2. CHARACTERISTICS
1. An aim of appealing to a general audience, rather than to a particular sub-culture
or ideology.
2. An emphasis on craftsmanship rather than formal "artistic" qualities.
3. An emphasis on recording, production, and technology, over live performance.
4. A tendency to reflect existing trends rather than progressive developments.
5. Intended to encourage dancing, or it uses dance-oriented beats or rhythms
3. ELEMENTS OF POP MUSIC
• Short/medium length songs
• Basic structure (verse chorus verse)
• Repeated choruses
• Melodic tunes
• Catchy hooks
4. EARLY DEVELOPMENT
• Pop music has immersed influences from most other genres of popular music.
• Early pop music drew on the:
• Sentimental ballad for its form,
• Gained its use of vocal harmonies from gospel and soul music,
• Instrumentation from jazz, country, and rock music,
• Orchestration from classical music,
• Tempo from dance music,
• Backing from electronic music,
• Rhythmic elements from hip-hop music,
• And has recently appropriated spoken passages from rap.
So pop music is effectively a huge mix of all of these genres!
5. TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT
• It has also made use of technological innovation.
• In the 1940s, improved microphone design allowed a more intimate singing style.
• Ten to twenty years later, inexpensive and more durable 45 r.p.m. records for singles
"revolutionized the manner in which pop has been disseminated" and helped to move pop music
to 'a record/radio/film star system.
• Another change was the widespread availability of television in the 1950s; with televised
performances, "pop stars had to have a visual presence".
• In the 1960s, the introduction of inexpensive, portable transistor radios meant that teenagers
could listen to music outside of the home.
• Multi-track recording (from the 1960s); and digital sampling (from the 1980s) have also been
utilized as methods for the creation and elaboration of pop music.
• By the early 1980s, the promotion of pop music had been greatly affected by the rise of Music
Television channels like MTV, which "favoured those artists such as Michael Jackson and
Madonna who had a strong visual appeal".
6. CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
• Pop music has been dominated by the American and (from the mid-1960s) British music
industries. This influence has made pop music something of an international monoculture.
• Most regions and countries have their own form of pop music, sometimes producing local
versions of wider trends, and lending them local characteristics.
• Some of these trends (for example Europop) have had a significant impact of the
development of the genre.
• Some non-Western countries, such as Japan, have developed a thriving pop music
industry, most of which is devoted to Western-style pop, has for several years has
produced a greater quantity of music of everywhere except the USA.
• The spread of Western-style pop music has been interpreted variously as representing
processes of Americanization, homogenization, modernization, creative appropriation,
cultural imperialism, and/or a more general process of globalization.
7. INFLUENCES ON OTHERS
• Pop music has the ability to influence many people, however with the main demographic being
adolescents and teens, it can really influenced their lives and habits in many ways.
• The music videos, for example, may influence teens to want to take dance classes, or it could
affect what decision (career wise) they would want to pursue in the future.
• Also, teens who follow the life of the musician or artist through the internet on social
networking websites, such as Twitter and YouTube, wish to emulate this which can have a good,
but also adverse effect on them.
The lyrics of a pop song can also be very influential, especially over younger teenagers, for
example:
• Lyrics that feature violence may influence them to be violent or have rebellious tendencies.
• Degrading sex or are quite sexual tend to have sex at younger ages.
• Promoting the use of alcohol and drugs can increase the likelihood to take these substances.
8. MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS
• Marina’s music generally incorporates indie pop and new wave musical styles, and
integrates prominent elements of electropop.
• Marina considers her music to be "alternate pop". She has described herself as an
"indie artist with pop goals".
• Diamandis is additionally recognised for her retro and cartoonish fashion styles.
• Marina writes her own unique brand of left-field pop songs.
• Early on, she claimed that her inspirations were Britney Spears and Gwen Stefani
— who she often covered at live gigs — but her songs have a soulful edge pointing
to a deeper source of influence.
• Her piano/keyboard-driven songs vary from melancholic ballads to out-and-out
glam-pop, but her unique voice and melodic style are omnipresent in her music.
