I just got off the phone after having a musical discussion.
The person I was conversing with has always, in the last year or so, said everything I listen to is “pop music.” I didn’t really bother to argue, since she was so sure about it.
Well, we finally got into a more in depth discussion about it, after she said something to the extent that everything made in the last 75 years is “pop music.”
After furthur discussion, I came to understand that she was defining pop music as pretty much anything that doesn’t use pianos, violens, and brass instruments. Anything made with guitars is “pop”: country, metal, rock, etc. I suppose I see the point in differentiating between modern music and classical…but does anyone classify it as “pop?”
I always thought the accepted use of “pop” was in reference to the kind of artists you see on the top 25 charts, not literally EVERY band in the western world.
Now, maybe I’m just dim when it comes to how music is cateogorized…but can anyone enlighten me on what the accepted definition of “pop” is, and what the accepted definition of “any music made without classical instruments” is?
“Popular”.
I believe amazon.com defines all non-classical music as pop, but other than that she’s going to have a hard time getting anyone else to agree with her. You’re mostly right, she’s mostly wrong, but there’s some gray area.
Elvis is the king of rock and roll.
James Brown is the Godfather of Soul.
Michael Jackson is the self-appointed Prince of Pop.
I think of pop music as being very commercial, existing more to make money than to give the world good music. Neil Young is not pop. Britney Spears is pop.
Pop vs. classical is an old-fashioned and intrinsically snooty way of categorizing music that is rarely used now that classical music has declined in popularity. Now when people say “pop” they are usually referring to 1) crassly commercial music, 2) broadly appealing music that would seem to have commercial potential, or 3) “traditional pop”–the Tin Pan Alley, adult contemporary, and vocal music associated with the first half of the 20th century but continuing into the present via Bette Midler, Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Mandy Patinkin, etc.
It sounds like your friend may be what is commonly known as a classical music snob. I run into more jazz snobs than classical music snobs these days, but they’re essentially the same. Every category of music has its snobs and purists.
Essentially it is anything you might find on the Top 40 Charts which could be anything, really. After all, what exactly do Eminem, N’Sync, Metallica, and the guys that sang the Macarena really have in common?
See, I’d differentiate between pop and popular music. Pop is basically the lighter side of rock, ranging over styles as diverse as those of N’Sync, the Beatles, and Fountains of Wayne. But I think it’s obvious that the songs of those artists have something in common that Metallica, Eminem, and the guys who sang the Macarena don’t have.
The way I see it, there are two definitions for pop music: 1) whatever’s popular at the time, or 2) a specific kind of sound as exemplified by the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Madonna, New Order, House of Love, Britney Spears, Freezepop, etc. Hard to nail down a concrete definition, though, except that it’s more mellow than rock.
On preview, this is essentially what ultrafilter said.
"popular music. Also called pop. A large category of music, consisting basically of works designed to please the general public. Since public taste changes from period to period, not only in the course of history but in the course of the average person’s lifetime, what is popular during one period (as, for example, the madrigal during the sixteenth century) or for one age group (rock for young people of the 1960s) is not necessarily popular today or for all audiences. The most important kinds of popular music of the first half of the twentieth century include BLUES, COUNTRY MUSIC, JAZZ, MUSICAL COMEDY, OPERETTA, RAGTIME, RHYTHM AND BLUES, and ROCK.
The term “popular music” is also used in a very general way to distinguish it from “serious” or “classical” music. In this sense it appears in the name Boston Pops Orchestra, an ensemble that performs mainly popular music and so-called “light classics” as opposed to symphonies, concertos, and other longer, serious forms.
One factor that distinguishes popular from serious music is commercial success. Before the advent of radio, television, and phonographs, people had to go to concert halls to hear the music they liked. Although composers earned some money from the tickets bought and the sheet music sold for playing their music at home, the amounts were negligible comparted to present-day proceeds from record sales and royalties from broadcasting their music. The serious composer, on the other hand, rarely considers money a primary goal, hoping rather to create a work of art that will endure long before his own lifetime."
The irony, of course, is that many popular works endure, which further muddies the distinction.
True, there is a bit of distinction between the two. For instance, if the genre of pop were to suddenly dissapear, there’re some bands I’d have a difficult time placing somewhere else… the bands you named (sans the Beatles) are good candidates as are Michael Jackson, Matchbox 20, Phil Collins, and others.
