The Pop Music Portal
Pop music is a type of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. During the 1950s and 1960s, pop music encompassed rock and roll and the youth-oriented styles it influenced. Rock and pop music remained roughly synonymous until the late 1960s, after which pop became associated with music that was more commercial, ephemeral, and accessible.
Identifying factors of pop music usually include repeated choruses and hooks, short to medium-length songs written in a basic format (often the verse–chorus structure), and rhythms or tempos that can be easily danced to. Much of pop music also borrows elements from other styles such as rock, urban, dance, Latin, and country. (Full article...)
The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960, comprising John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the development of 1960s counterculture and the recognition of popular music as an art form. Rooted in skiffle, beat and 1950s rock 'n' roll, their sound incorporated elements of classical music and traditional pop in innovative ways. The band also explored music styles ranging from folk and Indian music to psychedelia and hard rock. As pioneers in recording, songwriting and artistic presentation, the Beatles revolutionized many aspects of the music industry and were often publicized as leaders of the era's youth and sociocultural movements.
Led by primary songwriters Lennon and McCartney, the Beatles evolved from Lennon's previous group, the Quarrymen, and built their reputation by playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over three years from 1960, initially with Stuart Sutcliffe playing bass. The core trio of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, together since 1958, went through a succession of drummers, including Pete Best, before inviting Starr to join them in 1962. Manager Brian Epstein moulded them into a professional act, and producer George Martin guided and developed their recordings, greatly expanding their domestic success after they signed with EMI Records and achieved their first hit, "Love Me Do", in late 1962. As their popularity grew into the intense fan frenzy dubbed "Beatlemania", the band acquired the nickname "the Fab Four". Epstein, Martin or another member of the band's entourage was sometimes informally referred to as a "fifth Beatle". (Full article...)Control is the third studio album by American singer Janet Jackson, released on February 4, 1986, by A&M Records. Her collaborations with the songwriters and record producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis resulted in an unconventional sound: a fusion of rhythm and blues, rap vocals, funk, disco, and synthesized percussion that established Jackson, Jam and Lewis as the leading innovators of contemporary R&B. The distinctive triplet swing beat utilized on the record is also considered to be a precursor to the new jack swing genre. The album became Jackson's commercial breakthrough and enabled her to transition into the popular music market, with Control becoming one of the foremost albums of the 1980s and contemporary music.
Containing autobiographical themes, a majority of the album's lyrics came as the result of a series of changes in her life: a recent annulment of her marriage to singer James DeBarge, severing her business affairs from her father and manager Joseph and the rest of the Jackson family, hiring the A&M executive John McClain as her new management, and her subsequent introduction to Jam and Lewis. The album has been praised by critics as both an artistic feat and as a personal testament of self-actualization. It has also been regarded as a template upon which numerous female artists have modeled their careers, particularly Black women. (Full article...)General images
"My Moment" is a song by American recording artist Rebecca Black. It is a self-empowerment follow-up song to her first single "Friday", addressed to the "haters" who criticized her previous release. The song was written and produced by Brandon "Blue" Hamilton and Quinton Tolbert, and co-produced by Charlton Pettus. It was released on the iTunes Store under the label RB Records as Black's second single on July 19, 2011. RB Records was established by Black herself, after disputes over ownership and distribution of her previous single, "Friday".
"My Moment" received mostly negative reviews from music critics. Though reviewers considered it an improvement from Black's previous single, they also found it less enjoyable. Unlike its predecessor, the song failed to chart on international music markets. The song's music video, which premiered a day before the single was released, portrays Black's "sudden rise to fame" and her "moments". The video garnered more than a million views within 24 hours of its release. (Full article...)Did you know (auto-generated)
- ... that Pachelbel's Canon is notorious for being widespread in pop music, but it actually isn't?
- ... that the alt-pop musician Lucy Tun cites death metal and RuPaul's Drag Race as influences?
- ... that the lap steel guitar was the first "foreign" musical instrument to gain a foothold in American pop music?
- ... that the first episode of the British pop music TV show Top of the Pops was broadcast on 1 January 1964 from Dickenson Road Studios, a converted church in Manchester?
- ... that Mirror, a Hong Kong Cantopop music group which does not want to go for a "K-pop feel", performed Korean pop songs at a concert?
- ... that Eternal Blue, a metalcore album, was inspired in part by 1980s pop music?
Selected image -
Major topics
Subcategories
Related portals
Pop music by decade
WikiProjects
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Pop music was created with the purpose of assembling writers and editors interested in Pop music.
- The aim of this project is to standardize and improve articles related to the various genres of Pop music, as well as to create missing articles.
- To become a member of the WikiProject (anyone may join), simply click here and add your username.
FA | A | GA | B | C | Start | Stub | FL | List | Category | Disambig | Draft | File | Portal | Project | Redirect | Template | NA | ??? |
117 | 0 | 1,564 | 1,093 | 3,600 | 10,716 | 6,620 | 107 | 437 | 1,665 | 4 | 160 | 252 | 1 | 21 | 1,303 | 1,889 | 9 | 1,004 |
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
- Commons
Free media repository - Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals - Wikidata
Free knowledge base - Wikinews
Free-content news - Wikiquote
Collection of quotations - Wikisource
Free-content library - Wikiversity
Free learning tools - Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus