POP
Pop/Rock is essentially music that became popular after the initial
onslaught of rock and roll. As rock continued to develop and new
artists arrived, different styles of rock music began to evolve to fit different
tastes. Pop/Rock is rock and roll without the edge. It appeals to a broader
range of ages and wider social group than pure rock. It's hard to fathom
today, with the pop charts ruled by Mariah Carey and the U2
labeled as 'rockers' but long before
Hip Hop emerged, rock was the music of rebellion. From bringing together
the races when segregation was the norm, to the pop culture phenomenon that
was Elvis and the Beatles, to the social commentary of Bob
Dylan, to the new wave movement,
to the onset of grunge, rock has always
been a catalyst for revolutionary societal change.
The most influential group, both in terms of effect on other musicians and
effect on society in general, certainly is the Beatles. But they,
too, had their influences. What is now called rock music began long before
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo
Starr appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show on Feb. 9, 1964. The post-World
War II popular music scene in the United States was dominated by swing and
the easy listening vocal stylings of Perry Como and Patti Page.
But a new sound was emerging on AM radio in the South - a three chord hybrid
of R&B, boogie-woogie and country music performed largely by black musicians
in small bands, usually featuring guitar, bass, drums, piano, vocals and,
often, a saxophone or horn section. In 1952, the new sound was anointed
'rock and roll' by influential disc
jockey Alan Freed. But, as a sign of the times, the music didn't
take hold of the country until white musicians like Bill Haley & the
Comets began making records. Haley's 1955 smash 'Rock
Around the Clock' is widely cited as the commercial birth of
rock and roll. Elvis Presley took the new sound to new heights, spending
25 weeks at No. 1 on the pop charts in 1956 with four hits, including classics
like 'Hound Dog' on his way to becoming
the King of Rock & Roll and an icon of unrivaled proportions. Presley ushered
in a golden era in rock music as the likes of Chuck Berry, Little
Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly also came to
define the new music. Just as black were as likely as whites to be fans
of Elvis, whites were as likely as blacks to buy up Little Richard records
or turn up at Chuck Berry concerts.
With Presley in the army and then making forgettable movies, Lewis and Berry
in trouble with the law and Holly dead after a 1959 plane crash, the early
1960s marked a down period for popular music with the notable exceptions
of the surf music popularized by the Beach Boys and the growing stable
of stars on the Motown label, founded by producer Berry Gordy.
Smokey Robinson was the first of the talented Motown performers and
his hit 'Shop Around' allowed Gordy
to sign many other artists, such as Diana Ross and the Supremes,
the Temptations, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, all
of whom would take turns topping the charts throughout the next two decades.
Still, without question, the most musically significant happening of the
period was the British Invasion, which lifted America in the wake of John
F. Kennedy's assassination. The Beatles led the way in 1964 and from
'She Loves You' through 'Hey
Jude' to 'Let It Be' they
had an unprecedented hold on the pop charts and on popular culture. From
long hair to drug use to a 'peace and love' agenda, whatever was
endorsed by the Beatles, was embraced by the masses. Musically, the group
grew with each album, continually experimenting with new sounds, such as
feedback and backwards looping as well as incorporating full orchestras
and even Indian instruments into rock. In the span of six years, they went
from making fun but simple Chuck Berry-type records with Beach Boys harmonies
to the sonic psychedelia of Revolver
to the lush instrumentation of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely
Hearts Club Band to their spare but hard-rocking The
Beatles (known as the White Album) to their pop masterpiece
Abbey Road, which employed the best
aspects of all of the above. Their influence is still easily heard when
listening to current artists like Lenny Kravitz, Oasis and
the Foo Fighters. The Beatles, of course, weren't the end of the
British Invasion. Some 35 years later, long after 'Satisfaction',
'Honky Tonk Women' and 'Jumping
Jack Flash' became classics, Glimmer Twins Mick Jagger
and Keith Richards and the rest of the Rolling Stones are
still playing to sold-out stadiums. Other important British Invasion groups
from this period included the Kinks,
the Yardbirds, the Animals and the Who, whose lead
guitarist, Pete Townshend, would go from guitar-smashing mod to originator
of the concept album by the end of the decade.
American bands initially had no answer to the British Invasion. The most
influential 'Made in America' music was being penned by the greatest
lyricist in rock history, Bob Dylan. His 'finger-pointing'
folk songs of the early-1960s included 'Blowin'
in the Wind' and 'A Hard Rain's A-Gonna
Fall' and his influence continued after he plugged his guitar
into amplifiers in 1965 and sang 'Like a Rolling
Stone'. The American tradition of social and political commentary,
begun in popular music by Dylan, was continued in the late-1960s by the
likes of Gaye, Jefferson Airplane, the Doors, Simon
and Garfunkel, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young as well as
Brits Lennon and Townshend. Rock music and the hippie culture it spawned
helped turn the tide of popular opinion against the war in Vietnam. Meanwhile,
as the lyrics were getting heavier, so, too, was the music. Guitar virtuosos
led the way, as Jimi Hendrix and ex-Yardbirds Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page,
all of whom were firmly rooted in the blues, pioneered the hard rock movement.
'Sunshine of Your Love' and 'White
Room' by Clapton's late-60s band Cream and 'Purple
Haze' by Hendrix were early hard rock tunes and Page
expanded on the new sound with one of the most successful bands in history,
Led Zeppelin, on such songs as 'Whole Lotta
Love'.
The early 1970s meant more social upheaval, as androgynous, indulgent artists
like glam rocker David Bowie and pop star Elton
John made gender-bending fashionable and put out the sound track of
the times with albums like 'The Rise and Fall of
Ziggy Stardust' (Bowie) and 'Goodbye
Yellow Brick Road' (John). A major technological innovation during
this period was the synthesizer, which allowed artists to further explore
new sounds. A key band of this era was Pink Floyd, whose 1973 album
'Dark Side of the Moon' remained on
the Billboard charts for more than 700 consecutive weeks and remains a popular
choice in college dorms even today. Country flavored rock bands like the
Eagles, the Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd
also flourished during the early-70s. The Eagles' 1976 compilation, 'The
Eagles: Their Greatest Hits' is the biggest-selling album of
all time. Just as Dylan was fading somewhat from view on the pop culture
landscape, America found another voice in the everyman songs of Bruce
Springsteen, who spoke for much of the country on his 1975 hit 'Born
to Run' and on subsequent albums, (like his multi-platinum Born
in the U.S.A.). But, for the most part, the mid-to-late 1970s
were defined by empty dance music known as 'disco'.
Popularized in the seminal motion picture 'Saturday
Night Fever' disco's sole purpose was to get people on the dance
floor. It featured rhythmic bass lines and strings and was mastered by the
likes of the Bee Gees, Donna Summer and K.C. and the Sunshine
Band. Even rockers like Rod Stewart and the Rolling Stones
made disco records. An important alternative to disco, however, was being
nurtured simultaneously in New York City and in England. No synthesizers
here The Clash paved the way for Punk's more mainstream cousin, new
wave, which remained popular throughout the early 1980s with Duran
Duran as the main champions of its new romantic offshoot. However, danceable
R&B music returned with a flourish with the 1982 release of 'Thriller'
by Michael Jackson, who became the first artist in the history of
Billboard's charts to simultaneously have a No. 1 album and single on both
the pop and black categories. Another phenomenon was at hand, getting her
start with airplay on dance music stations.
Madonna released her debut album in 1983. Her self-titled first album
and 1985's 'Like a Virgin' both rose
to No. 1 and videos for songs like 'Lucky Star'
and 'Borderline' had teen-agers everywhere
emulating her. Just as boys of another generation received bowl haircuts
to look like the Beatles, young girls were inside-outing clothes and wearing
undergarments on the outside like Madonna. Still a viable commercial artist
15 years after her debut, Madonna proved to have more staying power than
any other rock-era female, with the possible exception of Diana Ross. While
the post-Clash 1980s could be categorized as style over substance, a few
artists carried on the tradition of Dylan, Lennon, and Springsteen. The
band U2 was the most successful of these, with socially conscious
hits 'Sunday, Bloody Sunday' and 'New
Year's Day' before blasting into the pop stratosphere with 1987's
top-charting album 'The Joshua Tree',
which produced two No. 1 singles. Another significant development of the
1980s was the return of philanthropy in the form of benefit albums and concerts.
Live Aid, in 1985, was the pinnacle of this movement. Organized by
Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats, the one-day, two-continent
concert featuring the Who's Who of rock and pop, raised tens of millions
of dollars for starving Africans.
In 1991, Nirvana burst upon the scene with 'Nevermind',
an album that went to No. 1 on the strength of the grunge anthem 'Smells
Like Teen Spirit'. Nirvana's 'Seattle sound' ushered in
a flannel-clad era in which rock was once again the music of rebellion as
other bands, most notably Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, also
rocketed to superstardom. But, like Hendrix and Doors' lead singer Jim Morrison
before him, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain died at the peak of his
powers, committing suicide in 1996. The grunge movement basically died with
him. At the close of the century, the relevance of rock and pop were on
the wane, eclipsed by the urban beats and rhymes of the hip-hop movement.
Of course, it's not the first time the genre has been written off. Rock
is dead, they say. Long live rock! |
