“You're living in a disco, forget about the rat race, let's do the milkshake, selling like a hotcake, try some, buy some, fee-fi-fo-fum…” Pop Muzik by M (1979)
"Music, at its essence, is what gives us memories, and the longer a song has existed in our lives, the more memories we have of it". Stevie Wonder
“Let’s talk about pop music. Pop, pop shoo wop, you know what I mean”.
So far as ‘life noises’ go, pop music has got to be up there amongst the best (anyone whose thoughts have gone straight to the sounds of rude noises, you should be ashamed). Now I fully appreciate that devotees of specific music genres, like Rock or Country, would argue like Liam and Noel, if I was to suggest that ‘Stairway to Heaven’ - by Led Zeppelin (1971) or ‘Wichita Lineman’ - by Glen Campbell (1968) were pop songs. However, for this post, I am going use the term ‘pop music’, which was first coined in the 1950s to describe popular music that was not Classical or Jazz, as a catch-all for the different genres that have gone to make up the UK Singles Chart, since it’s inception in1952.
Music consists of multiple elements including tempo (speed), rhythm, timbre (sound qualities), dynamics (loudness), harmony, melody (pitch), and as often as not, lyrics. Rhythm in music is particularly influential as it mimics our internal bodily rhythms (Clark & Tamplin, 2016). Our brains process these elements in ways that develop our individual perception of harmony and rhythm, leading to a preference for sounds and music that align with those patterns. Natalie Sarrazin, author of ‘Music and the Child’, says that “music acts as a stimulus to which the body responds, after which sensation returns to the brain to form emotions, which deepens the significance of the experience”.
Pop music contains all these elements and manages to meet the span of different preferences by embraceing all kinds of genres, such as Rhythm & Blues (R&B), Rock, Soul, Country, Dance, Ska, Reggae, Heavy Metal etc., with each creating a range of their own styles or sub-genres. Songs are generally short to medium in length (2 to 5½ minutes) with repeated choruses, catchy melodies and hooks. Please Note: Songs/singles by characters like The Wombles, Roland Rat and Crazy Frog are in not in a specific genre, they belong to Dante’s Eighth Circle of Hell - Fraud, along with X-Factor wannabes and UB40. Coldplay, Adele and The Smiths can go in there too, as they’re miserable.
“Hot funk, cool punk, even if it's old junk, It's still rock and roll to me”. ‘It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me’ - by Billy Joel (1980)
Unlike Classical or Jazz music, which can be a bit inaccessible, when you listen to pop music, you can fairly quickly recognise the genre, discover the beat, identify the verse and chorus, and perhaps even sing along (if you like it). Don’t get me wrong, I like Classical, but it wasn’t something I was overly exposed to growing up (so I didn’t develop that perception or preference), apart from the Disco version of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony: A Fifth of Beethoven - by Walter Murphy (1976).
For me, Classical music, for all its beautiful and technical brilliance just doesn’t grab my attention or imagination, spike my serotonin level or speak to me the way pop music does. Also, pop singles have simple and easy to remember titles like ‘Yesterday’ - by The Beatles (1965) or ‘Reward’ - by The Teardrop Explodes (1981)…whereas Classical tends to have overly long pieces with dry names, such as ‘Requiem in D Minor, K. 626: 3. Sequentia: VI. Lacrimosa’ - by Mozart. It’s like going to a club and having to solve a cryptic puzzle before you’re allowed in. Not exactly inviting, and may add to the reason why sales of Classical are pitiful when compared to pop, as many people see it as elitist.
Although Jazz can also feel like a club you can only enter with an invitation (a note from your mum doesn’t count), it’s had a massive influence on pop music, especially R&B, Soul and Hip-hop, as they contain many of the chord progressions found in Jazz. Also, a large number of Jazz recordings have been ‘sampled’ [parts lifted from other peoples recordings], edited and looped together to provide the backbone to many Hip-hop tracks. In addition to using Jazz samples, Rap and House DJs, as well as producers like Mark Ronson, have also raided the back catalogue of vintage Soul and Funk records to ‘borrow’ and stitch together various elements to create a new sound/track/single. Eighth Circle?
“Put the needle on the record, when the drumbeats go like this. Pump up the volume, pump up the volume, pump up the volume. Dance. Dance” . Pump Up The Volume - by MARRS (1987). The first UK No.1 to mostly consist of ‘sampling’.
Whatever the genre, pop music has had a huge cultural impact on the UK for over 70-years, and plays a significant role in generating billions of pounds for the economy every year. Today, pop music is more accessible than ever. In addition to the growing number of digital and AM/FM radio stations, the internet has not only changed how we buy music, but also how it’s played. The days of needing a vinyl record, an 8-track cartridge, cassette tape or even a digital compact disc (CD) are gone, along with all the equipment needed to play them on. Now you can just instantly buy (download) or stream any pop music single, album or video straight to your mobile phone and listen/watch it immediately.
Whilst the technology used in downloading or streaming digital pop music is astonishing, not to mention convenient, apart from actually going to hear and see a band or singer perform live, vinyl has always been my jewel in the crown. From first watching and listening to my parents playing their records in the early 1970s, to selecting 45s on the jukebox in the local Italian cafe, to going to buy singles with my pocket money and rummaging through the racks of albums on a Saturday with my school friends. "Teenage dreams so hard to beat" (The Undertones,1978).
Unlike a digital recording, where the sound is encoded in clear but cold and often soulless binary data, the analogue recording on a vinyl record delivers a sound that's as close as possible to the original performance. It does this by encoding the original sound wave in to the grooves of the vinyl as a physical waveform, capturing all the distinctive subtleties of the recording to provide a richer, warmer, more authentic sound.
“Somebody was trying to tell me that CDs are better than vinyl because they don't have any surface noise. I said, 'Listen, mate, life has surface noise" - John Peel, music journalist and DJ.
Actually going to watch and listen to a band, group or singer perform live gives you an entirely different and unique experience that cannot be replicated, even through my beloved vinyl, as the emotions and atmosphere generated can’t be captured in a recording. Sharing the collective energy of the audience, watching and listening to the interaction of the band members and discovering how good artists actually sound (without auto-tune or other recording studio gizmos), creates a deeper connection between the pop stars, musicians and fans.
I suppose the only thing I’ve not talked about is the pop music that has provided the soundtrack to my day, the genres that align with my ‘perception and preferences’, and the songs/singles that I love. As this post is about pop music, rather than write about them, you can watch and listen to my Top 50 Singles Chart in the Sound & Vision section of this blog: A 28-minute pop video chart with a 30-second clip of each single, along with a few thoughts / facts about each tune. So, take a break, grab a cuppa and some hobnobs, and ‘pump up the volume. Dance. Dance’ (but don’t spill your tea).
Selecting just 50 singles has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done (I lost count of the number of versions I made, once it reached double figures), as having spent over 50-years listening, watching, dancing and singing along to pop music, there are so many inspirational, moving and sometimes life changing songs I had to leave out. Hmmm, perhaps I should have done a Top 500?
“New York, London, Paris, Munich, everybody talk about…”
Comments