Essay – Pop Music History

I wrote this a few weeks ago for A-Level Music, and thought I’d post it up here as it may interest people.

Pop music, as a general term, has a rather broad definition. Essentially derived from ‘popular music’, music that has a wide appeal, it is usually understood to mean a widespread genre of commercially recorded music, consisting of simple, memorable songs, generally engineered towards a youth market (especially since the mid-late 1960s), using technological innovations to produce new variations of existing musical ideas. Pop music widely absorbs influences from most forms of music that the composers are exposed to at the time. Pop has been characterized as being ephemeral, commercial and accessible to a large audience, in contrast to the term ‘rock music’, which it was usually used in opposition to, implying (often very correctly) that popular music was a matter of ‘enterprise’ and not art. Simon Frith (rock critic and popular culture sociologist) even conjects that Pop is not “driven by any significant ambition except profit[...]”, and that it is “provided on high from record companies, radio programmers and promoters as opposed to being made from below.” In truth, many ‘rock’ musicians or groups more ideologically suited to the exploratory nature and artistic merit of traditional blues, rock, and other album-based genres had a number of pop ‘hits’ and vice versa, with the Beatles being a good example of this crossover. It is interesting to note that many of the bands generally regarded as being the ‘best’ in their respective fields are those who have produced a crossover of popular and less commercially-oriented album-based music.

Although it is arguable that Pop music existed in one way or another in the 1930s or even further back, the first strains of what would become the modern Pop environment originated in the 1960s.  An important factor in the entire development of Pop music is the continuum of technological innovation that ran parallel to the historical course of the 20th century. Improved microphone technology in the 1940s and 1950s allowed a more intimate singing style, and affordable, consumer transistor radios in the late 1950s and early 1960s enabled the individual to listen to more or less the music he or she wanted; both of which shifted the focus of individual songs to a single listener rather than the traditional group audience. The advent of the 45rpm, 7” single (more affordable, practical and durable for single songs than a delicate 78rpm shellac discs) meant that youngsters (especially teenagers) were opened up as a market for commercial popular music. This revolutionized the way music was disseminated in the early 1960s, and this approach to music listening and retailing, both personal and communal (singles were very portable and easily traded), was one of the factors of the birth of the cultural phenomenon of the ‘teenager’. Television was also an important factor, with the visual appearance of pop musicians a strong trend-setter.

The 1960s began with the advent of ‘beat music’ in the UK (a term very similar in meaning to rock and roll but now not as widely used). In Liverpool for instance, there were over 350 different bands active, part of a vibrant regional ‘Merseybeat’ scene. Many groups took American influences and built upon them, embellishing them with more complex musical ideas and their own distinctive sound. The Rolling Stones, The Animals and The Yardbirds are an example of this. During 1963, various beat groups including The Searchers, the Beatles and The Hollies achieved great commercial success in Britain. It was the Beatles specifically that led the ‘British invasion’ of the US. By the mid 60s, bands were already becoming more ambitious, with many many groups that started out as makers of simplistic, pop-oriented beat music adding increasingly more complex arrangements and moving away from simple love songs. The Beatles’ 1965 album ‘Rubber Soul’, a good example of this, features songs about more negative and challenging subjects, in addition to love songs of a more complex and figurative sense than the Pop staple of ‘boy-meets-girl’. Many new subgenres of music (specifically rock) originated by acts such as The Byrds, The Doors, Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin were gradually absorbed into the pool of influence for pop music, and the origin of psychedelic rock and heavy metal music from blues-rock went on to define the musical frontier of the late 1960s.

By this point, with the advent of widespread teenage drug culture, ‘psychedelic’ music became extremely fashionable. The Byrds’ 1965 song ‘Eight Miles High’ is generally regarded as the first ‘full-blown’ psychedelic recording, and pushed the boundaries of pop music at the time, with impressionistic lyrics, unusual chord progressions and a somewhat appropriate title. The final song on The Beatles’ 1966 LP ‘Revolver’, ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ would hint at 1967s ‘Summer of Love’, with indian influences (use of tambura and the entire piece being in only one implied key, C), technological innovations (the Beatles worked on tape loops of psychedelic sounds created in the studio) and a radically different approach to sound. Phil Spector’s radio-friendly, wall of sound arrangements for solo artists in the years before were the beginning of a focus on making the sound and production of a record a priority. As recording technology improved by the end of the 1960s, 4-track multitrack tape machines were replaced with 8-track and 16-track machines, enabling more complex arrangements and more instruments than simply the band.

By the early 1970s, there were drastic stylistic shifts, with much of the psychedelic rock and pop music dying out in favour of a splintered group of heirs; simpler ‘roots’ rock, the arena-based sound of heavy rock and early heavy metal bands, the complex musical and thematic stylings of progressive rock, and the flamboyant showmanship of glam, and (as should be expected) groups which managed to straddle the boundaries between each. This cornucopia of styles shared the pop charts with what would be described more usually as ‘pop music’, including the likes of Elton John, the emergence of ABBA in the mid 70s, and countless singer-songwriters. The 70s also saw a convergence in the mainstream of traditionally black, urban music of U.S. origin (funk, soul, motown), into a more chart-friendly sound, and the emergence and popularity of disco. The 70s were perhaps the inception of modern ‘dance music’, music explicitly designed to be danced to in clubs and other venues, with repetitive, clear bass lines, prominent, chunky percussion and extraneous, simple lyrics about dancing or the music itself. Also by the mid 70s, the rise of punk rock became apparent, with the Ramones, the Sex Pistols and The Clashblending a simplistic musical aesthetic with a counter-culture of bold fashion statements, and a lifestyle that thrived on flagrancy and offense, popular with those who felt alienated by the mainstream pop music and the musicality of Glam and Progressive rock. Music of Jamaican origin also became popular with a wider audience by the late 70s, with Reggae and the 2 Tone ska sound picked up by many, and in the case of The Police, Madness and a similarly diverse range of English bands, was adapted and absorbed.

Towards the very end of the 1970s, technology became an extremely important aspect of pop music, both in production and in the sounds record-buyers were exposed to. Isolated bands produced sonically experimental records, such asKraftwerk and their extreme, almost brutalist use of synthesizers and machines. As synthesizer technology matured, it was used increasingly to produce sounds that had not been experienced before, something that enthused many creators of music. Producer Giorgio Moroder’s use of synthesizers, drums recorded on tape loops, very early digital recording and other electronic tape instruments such as the Mellotron in his disco productions are a clear forerunner to the dance music of 2000 and beyond, indeed his racy 1978 theme for the film Midnight Express would not sound out of place on a modern electronic dance music compilation album, and must have been extremely inspirational to his contemporaries.

The musical simplicity of punk and the experimental nature of electronic music, led to the birth of the New Wave and the Post-Punk movements from 1979 onwards. Synthpop, in particular, became a staple of chart music, with bands and acts such asGary Numan, Ultravox and The Human League producing electronic music which both explored the desolate and alienated feelings of many of their listeners, and of society as a whole in Britain at the turn of the 1980s, both lyrically and (crucially) through the sonic qualities of the music and its arrangement. As the early 80s continued, and this style became steadily more commercially oriented, many bands adapted to the increased demand for radio-friendly songs by juxtaposing upbeat rhythms and often simple melodies with darker, more complex lyrical themes, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s ‘Enola Gay’, about the aircraft that bombed Hiroshima and its crew; New Order’s up-beat but jaded Blue Monday, and much of Depeche Mode’s output typify this. In the first half of the 1980s, dance music and pop music were almost homogenous, with only subtle variations in beat and song content differentiating the two styles. Technology again impacted the music of the 1980s, with MTV (Music Television) launching in the US in 1981 and in Europe and the UK in 1987. Now, with 24-hour rolling music videos on tap to hundreds of millions of cable and satellite subscribers, bands were almost required to have videos promoting themselves in order to keep up with commercial pressures. Style became everything. Pop stars were now bona-fide celebrities, with more emphasis placed on their activities outside of music. Music fanatics were now able to have the most direct and continuous contact with their idols than ever before. By July 1985, when Bob Geldof’s international aid concert Live Aid took place, with performances in London and Philadelphia and appearances of essentially every major band and artist at the time, it was a huge undertaking. The satellite link-up was the most ambitious attempt to cover a live event in history, and was watched by more than 2 billion people, a further demonstration of television’s power over pop music.

By the late 80s, with the emerging celebrity culture and the somewhat Thatcherist outsourcing of every section of an industry to a specifically suited institution, demographics, market analysis, and industrial performance became more important than ever before to record companies. A&R people moved to finding specifically those artists that could be manipulated, marketed and skillfully applied to the tastes of the record-buying public, and producers became enforcers of a current musical fad on their talent, rather than to help the artist realise his or her own musical vision. Michael Stock, Matthew Aitken and Peter Waterman were one (and certainly the most famous) such producership. Stock, Aitken and Waterman moved into mainstream pop music from 1986 to 1987. Their mechanistic production and business methods, known as The Assembly Line, enabled them to churn out some of the most successful Pop songs of the late 1980s, netting them and their company an estimated £60 million. With extensive use of drum machines, synthesisers and digital sequencers, they were able to market squeaky-clean Pop, precision manufactured to the current market desire, and to appeal to all. Rick Astley, Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and countless others owe essentially their entire success to the craftsmanship and slightly worrying appeal SAW were able to engineer. It’s arguable that their production methods and the customs they developed have remained part of manufactured pop music ever since, which gained them many critics.
Underground, and below this, took place an emergence and convergence of a multitude of urban-influenced styles. Hip hop, encompassing rap, break dancing and African American fashion of the 1980s came to widespread prominence towards the end of the decade. Electronic dance music diversified from popular dance styles in the late 1980s, with the inception of grittier, less consumer friendly house, techno and other associated styles. DJ culture came into existence, and illegal raves were organised around the UK. Tens of thousands would gather to listen to disk jockeys produce their own peculiar blends of house music, dance with others, and intoxicate themselves with unknown substances, sometimes for days at a time. With Hip hop and House, electronic sampling came into vogue, with artists using direct samples cut out of the works of others, sometimes with very interesting and powerful effects. In particular, one six second long sample of a drum solo taken illegally from a 1969 Winstons record, generally known as the Amen Break, was unwittingly used as the basis around literally hundreds of dance tracks from the late 1980s onwards. It silently formed an entire genre, breakbeat, which has influenced electronic music immeasurably since, yet few know of the real origins of the rhythm. It would be years before the legal environment caught up and made sure this could never legally happen again.

The 1990s would be another decade of contrasts, with a spate of Alternative Rock bands coming to widespread prominence. Generally American, bands such asNirvana, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and R.E.M. started to challenge the commercial niceties of manufactured pop and the grossly inflated profile of Pop rock bands of the era, with Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ bringing slightly deeper (if, in this case, unintelligible) lyrics to the charts. Metallica’s 1991 album Metallica introduced a large number to thrash metal, and there was a general motion away from indulging in the late 80s staple of bright, happy pop music. Projects such as Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails are a good example of this. Stark, messy music with at least some kind of an edge was now in fashion. Hip hop and rap also continued to grow and develop, with many well known names originating in the early-to-mid 1990s. By 1995, rap began to rival rock music in terms of sales and commercial success.

Continuing on from the 1980s, electronic dance music matured into European trance, characterised by echoey, sequenced chordal synthesiser parts, breakbeat and drum-and-bass, with their drum loops and 10 minute breakdowns and buildups, and as dance musicians and producers experimented within and outside of their style, other less dance-oriented genres emerged, such as the modern day term ‘electronica’, ‘chill-out music’ and ‘ambient music’. However, engineered and manufactured acts were not at all deterred by this innovation, with a multitude of pop-produced ballad singers, rappers and other vocal-only acts springing into existence in the 90s. There was, for the first time, probably more acts in the charts who hadn’t composed or instrumentally performed their own music, than ever before, but consumers didn’t seem at all put off by this.

As the 1990s continued, many European managers and producing teams created their own boy band acts, beginning with Nigel Martin-Smith’s Take That and Louis Walsh’s East 17 which competed with Irish bands Westlife and Boyzone. Soon after this, girl groups such as the Spice Girls and similar held a grip on the charts. By the very end of the 90s some of these groups’ influence was faltering, but the their popularity proved the basis for solo careers like that of Robbie Williams, who achieved six number one singles after 1998. Another interesting phenomenon began in 1999 in New Zealand, when the first series of reality television franchise Popstars ran for a series and was licensed to countries worldwide. This gave birth to Pop Idol and the X Factor, in addition to an explosion in (particularly music-themed) talent shows around the world, and was the beginning of many successful vocal groups who had benefitted from the publicity afforded them from being on the show. This was also the beginning of the talent shows’ near-constant hold on the coveted Christmas Number 1, and on much of the pop charts in general for at least the next decade. The importance of the Internet grew towards the end of the 90s, and whilst it would be a beneficial tool for many bands post-2000, the 90s ended with the controversy of the Napster peer-to-peer file sharing service, which enabled thousands to trade copies of music (now encoded in the compact MP3 file format) essentially without any charge. The copyright violations this entailed led to the shut-down by court order of the service, but also, crucially, to the emergence of many other peer-to-peer file sharing systems, including the BitTorrent protocol in 2001, which in 2010 is still a used by millions. Also, in 2001, Apple launched its iPodportable MP3 player, which although not the first, was the first such device to gain widespread popularity and use, with consumers now able to carry thousands of songs with them wherever they went. Big changes in the industry were afoot.
One may argue that the musicality, the influences, and the organisation of the industry that enables pop music’s existence in 2000 and beyond is so radically different from that of 1960 to be indistinguishable. In particular, the prominence of the role of the producer in the crafting of songs for the charts rather than the artist and the now almost universal case that Top-10 records are likely to have been written by a third-party songwriter or team. Thus, the pop market being such as it is, we find solo artists desperate to comply with current market wishes, and bands sacrificing their art to appeal to record companies, or otherwise being destined to endless careers of indie-label obscurity. The growing trend for any innovative pop music to be siphoned off and used in 30-second bursts in television commercials, to provide a distinctive up-to-date sound to sell a product, is one of the only avenues open to pop musicians and artists in the post-2000 era should they aspire to the fame and influence of those in times gone by, and not, as animator and cultural pundit David Firth puts it, “the same music I already know but with different words”.

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