Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake, Jennifer Lopez, Hilary Duff, Jessica Simpson and Ashlee Simpson. Robbie Williams recorded the biggest sales worldwide for a male artist. Well established artists who continued to have success include Madonna, , Mariah Carey, Usher Raymond, Kylie Minogue and Michael Jackson.
Hannah Montana also known as Miley Cyrus
Other trends included Teen pop singers such as Disney Channel stars like The Cheetah Girls and Ashley Tisdale. Pop punk acts such as Simple Plan and Fall Out Boy have become increasingly popular, as well as pop rock, with acts such as P!nk, Avril Lavigne. A new present star that is selling out of tickets is Hannah Montana, otherwise known as Miley Cyrus.
The popular American reality program American Idol has produced many successful Pop artists, most notably Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Katharine McPhee, Chris Daughtry, Elliott Yamin, Jordin Sparks, and country pop artists Carrie Underwood and Kellie Pickler. In Latin America, multi-platinum pop group RBD has achieved a great commercial success becoming the best-selling Latin act on the 2000s. R&B and pop music blended in music from Nelly Furtado, Rihanna, JoJo and the Pussycat Dolls
Pop music is distinguished from classical (or art music) and from folk music[1]. Pop songs are often written by professional songwriters, and performed and popularized by singers, as opposed to other popular music genres, such as rock and hip hop, where performers tend to write their own songs.
Pop is distributed by major record companies as part of a global music market through mass marketing through radio, television.In the recorded music era, the single (a single song) and the album (a collection of songs) are the usual methods of distributing pop music. Pop has been distributed in many formats included vinyl records, cassette tapes, compact discs, and Internet downloads. Pop music is arguably the world's biggest music genre
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
History
Blues women such as Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, Alberta Hunter, Ida Cox, Victoria Spivey and many others were among the first to record popular music in the United States. Their music came to be marketed as race records and made Columbia Records millions. Evidence of their success as popular music artists could be found in the New York Times on advertisement columns of Columbia Records. These advertisements were entitled, "Out Today" where they would advertise the titles and prices of best-selling music such as: Dance Music, Popular Songs, Minstrels, Hawaiian Duets, Scotch Songs, and Symphony and Concert Selections. [2] Blues songs were always categorized as "Popular Music" in these columns. Also, Blues women sold many records, which reflects their popularity. As LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka points out, "Mamie Smith's, "Crazy Blues" sold 8,000 copies a week for months, and Victoria Spivey's "Black Snake Blues" sold 150,000 copies in one year (Jones 100). [3] and Bessie Smith's Gulf Coast Blues sold almost 1,000,000 copies!
American communities (for example: electric guitar Blues in Chicago and Texas), and Country coming also from "hillbilly music" of poor folk, white and black (Sun Records in Tennessee), which blended to become Rockabilly. The most important ingredient in early Rock n' Roll was, however, the type of Jump blues / R&B led by Louis Jordan who occasionally broke through into the pop charts. The music later on was mixed with gospel handclaps, boogie woogie and larger emphasis on backbeat, by artists such as The Treniers, which created Rock 'n' Roll. The rise of the crying and emotional singers in the late 1940s such as Mario Lanza began the pop music vocal styles
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did Britney Spears make a bad album, or do her universally panned media blunders sabotage her success?
On October 30th Britney Spears’ latest attempt at a career comeback was met with resistance with opening week sales of her 5th studio album entitled Blackout coming in at approximately 290,000 total units (according to a Nielsen Soundscan chart release to Billboard.com).
Were Opening Week Sales Legitimate?
While some would not consider 290,000 units a failure, the common knowledge fact that most record labels personally purchase thousands of copies of their artists’ albums in an attempt to gain a #1 debut on music charts such as Billboard's Top 200 should be taken into account. Even the efforts of Britney’s die-hard fans at Breatheheavy and MySpace websites to support Ms. Spears by purchasing multiple copies of the album from different sources (so that each sale would count as an individual unit); should be considered. Britney’s self-proclaimed biggest fan Chris Crocker was personally seen in x17 video purchasing approximately 20 copies of Blackout (10 for himself and 10 to distribute to the homeless). It makes you wonder how many of the sales were genuine and how many were from those trying to manipulate the system.
Music versus Personal Drama
Reviewing this album created an interesting dilemma. In order to be objective, Britney’s personal dramatics had to be left out of the equation. However, since some of the songs on the album reflect her personal issues, her personal life was inevitably considered. The truth is, for every positive on the album, there were two negatives. A song like “Break The Ice” mixed an urban pop beat with a catchy melody (sung by her backup singers) was countered by a song like “Hot As Ice” which had Britney singing in a childish, whining voice while referring to herself as a “living legend” and unfortunately did nothing but add to the speculation that she refuses to accept the fact that she is not 16 anymore. Similar sentiments could be made about “Heaven and Earth” whose 80’s style production sounded really out of place among the other urban dance songs.
Superficial Pieces of Britney
Another song like “Piece of Me” had Britney’s voice shrouded by semi-fun, studio-created robot vocals and was more along the lines of what she needed to do to make this album work for her. But songs like “Radar” which showcased her minimal vocal talent and “Get Naked (I Got A Plan)" -- which had a male vocalist singing a nerve-grating rubber band twang while Britney sang the deeply intuitive lyrics “get naked” over and over again -- didn’t quite step up to par.
Is Blackout enough to resurrect the career of a troubled pop star? Read more about the albums' overall production and Britney's chance of success in: Blackout Stalls a Career Comeback
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
modern pop music
In the 2000s, pop music chart-toppers included Black Eyed Peas, Fergie, Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake, Jennifer Lopez, Hilary Duff, Jessica Simpson and Ashlee Simpson. Robbie Williams recorded the biggest sales worldwide for a male artist. Well established artists who continued to have success include Madonna, , Mariah Carey, Usher Raymond, Kylie Minogue and Michael Jackson.
Hannah Montana also known as Miley Cyrus
Other trends included Teen pop singers such as Disney Channel stars like The Cheetah Girls and Ashley Tisdale. Pop punk acts such as Simple Plan and Fall Out Boy have become increasingly popular, as well as pop rock, with acts such as P!nk, Avril Lavigne. A new present star that is selling out of tickets is Hannah Montana, otherwise known as Miley Cyrus.
The popular American reality program American Idol has produced many successful Pop artists, most notably Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Katharine McPhee, Chris Daughtry, Elliott Yamin, Jordin Sparks, and country pop artists Carrie Underwood and Kellie Pickler. In Latin America, multi-platinum pop group RBD has achieved a great commercial success becoming the best-selling Latin act on the 2000s. R&B and pop music blended in music from Nelly Furtado, Rihanna, JoJo and the Pussycat Dolls
