Introduction:
Music has always been part of the human and society system. It makes the various occasions to be more meaningful. It also mirrors human emotions as various music relay the internal thoughts and emotions rooted from the different experiences of man. In fact, music is part of the day to day activities of man. There are various types and genres of music. Some are made and played for specific reasons while there are some that can be aired and played at any moment of time. Whereas the number of music accelerates rapidly in today’s generation, there is a certain type of music that is preferred to be heard by the people even repeatedly. People are drawn to their favorite songs and music and they even play them repeatedly every day.
There is so much confusion for the consideration of pop music from popular music. There are some that would point out that they are two interchangeable concepts, and that they are both considered collectively as music, and the difference between them would be negligible. Pop music may have been derived from the term popular music, where the world pop is a short term for popular. In some ways, in tracing back the history of music, there are truths to this point. However, in today’s generation, these two music types are not interchangeable. In fact, not all popular music is labeled and called as pop. Pop is a genre that is defined with their styles, techniques and musical patterns.
Popular Music
The definition of popular music is very broad. It is found everywhere. The terminology of the term popular music has its social and historical foundations. In the briefest archaeology, the term ‘popular’ shows both the historical movements and the plurality of its infections. The term popular has actually something to do with people, where ‘popular’ implies the common taste of the society. Popular, being a legitimating term, can mean ‘well-favoured’ or ‘well-liked’ and becomes predominant. The origin of the class oriented usage, ‘popular’ is mostly rooted from the lower classes and has become part of the common senses especially in the 20th century. In music, the ‘popular music’ became known in the nineteenth century where the songs in the bourgeois market were called popular songs, implying that these songs were good. Later in the century, there are other songs like folk songs are already called popular as well.
In the summary of definitions by Frans Birrer in the twentieth century about popular music, he stated that the definitions of the popular music intertwine and coexist along with its variety of usage. In normative definition, “Popular is an inferior type”. In Negative definitions, “Popular music is music hat is not something else”. In Sociological definitions, “Popular usic is associated with a particular social group”. And lastly, in Technologico-economic definitions, “Popular music is disseminated by mass media and/or in a mass market” (Middleton, 1990). With all these varied definitions of the term popular music, it is therefore difficult in determining its boundaries. Thus, there is a need to locate the topographical musical categories to give light to its definition. “Popular culture is neither, in a “pure” sense the popular traditions of resistancenor is it the forms which are superimposed on and over them. It is the ground on which the transformations are worked” (Middleton, 1990) . The term ‘popular music’ then tries to point out the space where the various contradictions exist, such as between ‘authentic’ and ‘imposed’ and between ‘elite’ and ‘common’. It is necessary to look into the historical background of the term. “The assumption that you might know before you looked at cultural relations in general what, at any particular time, was a part of elite culture or a part of popular culture is untenable” (Middleton,1990, 11). For instance, in the mid-nineteenth century, the popular music is the waltz culture of the popular class belonging to the bourgeois culture. However, in the later years, the musical map has changed drastically, where the new norms have been adapted by different social class, the bourgeois included. In the 1890, there was the moment of mass culture that erupted that changed the ways of humanity. The new and dynamic musical energies throughout time and generations are associated with both the ideological and economic reasons. There is also the development of the modernism that changed the psyche of most people where there are precise outrages and radical responses towards the new drive of total commodification. “The consensus popular music repertoire of the late 1920s to 1940s then covers a relatively narrow stylistic spread, bounded by theatre song on the one side, novelty items deriving from music hall and vaudeville traditions on the other, with Tin Pan Alley song, Hollywood hits and crooners in between. Contesting articulations of musical practices could as a rule now arise only at the level of consumption (Middleton, 1990, 14).
The history of the popular music is a debatable issue by the sociologists, journalists, and philosophers. There are accounts that the consideration of such is based on the rich and vivid musical lore hat may be judged aesthetically. But scientists consider such as lacking as there are required tests and clear hypotheses that should be derived for statistics and data. According to some economic-minded social scientists, the history of music has been intertwined with the market of the music. In the perspective of the evolutionary biology, the historical science that is based upon the quantitative models look at the cultural and organismic varieties as a result of the modification by descent processes ( Mauch et al, 2015).
Popular music encompasses the various classifications of songs. There are various genres that belong to this type of music such as the rock and roll, country music, rhythm and blues, and the other subgenres that include synthpop, dance-pop, heartland rock, and others. The genres country and rap are also popular music that captures informal musical styles that are associated with the age and ethnicity of the artists. Thus, popular music is all about music that made a trend at certain points in time. This music has been influenced by various distinct eras separated by time bounded revolutions (Mauch et al, 2015).
Pop Music
Pop music is contemporary music that belongs under the popular music. The term pop does not necessarily pertain to singular sound since the definition of such music is not limited and that it depends upon the place and time. In fact, its definition is as flexible as what music is all about. The consideration of pop music is also changing from time to time. There are some points when it is easily identified as the successful songs that are seen on the pop music chars. Pop music is considered as popular music but it is distinguished from other subgenres since it has its stylistic traits characterized mostly by danceable beat and rhythm, repeating structures, and simple melodies. These songs are often emotional, relating mostly to love. Pop music is not entirely different from other types of music as most of the pop music today includes various elements of hip hop, reggae, rock, R&B, folk, and electronic. Throughout history, the consideration of pop music has been influenced by different elements, with different styles in very generation. For instance, in the years 1920s to 1950s, the pop music is mainly composed of jazz element. In the next years 1950s to 1980s, the rhythm and blues and rock are their main influences. Further, in the ear 1980s, hip hop is the main element in this music. Despite the many changes in the styles of pop music, they are still considered as the most appealing type of music to a major part of the human population (New World Encyclopedia, 2012).
In the current trends of pop music, there are thousands of artists and songwriters both local and global that foster pop. The songs of pop are mass produced by recording companies and they are distributed in the global market. There are mass marketing strategies for the selling of the music and the artists through the use of media such as radios, televisions, and today, the World Wide Web (New World Encyclopedia, 2012).
Pop and Popular Music
There is confusion in the consideration of the pop music and popular music. As defined by the New Groove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, they identified “popular music as the music since the industrialization in the 1800’s that is most in line with the tastes and interests of the urban middle clss. This would include an extremely wide range of music from vaudeville and minstrel shows to heavy metal. Pop music, on the other hand, has primarily come into usage to describe music that evolved out of the rock ‘n roll revolution of the mid-1950’s and continues in a definable path to today” (Music Practice & Theory, 2016).
In simple explanations, the term popular music can include any style of music, while pop music is actually a genre of music with specific styles. Although pop music is coined as the closest to be considered as popular music, it has actually some truth to this point. In the current generation, the pop music is the newest style that emerged among the different genres of music. It is also the most marketed and commercialized type of music. It can be considered then that pop music is commercialized music. In the music industry, the songs that have hit phenomenal popularity both in the local and global aspect are the pop music. Most of the publishing companies commissioned certain types of music that are preferred by the majority of the human population. These are the dominant style of music that radio stations would eagerly play on their slots as they attract to listeners. Along with this, the advertisements and commercial drives of the various manufacturing and recording companies rampantly showcase these songs in various media. Pop music has also been a very profitable industry in various parts of the world. In the US alone, there are many emerging pop stars that top the global music industry as this genre is the most acceptable to the masses in this current generation. Hits coming from the Beatles, Madonna, Britney Spears, Justin Beaver, One Direction, and even the Korean pop sensations have dominated the music charts.
In today’s current era in music, pop has dominated without doubt. Thus, the definition of popular music is directly associated with them. The popular culture of the masses is so inclined towards the pop music. The younger generations has been drowned with the pop music as they are making a different and radical culture of their own. As what Grant McCracken of the Harvard Business review stated that “innovation in popular music is in declineif this is true, a big cultural change is upon us—the end of popular music as the great lab bench for our culture, as the defining innovator of our time” (Borofsky, 2011). He further stated that the younger generation has been using music for their own purposes, and that they are creating new forms of expression through music. The music today, dominated by pop music, considered synonymously into popular music defines the ways of the young generations being the current day’s consumers. There is the legacy of the punks that has marked the sophistication of most of the young artists (Borofsky, 2011).
References:
Borofsky, Y. “The Future of Pop Music and Youth Culture”. The Breakthrough.
Mauch, M., MacCallum, R., Levy, M. and Leroi, A. (2015). “The Evolution of Popular Music:
USA 1960-2010”. Royal Society of Open Science
Middleton, R . (1990). “Studying Popular Music”. Open University Press.
Music Practice and Theory. (2016). “What defines pop music as a genre? Which patterns and
trends can we find in pop music? “ Music Stack Exchange
New World Encyclopedia. (2012). Pop Music. New World Encyclopedia
