Genre Investigation: Pop

Pop music was originally an abbrieviation of 'popular music' and originated from rock and roll in the 1950's. In terms of it's genre, it is extremely varied and pulls many of it's characteristics from the combination of other genres such as urban, dance, rock. latin and country. 

Despite this, it still holds characteristics which are completely faithful to it's own genre:

• Short to medium length songs: two - four mins long
• Written in simple, traditional & basic style - verse-chorus form
• Repeated choruses
• Melodic tunes
• Catchy hooks
• Usually an uptempo or moderate beat
• Consistent and noticeable rhythmic element
• Mainstream style
• Chorus that contrasts melodically, rhythmically and harmonically with the verse
• Limited harmonic accompaniment 
• Often focus of simple themes such s love and relationships, although there are notable exceptions.

Pop music is generally thought of as a genre which is commercially recorded and desires to have a mass audience appeal, however this aim is usually contained to the interest of young children, teenagers and adults. 

Although pop music is often seen as oriented towards the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music which has always contained songs from a variety of sources, including classical, jazz, rock, and novelty songs, while pop music as a genre is usually seen as existing and developing separately. Thus "pop music" may be used to describe a distinct genre, often characterized as a softer alternative to rock and roll.

Examples of typical pop songs are below: