The History of Pop Music

During the 1950's rock and roll dominated the first half of the decade, with previous influences from the 1940's. Major music labels mirrored the popularity of certain genres increasing the access to them and allowing them to become more popular. Big voiced singers set the tone for the development of the popular music during the 50's. Rock and roll was said to have been born on April 12, 1954, when Bill Haley and the Comets recorded "Rock Around the Clock."

The technology used by the pop music industry developed beyond recognition during this decade.
As pop music developed the television industry embraced the well- known artists of the time and gave them the audience a connection with them. From the 60s British artists became front runners in the popular music industry.
Artists such as The Beatles included the key characteristics of pop during the 1960's:
-harmonies
-main instruments were guitar, drums and vocals.
-prominent drum beat

Soft Rock became a very popular genre, as well as big ballads from artists such as Elton John. Euro pop began to become more popular during this decade. Most importantly this decade saw the rise of disco music, which became one of the biggest genres of the decade. The Bee Gees were the leaders of the disco era with Saturday night fever

Artists such as Madonna and Michael Jackson were by far the most famous singers of this time. Michael Jackson’s thriller was the most widely sold track of the 80's, selling 110 million copies. Both of their music was based around dance. Including certain influences from Motown for Michael Jackson and electronic from Madonna

1990’s pop music was typically categorized by hearty ballads, dance music. The development of teen pop and dance pop bands such as the spice girls broke into the American music industry which then also influenced bigger named artists such as Christina Aguilera and Destiny’s Child. One of the spice girls most famous songs is spice up your life with a Latin and salsa influence

Teen pop continued to be extremely popular into the 2000’s, but soon plummeted due to the rise in popularity of R&B and hip hop. Styles from the 1980’s pop scene have influenced artists’ music more recently in the charts of the noughties. More recently Pop Ballad artists such as Adele have dominated the later noughties.