Music genre
Not to be confused with Pop Rocks
Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock[4]) is a fusion genre characterized by a 💸 strong commercial appeal,[5] with more emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than standard rock 💸 music.[6][7][1] Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normal rock and roll, early pop rock was influenced by 💸 the beat, arrangements, and original style of rock and roll (and sometimes doo-wop).[1] It may be viewed as a distinct 💸 genre field rather than music that overlaps with pop and rock.[4] The detractors of pop rock often deride it as 💸 a slick, commercial product and less authentic than rock music.[8]
Characteristics and etymology [ edit ]
Much pop and rock music has 💸 been very similar in sound, instrumentation and even lyrical content. The terms "pop rock" and "power pop" have been used 💸 to describe more commercially successful music that uses elements from, or the form of, rock music.[9] Writer Johan Fornas views 💸 pop/rock as "one single, continuous genre field", rather than distinct categories.[4] To the authors Larry Starr and Christopher Waterman, it 💸 is defined as an "upbeat variety of rock music" represented by artists and bands such as: Andy Kim, the Bells, 💸 Paul McCartney, Lighthouse, and Peter Frampton.[10]
The term pop has been used since the early forties to refer to popular music 💸 in general, but from the mid-1950s it began to be used for a distinct genre, aimed at a youth market, 💸 often characterized as a softer alternative to rock and roll.[11][1] In the aftermath of the British Invasion, from about 1967, 💸 it was increasingly used in opposition to the term rock, to describe a form that was more commercial, ephemeral and 💸 accessible.[12]
As of the 2010s, "guitar pop rock" and "indie rock" are roughly synonymous terms.[13] "Jangle" is a noun-adjective that music 💸 critics often use in reference to guitar pop with a bright mood.[14]
Debates [ edit ]
Critic Philip Auslander argues that the 💸 distinction between pop and rock is more pronounced in the US than in the UK. He claims that in the 💸 US, pop has roots in white crooners such as Perry Como, whereas rock is rooted in African-American music influenced by 💸 forms such as rock and roll. Auslander points out that the concept of pop rock, which blends pop and rock, 💸 is at odds with the typical conception of pop and rock as opposites. Auslander and several other scholars, such as 💸 Simon Frith and Grossberg, argue that pop music is often depicted as an inauthentic, cynical, "slickly commercial", and formulaic form 💸 of entertainment. In contrast, rock music is often heralded as an authentic, sincere, and anti-commercial form of music, which emphasizes 💸 songwriting by the singers and bands, instrumental virtuosity, and a "real connection with the audience".[15]
Frith's analysis of the history of 💸 popular music from the 1950s to the 1980s has been criticized by B. J. Moore-Gilbert, who argues that Frith and 💸 other scholars have overemphasized the role of rock in the history of popular music by naming every new genre using 💸 the "rock" suffix. Thus, when a folk-oriented style of music developed in the 1960s, Frith termed it "folk rock", and 💸 the pop-infused styles of the 1970s were called "pop rock". Moore-Gilbert claims that this approach unfairly puts rock at the 💸 apex and makes every other influence become an add-on to the central core of rock.[16]
In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums 💸 of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau discussed the term "pop-rock" in the context of popular music's fragmentation along stylistic lines 💸 in the 1970s; he regarded "pop-rock" as a "monolith" that "straddled" all burgeoning movements and subgenres in the popular and 💸 semipopular music marketplace at the time, including singer-songwriter music, art rock, heavy metal, boogie, country rock, jazz fusion, funk, disco, 💸 urban contemporary, and new wave, but not punk rock.[17]
See also [ edit ]
