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| Popular music | |
| Stylistic origins | |
|---|---|
| Cultural origins |
Various
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| Typical instruments | |
| Mainstream popularity | By definition, always. |
| Other topics | |
| Pop rock | |
Popular music is music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and are disseminated by one or more of the mass media. It stands in contrast to classical music,[1] which historically was the music of the elite and upper strata of society, and traditional music which was disseminated orally.[2] It is sometimes abbreviated to pop music, although pop music is more often taken as meaning the style of pop, rather than popular music as a whole.
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Form in popular music is most often sectional, the most common sections being verse, chorus or refrain, and bridge.
Popular music dates at least as far back as the mid 19th century, and is commonly subdivided into genres. Different genres often appeal to different age groups. These often, but not always, are the people who were young when the music was new. Thus, for instance, Big band music continues to have a following, but it is probably a rather older group, on average, than the audience for rap. For some genres, such as Ragtime music, the original target generation may have died out almost entirely.
With the increasing social and economic independence of young people, this "generation gap" has grown wider and wider since the second World War. Music hall and other forms before the 1940s were not so clearly marked by generation. From the Depression through the end of the war, Bing Crosby was the highest-selling recording artist in the United States. His fan base had no age division. The average Kraft Music Hall listener was 21 years old. But after Crosby's semi-retirement in 1954, a large generation gap emerged. Elvis Presley became the most popular recording artist among teenagers, while Frank Sinatra was most popular among adults.
The relationship between (particularly, the relative value of) classical music and popular music is a controversial question. Some partisans of classical music[who?] may claim that classical music constitutes art and popular music only light entertainment.[citation needed] However, many popular works show a high level of artistry and musical innovation and many classical works are unabashedly crowd-pleasing. The elevation of classical music to a position of special value is closely connected to the concept of a Western canon, and to theories of educational perennialism.
The very distinction between classical and popular music has sometimes been blurred in the border regions [3], for instance minimalist music and light classics. In this respect music is like fiction, which likewise draws a distinction between classics and popular fiction that is not always easy to maintain.
| “ | Neat divisions between 'folk' and 'popular', and 'popular' and 'art', are impossible to find ... arbitrary criteria [are used] to define the complement of 'popular'. 'Art' music, for example, is generally regarded as by nature complex, difficult, demanding; 'popular' music then has to be defined as 'simple', 'accessible', 'facile'. But many pieces commonly thought of as 'art' (Handel's 'Hallelujah Chorus', many Schubert songs, many Verdi arias) have qualities of simplicity; conversely, it is by no means obvious that the Sex Pistols' records were 'accessible', Frank Zappa's work 'simple', or Billie Holiday's 'facile'." (Middleton, 1990) | ” |
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