Is pop a proper genre?

Started by Nick August 24th, 2013 7:05 PM
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Nick

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Posted July 28th, 2021
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Genre - the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or entertainment, e.g. music, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria.

In terms of music, is pop a proper genre? Is there a specific sound or style to pop music? Or does it remain to be an umbrella term for popular, as it once was? It seems as though more and more, people use pop as a proper genre, in a way to define the sound on a particular album, for a particular song, or by a particular artist.

Sydian

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I think that it was once more of an umbrella term, like how The Beatles were considered pop. I don't think of them as that, but that's because what was once an umbrella term came to have its own sound. It changes over time of course, like anything or anyone would (compare 80's pop with 00's pop for example). But that's okay, imo. I know pop covers a lot of stuff, but if you really wanted to get into the nitty gritty, then you could always bring out the subgenres of pop (punk pop, indie pop, dark pop, pop rock, etc). I don't think the term should be abolished though, because pop is such a large genre and the subgenres of pop just seem needlessly complicated.
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François

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Posted November 8th, 2016
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One should look at pop as one looks at indie. They're two sides of the one coin, and the single broadest genres one can use to describe music. Both of them have very, very, very vague definitions that are largely down to the preference of whoever is using them, so a concise explanation of them is impossible. You can still use those two terms for their generally accepted "old" definitions: pop is popular, indie is unpopular. However, using the broadest possible terms is not usually ideal, and leads to stuff like RnB being submerged under both indie and pop in the present moment.

While a lot of people who hear music on the radio can have quite... uninformed (to say the least) definitions of pop and indie, most with sense generally identify pop as something with a straight-forward melody and production, sometimes accompanied by straight-forward lyrics (but not necessarily). The further away you get from the rigid straight-forwardness that defines POP, the closer you edge towards indie. Personally I would define Lady Gaga's 'Poker Face' as pop, but I would similarly define fun.'s 'We Are Young' as pop. It is as straight-forward as any Lady Gaga single, but many people think male singers + non-synthy production = indie, for whatever reason. In any case, I disagree with that.

True indie is a lot harder to provide examples for because well, it doesn't often make the charts. I'm sure most could pull any number of examples out but I'll go with stuff I'm playing currently: Purity Ring's 'Obedear' and perhaps Data Romance's 'She's Been High' (possibly the best song I've heard all year).

I feel like that post had a lot of filler surrounding a quite concise point, but basically just read the second paragraph and you'll find what you're looking for!

Palkia

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Posted May 30th, 2022
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I identify pop music as simply popular music most of the time. In the UK where the pop charts are fairly varied, there can be a lot of EDM and R&B crossing over to the pop music conciousness, and I don't count them as pop music. If I do have to call something pop music, It's usually just something that takes a lot of trends and innovations from a lot of different genres and puts in into a package with inn offensive mass market appeal. They are usually lacking in substance but have enough energy to them to be catchy or memorable.

A song like Tik Tok by Ke$ha isn't a particularly great song, but it's one that get's stuck in your head and features memorable lyric choices that are ridiculous/strong enough to be stuck in a listeners head. Most people in 2010/2011 probably remember waking up like P. Diddy. So, Tik Tok is a pretty definitive pop song due to it having the distinctions of the genre.

Whereas other songs which are usually made for listeners of a different genre may become a 'pop fad' and cross over to the pop charts, but there I would classify them really as there own genre despite them being on the pop charts; they are just a certain different genre they just seemed to get into the pop stations due to support by many people or even other pop artists.

...well that was a hot mess of a post lol.

Rest

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Posted April 11th, 2015
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"Pop" by my definition of it is a sound or beat that is coherent, straight-forward, clean-sounding, finely-tuned and usually high-pitched. Hopefully with this list of songs, I can pinpoint and paint a picture of that particular sound (links are in the track name):-

Justin Timberlake - SexyBack
Belle and Sebastian - Seeing Other People
Animal Collective - Brothersport
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Super Scooter Happy (original:capsule)
Sleigh Bells - Crown on the Ground
Grimes - Genesis

Of course, it isn't an end all-be all definition. I'm not even entirely sure if it should be in a genre of itself. I do think it's one of the most applied sounds in music though.

Pop music and popular music are two different things as I see it.

EDIT: Here's a view on the term popular music that I found on the 'net which I thought was pretty spot-on and described the term best:-

a very complex structure of music that has been built up and evolves constantly, which appropriates elements from all genres without belonging to either. It's usually the product of a struggle between artist, distributor and consumer.

pompayyy

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Posted February 23rd, 2015
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I think there is pop (short for popular) and there is pop (a genre of music). For instance The Who is often noted as being a pop band, but they aren't a band of the genre; they're just popular. As for artists like Lady Gaga, they would be considered both. Most of Lady Gaga's lyrics are repetitive and her songs seem to focus on lyrics. She is a popular artist and she is an artist of the pop genre.


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