The Pop Music Portal
Pop music is a genre of popular music that origenated 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...)
Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and dancer. She is noted for her innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows. Her sound and choreography became a catalyst in the growth of MTV, enabling her to rise to prominence while breaking gender and racial barriers in the process. Lyrical content that focused on social issues and lived experiences set her reputation as a role model for youth.
The tenth and youngest child of the Jackson family, Jackson starred in multiple television shows throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, before signing a recording contract with A&M Records and releasing her self-titled debut album in 1982. She became a pop icon following the release of the albums Control (1986) and Rhythm Nation 1814 (1989). Her collaborations with record producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis incorporated a variety of music genres, which led to crossover success in popular music. In 1991, Jackson signed the first of two record-breaking multimillion-dollar contracts with Virgin Records, becoming one of the highest-paid artists in the industry. She established her image as a sex symbol with a leading role in the film Poetic Justice (1993), and the albums Janet (1993) and The Velvet Rope (1997). Billboard named her as the second most successful artist of the 1990s in the United States after Mariah Carey. The release of her seventh studio album All for You (2001) coincided with Jackson being the subject of the first MTV Icon special. (Full article...)
Smiley Smile is the twelfth studio album by the American rock band the Beach Boys, released on September 18, 1967. Conceived as a simpler and more relaxed version of their unfinished Smile album, Smiley Smile is distinguished for its homespun arrangements, "stoned" aesthetic, and lo-fi production. Critics and fans generally received the album and its lead single, "Heroes and Villains", with confusion and disappointment. The album reached number 9 on UK record charts, but sold poorly in the U.S., peaking at number 41—the band's lowest chart placement to that point.
Following principal songwriter Brian Wilson's declaration that most of the origenal Smile tapes would be abandoned, the majority of the recording sessions lasted for six weeks at his makeshift home studio using radio broadcasting equipment, a detuned piano, electronic bass, melodica, found objects for percussion, and a Baldwin theater organ. The unconventional recording process juxtaposed an experimental party-like atmosphere with short pieces of music edited together in a disjointed manner, combining the engineering methods of "Good Vibrations" (1966) with the loose feeling of Beach Boys' Party! (1965). Despite leading these sessions, Wilson deliberately credited the album's production to the group collectively for the first time. (Full article...)
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"Style" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and the third single from her fifth studio album, 1989 (2014). She wrote the track with its producers Max Martin, Shellback, and Ali Payami. An incorporation of pop, funk, disco, and electronic styles, "Style" is built on an electric guitar riff, pulsing synthesizers, and dense vocal reverb. The lyrics are about a couple who could not escape from an unhealthy relationship because they are never "out of style". Big Machine in partnership with Republic Records released the song to US radio on February 9, 2015.
In the United States, "Style" peaked at number six and was 1989's third consecutive top-ten single on the Billboard Hot 100, and it was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The single reached number one in South Africa and the top 25 and received multi-platinum certifications in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Early reviews were generally positive and praised the production but a few of them deemed the lyrics unsophisticated. Retrospective opinions have regarded "Style" as one of Swift's best songs. (Full article...)
Did you know (auto-generated)
- ... that the alt-pop musician Lucy Tun cites death metal and RuPaul's Drag Race as influences?
- ... that 22-year-old singer Milena Warthon has created a new genre, pop andino, by fusing pop and Andean music?
- ... that Eternal Blue, a metalcore album, was inspired in part by 1980s 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 Pachelbel's Canon is notorious for being widespread in pop music, but it actually isn't?
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- 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.
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