Origins Of Pop Music
The origins of pop music can be traced to post-Second World War United States, where a succession of events made commercial sound recordings accessible to the population at large for the first time.
The chain began with the end of the Speed War, a battle between the labels of the day to enforce their own standard.
The dominating format, the 10 inches (25 cm) 78 revolutions per minute (rpm) disc, was challenged in 1948 by the new 33 ⅓ rpm 12 inches (30 cm), and then in 1949 by the 45 rpm 7 inches (18 cm).
Next came the switch in the material records were made of, from shellac to vinyl; the new component, combined with the slow 33 ⅓ rpm playing speed, allowed recordings to extend their duration further than was previously possible, and gave birth to the long playing record (LP).
Changes continued with the invention of the multitrack tape recorder, permitting completely electronic studio recordings for the first time, and the advent of stereophonic sound in 1958.
These technical advances brought about a recorded music that was standardised, of better quality than ever before, and most importantly, easier and less costly to produce, which meant it could be offered to the public at consistently lower prices.
In just one year, 1954 to 1955, the average selling price of an LP in the US dropped from US$5.95 to $3.98. Cheaper records led to greater demand for record players, which in turn became less expensive and continued to boost sales.
These changes in sound recording, coupled with the improved economic circumstances of the era, led the general public to purchase records like never before.
Music ceased to be a minority ware with limited following and became a mass-market commodity with an enormous audience. The new financial prospects and opportunities for secure investment attracted capital, which began applying commercial merchandising techniques to music: advertising, tie-ins, cross-media marketing and others.
The most infamous of these is the payola, whereby record labels pay radio stations or disc jockeys to play particular songs, artificially influencing their popularity.
The emerging role of investors in the music industry led to tensions between the creative and the productive sides of the business, with the former accusing the latter of excessive concern with commercial success. In many cases the artists won and retained the idiosyncrasies of their style; those battles the musicians lost to the producers resulted in what we call pop music today.
Pop did not have as easy a start in the United Kingdom as in the US due to intense regulation of radio play, known in the day as needle time. This legislation required the BBC, the only broadcaster legally allowed to play music, to do so for only a few hours a day for fear of damaging the revenues of the music industry by allowing the public to hear songs without purchasing them. The ordinance lasted until the launch of Radio 1 in 1967.
In contrast to genres with clear origins and a traceable evolution, pop developed, and continues to expand, as a haphazard merging of styles. Pop is an amalgam of successive fashions, of elements of many differing styles that have been successful over the years and have ended up incorporated into the genre.
The international appeal of pop was evident in the new millennium, with artists from around the world influencing the genre and local variants merging with the mainstream.
Russia made its breakthrough to the international charts with "All the Things She Said" (2002) which even topped the UK Singles Chart.
Latin pop was successful with songs from Spain, "Hero" (late 2001/early 2002), "The Ketchup Song" (2002); and Colombia, "Whenever, Wherever" (2002) and "Hips Don't Lie" (2006). Canada entered the charts with "That's the Way It Is" (2000) and British artists did the same with "Feel" (2003); "You're Beautiful" (2005); "You Give Me Something" (2006) and "Rehab" (both 2006); "Smile" and "Tell Me 'Bout It" (both 2007) .
Also, Romania hit the European charts with "Dragostea din Tei" (2003); "Despre tine" (2004); and "Kylie" (2005).
From Wikipedia