Pop Music Research Paper

K-pop is well-known in all over the world. For example, a music video, “Gangnam styles”, has been view over two thousand million times now. After the release of this music video in Youtube, plenty of youtubers have made their parodies of it, and this trend is not only found in Asian countries, but also in Western countries such as USA. This song is also the first song which could be ranked No.1 on the UK Singles Chart and even No.2 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart for seven weeks in US. As UK and US are the countries of the main global popular music industry in the world, we can see how powerful of “Gangnam styles” is. Even the lyrics are in Korean, with its special and unique characteristic of this song, the “invisible horse dance”, it successfully catches every viewer’s attention, as the combination of the dance and the melody made a breakthrough of pop songs.

Out of the many genres of music rock and roll has had a huge impact on the world. Movies and TV shows have used rock songs to help set the mood for action scenes. Rock and roll or simply rock has helped many people deal with aggression and anger. Many people have been a big part in rock history, such as Slash, Kurt Cobain, Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Kirk Hammet, and James Hetfield. They are just a few of the many amazing people who helped shape this great genre.

Within Electro/Indie Pop Music well-known artists include Charli XCX, Ellie Goulding, Lorde, Calvin Harris, Sia, Twenty-One Pilots, and Halsey.

Who were the people that contributed to the musical life and industry in America—more specifically in vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley—during the 1880s to 1930s? Who created the music? Who performed on the stages and in recordings? Who helped to define American popular music? Some would say it was immigrant Jews. I would say it was immigrant Jews and immigrant Irish. My research focuses on the Irish immigrant and Irish-American presence in the music production of Tin Pan Alley and Vaudeville in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and subsequently observing how the genre is being performed in Ireland today. Another component of this research focuses on how the Irish were and are represented in music and media circa one hundred years

Western popular culture has changed significantly over time. In the 1920’s and the 1930’s, radios, dancing and feminism were all trends, and most popular music was jazz and folk (Prezi, 2017). Now, in the 21st Century, phone apps, social media and mobile phones are the biggest trends, and the most popular music genres are pop, rap, and music made by boybands (Prezi, 2017).

Musicians perform solo or as a member of a band or orchestra in front of crowds or stadiums full of people. Musicians could spend hours up to a day practice playing their instruments. Some and most musicians record songs or albums for movies and commercials. Some musicians compose their own music and could collaborate with other music artist. The one main task a musician must rehearse for shows by learning and playing certain pieces of music.

As the human race evolves and changes, so does its creations, ideas, and environment; music is no exception to this. Peoples ever-longing desire for new ideas combined with the opposite need for stability has resulted, in the music world, in the creation of pop music, but what exactly is pop music? Upon light observation, some people find pop music to bland and repetitive, but with further investigation there, is an interesting amount of history behind America's favorite music style.

Over the past couple years music, in my opinion, seems to be getting more untolerable. Throughout middle school I was able to bear all the top songs that were played on the radio, Infact I even enjoyed listening to all those songs, but as high school came along I started to abandon all the hype that was the radio and the top songs on itunes. Straying away from mainstream music and moving onto songs that were more aligned with my personal interest was surprisingly a longer transition than I would've thought. I was listening and experimenting with different genres for awhile but I still kept listening to a fair amount of mainstream music.

The music industry has changed in very quickly in so many ways it almost seems impossible. Thomas Edison recorded the first voice in 1877 and now we listen to hundreds of different types of music on devices that hold more information than the computers that sent the first astronaut to the moon. People have been getting music in tons of ways for the past hundred plus years and when the internet came into the picture, the music industry sky rocketed. People could get their own music out and be heard just by clicking a few measly buttons and using the internet to stream millions of songs with high speed. But even though the internet has helped the music industry by making it easier to distribute, advertise, and produce music, it still has its disadvantages.

The moment you step foot into the music industry as a professional, you discover a sub culture that has its own style of dealings and relationships. Irrespective of whether you are a musician, manager, promoter, a journalist or the ever essential sound guy (or woman of course), there are some things that you’re expected to know and do before you even begin. So, to help you avoid mistakes and hopefully fill you in on some essential rules, here are 10 tips for music industry newbies that I have picked up.

Rock was born in the 1950’s, it was a mix of gospel country and blues. The electric guitar was the main instrument back in the 50’s. Bill haley was the first rock artist to hit the pop charts, he got number 12 with a song “crazy man crazy”. Many independent record labels picked up this new style and release records.The first song to hit number one on the charts was Rock around the clock by Bill Haley. Many parents saw rock as a bad influence and thought it would make young teens disobedient and rebellious. The audience of rock at the time was very hidden they would listen to this new music against the will of authority figures. But to those teens they felt it was there culture something they could rally behind and call theirs. During this time

M.I.A. emerged in the Indie pop music scene in 2002. M.I.A., also known as Maya Arulpragasam, began her career in 2000 as a visual artist and filmmaker. After recording a documentary for the band Elastica, they suggested she go into the music industry. Rather than just make music, Arulpragasam wanted to make a statement that would be impacted politically, socially, and culturally. She sings about third world countries and issues, specifically Sri Lanka in her album Arular. Arulpragasam drew from the discrimination she experienced while hiding with her family during the Sri Lankan Civil War and the horror of the massacre of the Tamil people. Arular, pushes important notions about a third world that has no voice in a first world indie music platform. Arulpragasam issues her mission statement “Pull up the people, pull up the poor”, defining war in the simplest of terms: “You no like the people they no like you/Then they go set it off with a big boom” (Thornburgh).

Most of the music on the radio today sounds very similar, and even those that sound a bit different still have the same subject matter. It seems that the lyrics to songs don’t matter much in pop culture, judging by the songs played on pop radio that involve sex, drugs, and partying. Those like me who truly have passion for music realize that lyrics are, in fact, important, if not the most important part of a song. Those that are as passionate about music as I am tend to appreciate a song more if its melody is nice and its lyrics are meaningful, rather than one or the other. Most of the overplayed music on pop radio has lyrics that take less deep thinking than adding two plus two. On the other hand, less-popular genres of music, including indie and alternative, two genres much less likely to be found on pop radio, incorporate some of these same themes -- drugs, sex, and partying are still referenced in genres other than pop, and I refuse to lie and tell you all indie and alternative music is completely innocent and wholesome -- it definitely isn’t. But the themes that occur constantly in pop music are translated into these genres in a way that means something far more in-depth. For example, where a song like “We Can’t Stop” by Miley Cyrus blatantly states the lyric “dancing with Molly” and talks about how she and her friends can do whatever they want because they’re high at a party, a song like “The A Team” by Ed Sheeran -- yes, this song does play on the radio, and yes, I do

The Odyssey writer is obviously more prepared with this topic. She claims that “from 2005 to 2015, song lyrics (this study included pop, rock, R&B and country music) have gone down to below third grade level — so easy a 7-year-old can comprehend. Aside from lyrics, a recent study in Spain analyzed pop songs from 1955 to 2010. Subjecting the music to an intense algorithm, researchers found that ‘pop songs have become intrinsically louder and [blander] in terms of the chords, melodies and types of sound used.’ Put simply, the ‘musical pool’ of sounds and rhythms used by pop artists is shrinking for no apparent reason.” Though the Huffington post writes from true facts to defend pop music, they cannot compare to legitimate statistics and scientific evidence that modern popular music is progressively dumbing down, on every level.

“We blast the upbeat tunes for parties and workouts, at the gym, and we save the low-key ballads for romantic ot pensive moments.” Says scientific American. We always have certain genres, one of the most popular being pop music. You’re so used of everything you’re heard. But have you ever wondered how much it has actually evolved? It’s important because this generation is mostly about trendy music and pop but it was way different back then.