Jada Utberg

Project

Presentation

Progress Log

Capstone Essay

Jada Utberg

Ms. Pottenger

8th English

April 24, 2020

History of Popular Music

I chose pop music for my Capstone Research topic because I listened to it a lot as a child growing up. In first through third grade, I loved to listen to Taylor Swift, One Direction, Katy Perry, and Megan Trainor. I listened to pop music a lot because of how often it was on the radio and played at my gymnastics classes, which is when I fell in love with it. Second, I am a musician and have learned how to play multiple instruments as well as sing. I have learned recorder and clarinet and am currently learning how to play the piano. Additionally, I have always been fascinated by any form of history. My love of pop music and history helped me become interested in how it evolved.

For my 8th grade capstone project I am going to use this research to help me understand the history of popular music better so I can translate it to my project. I am going to write a song because of my love music and because I am interested in the process of composing music. I want the song to be more of a modern type pop song so that it resonates with more people. My references are Shawn Mendez, Camilla Cabello, Dove Cameron, Sophia Carson, and Alexis Ashley. To go with the song, I want to make a music video for my song to show a story and deeper meaning to the song than just at the basic level. For example,f people may think that a song that talks about sadness or someone else is a love song, but in reality there are some influential and global issues that are hidden inside of a song including climate change, social issues, and problems at the community level.

Many people assume that they know how to identify pop music and what its actual origins are. But, what is popular music exactly? Pop music has many definitions and terms used. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians identifies popular music as the main music since the industrialization of pop music in the 1800’s (Lamb). Pop music originated as a combination of various genres such as hip-hop, jazz, country, rock and roll, be-bop, and rap (Francisco). These styles influenced music and have made it ever changing and wonderful.

Pop music is full of wonder and differences that are never the same during any point in history. Pop music started in America about two to three centuries ago (Francisco). As the best and most successful styles of music on the charts for pop have changed and evolved a lot, there are some consistent patterns in pop music, but there are so many it is hard to identify just a few (Lamb). Pop music appeals to a large audience of people or a subcult (Evolution). Even though popular music is fun and always changing, it has a very interesting history going way back.

Pop music dates back well before the 19th century. The original forms of pop music (very different from what we have now) date back to the Victorian era (History). In 1877, Thomas Edison discovered that sound can be reproduced. He discovered this using a rotating metal cylinder wrapped with a strip of tin foil (Evolution). During the late 19th century the lax copyright laws provided a great opportunity for singers, composers, and many publishers (Evolution). The early 19th century had its pluses and minuses such as the beginning of pop music, and it led into a lot of interesting events in the late 19th century and later on in history.

In the mid to late 19 century there was a demand for sheet music so publishers ended up making their own companies (Francisco). The search for talented composers would help publishing companies. Publishing companies would print the composers music and put it up for sale and started the music industry we have now (Francisco). Pop music was historically a non-folk type music ranging from medieval to gospel. Before the 1800’s popular music was brought by new world settlers like the English, Irish, and Scottish (Popular). The 19th century was certainly a very interesting time for music, but the 20th century holds some very important changes and dates in music.

In the beginning and early 20th century, pop music started to make a stand as a music genre. When phonographs began in the early 1900’s and became more available, many different popular versions of music started to occur. This means families could then listen to recordings of their favorite songs on the phonograph (Francisco). But the Copyright Act of 1911 imposed a trial of royalty on all records of any type of music and caused lots of revenue loss (Evolution). This means that many composers had to be very careful with what they published. By the middle of the early 20th century, people were getting the music industry was getting its major start.

In the 1920’s there was a big lead in the music industry. Tin Pan Alley - an area in New York where publishers came and emerged (Evolution). During the 1920’s Tin Pan Alley had the top of the pop music industry and was threatened by two growing tech developments. These developments were the growth of the radio and electrical sound recording (Evolution). Starting in the mid 1920's to 1940’s “jazz” was the new popular music type. Many people described it as shocking and daring. Jazz has a unique type of African beat that black musicians developed called “blues”. The blues led to the creation of a whole new type of music. Though the blues were a successful type of music, the changes in technology and racial impact were very prominent during the 1920’s-1940’s and would continue as time went on

Originally, pop was a reference to white musicians (Francisco). The first major pop stars were in the 1930’s-40’s, which were The Crooners. The Crooners recorded and performed all of their songs with a full orchestra (History). Jazz came out of Tin Pan Alley in the 1930’s and the blues came out of jazz and were created in the mid 1930’s (Evolution). In the 1940’s, the technology in the music industry continued to grow immensely. Some examples are tape recorders, records, record players, and radio stations (Evolution). While the 1930’s and 1940’s had some very strong musical and technological breakthroughs, more advancements in the 50’s and 60’s would continue to change the face of music.

From the 1950’s to the 1960’s, the music industry was still constantly changing and developing. Between 1950-1960 “pop” musicians and composers started to borrow rhythms and beats from blues and jazz artists. This was the birth of Rock and Roll. The first major pioneers of rock music include many people including Muddy Waters, Louis Jordan, and Little Richard (Francisco). These pioneers in rock music helped inspire other musicians such as Elvis Presley to create new music that would change music forever. Elvis Presley in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s (History). Elvis got his inspiration from old R&B musicians, black gospel musicians, and some pop crooners including Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Elvis became very influential to the future Rock and Roll artists.

Through the 1960’s to 1970’s pop music started to rise out of Rock and Roll. Pop music rose through bands that made groundbreaking pop music such as The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, and Led Zeppelin (Francisco). Since the middle of the 1950’s, pop music has been called or identified as the music with the broadest audience. This type of music sells more copies and has bigger concerts than other genres, and in 1955 most songs have a beat that is in the fundamentals of Rock ‘n Roll and have not changed much (Lamb). Pop music charts did not exist until the early 1950’s Rock ‘n Roll brought a bigger feeling to tens for a lot of the late 20th century. The Beatles eventually outran Elvis with original upbeat music. This is because The Beatles had new ideas and interesting lyrics that resonated with younger audiences . The Beatles worked hard in creating rock ‘n Roll (pop music at the time) from 1962-1970 until they broke up (History). Eventually, The Beatles influenced many other bands to create the “pop” (now Rock and Roll) music of their time.

Between the 1970’s to 1990’s pop music made a big breakthrough with several different sub genres. These sub genres included Acid Rock, Disco, Techno, Dance, and Rap, and eventually became Hip-Hop in the 1980’s (Francisco). As Hip-Hop became popular and started to grow, publishing companies did not just want to accept another trend to start having to publish more music (Francisco). Eventually Rap took over Hip-Hop and held a high placing (Francisco). 1990 was the known time of boy bands which were the biggest manufactured acts at the time. Some of these boy bands included New Kids on the Block, NSYNC, and Backstreet Boys. Boy Bands sold millions of records and the Spice Girls were the female version of a boy band (History). Looking at the 20th century there were many achievements and breakthroughs in music, however the 21st century holds some pretty important events in music history.

In the 21st century, the music world has changed so much. Now there are different branches of music genres. Over 25 years later, pop has outsold so many genres including Gospel, Country, Jazz, R&B, and Rock ‘n Roll (Francisco). Over time as pop music has grown over the past 25+ years, it has produced many pop music stars including Pink, Eminem, Shawn Mendez, Lizzo, ect. (Francisco).

Since 2000, there have been so many new pop stars with different types of pop music (History). Now in the 2000’s there are many new genres of pop including Post-Grunge, Heavy Metal, Hard Rock, Pop Punk, Emo, Electronic Music, K-pop, and others (Francisco). There are many different forms of pop music, but there is one type that is called the purest type. The purest type of pop is called pure pop or power pop. Pure pop has very brief songs (no longer than 3.5 minutes), an electric guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. These vocals have a very catchy chorus or hook (Lamb). The influence of the new genres is making pop grow faster and technology grow.

Today, all the different genres of music have broken records and followed in Pop’s footsteps. Rap is second to pop in a lot of ways (Francisco). Over the past decade, Latin music and many other international types of music have made one of the biggest impacts on pop music (Lamb). Now much pop music has the use of technology such as recording technology, synthesizers, electric pianos, ect. (Lamb). Western-style popular (pop) music is a main reference point to the development of pop music in places like Japan and Korea. K-Pop was a style of music that started in South Korea that has Girl Groups and Boy Bands (Lamb). What has happened over the past 20 years in music, from single talented artists to new bands, have helped pop evolve and become the most popular genre of music today.

Although Pop music is fun and catchy, it has many interesting effects on your brain and body. Pop music helps with creativity if you listen at a low noise volume to help with brain stimulation and creativity. Listening at a high volume can cause damage to your ear (Stewart). While pop music helps with creativity it also helps reduce stress. Listening in the shower or exercising relaxes your mind. This will help prevent certain diseases when stress levels are low (Stewart). Pop music can also improve your mod and levels of happiness listening to pop music, it stimulates a chemical in your brain called dopamine. Dopamine is responsible for the overall mood of a person (Stewart). While pop music is definitely fun to listen to, the psychological effects are numerous and can help people in so many ways.

Pop music has changed and developed in many ways throughout history. Pop music has grown from a full orchestra with one to two singers to a band or single person with extreme musical talent and cool technology. But, pop music can also help you psychologically. In the end, pop music has always evolved and impacted society in a big way!

Work Cited

The Evolution of Popular Music,

saylordotorg.github.io/text_understanding-media-and-culture-an-introduction-to-mass-commnication/s09-01-the-evolution-of-popular-music.html. Accessed April 5,2020.

Francisco, Celine Bernadette. “How Pop Music Began--and Evolved.” Bright Hub Education, 15

Aug. 2011,

www.brighthubeducation.com/social-studies-help/123260-studying-pop-culture-music-evolution/. Accessed April 2, 2020.

The History of Pop Music, www.shinemusic.com.au/musicresources/history-of-pop-music.aspx.

Accessed. April 7, 2020.

Lamb, Bill. “What Is Pop Music?” LiveAbout, LiveAbout, 29 Sept. 2018,

www.liveabout.com/what-is-pop-music-3246980. Accessed April 4,2020.

"Popular music." Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 23 Feb. 2014.

school.eb.com/levels/middle/article/popular-music/275996. Accessed 7 Apr. 2020

Stewart, Adell. “Benefits of Pop Music.” Rapet Media Inc, 21 July 2017,

www.therapet-inc.com/music/benefits-of-pop-music/. Accessed April 6, 2020