Popular Music

“Popular music, any commercially oriented music principally intended to be received and appreciated by a wide audience, generally in literate, technologically advanced societies dominated by urban culture.”

Popular music is a term that is never fixed: as we evolve, and our art does with us, so too what is considered pop; all classical music was ion its own time once considered pop, just as what is now pop may very well be considered classical in the future. Unlike traditional/ “folk” music, pop music is not passed down orally, but rather recorded or written on the spot and does not change much. It is as it is written. Of course, many people make covers of the song, but there is an artist, and performance directly attached to the song. This is why an interpretation/cover/version of a pop song may be disrespectful to the song because there is only so much interpreting or modifying that can validly be done to a piece that has been set in stone by it creator. In other words, most, pop music is immediately given a definition, and interpretation of this definition is much more limiting than a song that is passed down by ear through generations, that is prone to being changed or misheard. This is why unlike a concept, and allegorically speaking, pop music more closely resembles an actual artwork, than an idea. Music is not something that is permanently there like a picture, but rather flow with time, and need to be in motion to be appreciated. A actual set recording is most likely to produce the same effect over and over again (despite minor changes in things such as headphone quality, or location). Orally transmitted music, can differ with each performance, as can something that has been written down. This is why the development of technology that has the ability to record and replay a performance has been so fundamental in the creation of pop music. Furthermore, the interconnectedness (globalization) of cultures has meant that the popular sounds of different cultures have been shared across the globe. Popular music is not a selective term that automatically means popular western music. Different cultures have different ideals; in many countries the western scale is considered as strangely sounding as the Asiatic or middle eastern scale.Popular music is as familiar to human beings as their ability to create music. Due to our changing nature it will continue to change as we do. Perhaps in the distant future what was or wasn’t considered music will itself have changed with it.

References:

Brittanica (2019), Popular Music, www.britannica.com/art/popular-music, [Accessed 17 Oct. 2019]

Iasa-web.org. (2019). Definition of Popular Music | International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives. [online] Available at: https://www.iasa-web.org/selection/definition-popular-music [Accessed 17 Oct. 2019].

En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Popular music. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_music [Accessed 17 Oct. 2019].