Rock & Pop (A)

Pop music is an important genre of popular music distinguished from classical or art music and from folk music . more...

The term indicates specific stylistic traits but the genre also includes artists working in many styles (rock, hip hop, rhythm and blues (R&B), and country), and it is reasonable to say that "pop music" is a flexible category. It may also be referred to as soft rock or pop/rock.

Characteristics as a subgenre

Pop music is often defined as music produced commercially, for profit, or "as a matter of enterprise not art" though it may more usefully be defined by market, ideology, production, and aesthetics. Pop "is designed to appeal to everyone" and "doesn't come from any particular place or mark off any particular taste." It is "not driven by any signifigant ambition except profit and commercial reward...and, in musical terms, it is essentially conservative." It is "provided from on high (by record companies, radio programmers and concert promoters) rather than being made from below...Pop is not a do-it-yourself music but is professionally produced and packaged." Frith 2001, p.95-96)

While Pop and Rock music each appeal to mass culture, often aim for (and achieve) commercial success, feature catchy tunes and melodies, and emphasize rhythm, Rock music has a much more direct connection to the blues and folk from which it originated, while Pop can be thought of as the current incarnation of Popular music, which has existed for centuries.

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