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A Brief History of Rock and Pop Music – Songs, Artist & Facts

Rock music originated in the late 1940s’ and early 1950s in the United States and is also known as “rock and roll”. In the mid-1960s, rock music has evolved in a wide range of various styles.

Inventions of electric guitar and amplifiers gave goose-bumps to this trend. Later, in the 1960s, rock music molded into its desired shape. Pop music origins found in different varieties of musical styles. These styles are including the jazzy piano melodies of ragtime. It is associated with the musical trends of the late 19th to early 20th centuries. The roots of this music can be found in the improvised rhythms of the jazz era of the 1920 and 1930. Orchestras of big band era that ruled in the 1940s.

A new type of music appears in the 1950s and 1960s. This new music was characterized by fast rhythms, strong beats, and soulful lyrics. This new music genre called “Rock and Roll”.

Rock Music

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Rock is a kind of music that is played and sung loudly in simple tones and strong beat by a small group of people with electric guitars and drums. Rock & roll, in reality, has only three chords including a strong, unfaltering backbeat and a captivating melody. It’s a kind of broad genre in popular music.

Read more at thenewsandviews.com about the latest entertainment updates on the rock and roll scene.

Rock Music Artists

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Several artists contributed to rock songs in different eras.

  • Robert Johnson sang various songs in the 1920s includes Cross Road Blues, Hellhound on My Trail, Love In Vain, Sweet Home Chicago, etc.
  • In 1940s number of artists includes Charles Brown sang Driftin’ Blues (1946), Muddy Waters intone Rollin’ stone (c.1949), bone Walker troll Call It Stormy Monday (c.1947), Mahalia Jackson chant Move On Up A Little Higher (1946), etc.
  • In the 1950s, other artists like Muddy Waters, intone Got My Mojo Working, Hoochie Coochie Man, Mannish Boy in 1952. Big Joe Turner sang Shake, Rattle, and Roll in 1954.
  • Elvis Presley chanted Heartbreak Hotel and Love Me Tender in 1956. Jimmy Reed trolled Big Boss Man and Bright Lights, Big City in 1958. Similarly, so many artists intoned a series of enchanting melodies in these eras.
  • In the 1960s, various scientists jumped forward to contribute to rock music. They include Elmore James trolled Dust My Broom and Shake Your Moneymaker in 1961. Peter and Gordon chanted A World Without love in 1964.
  • In the 1970s and the upcoming years, hundreds of artists sang numerous songs contributing to rock music and thus molded it into the most popular music in the world.

Characteristics of Rock Music

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The genre of rock music is so huge and mainly based on three characteristics such as distorted guitars, loud drums, captive bass lines, and powerful vocal hooks. Others are:

  • Electric guitars for distortion
  • Bass and fender/Gibson guitars
  • Drum kit having cymbals for the spine of a song
  • Lyrical theme
  • Verse-chorus form
  • Signature time 4/4 as standard
  • Monotonous hooks and riffs
  • Classic Hammond keyboard
  • Steady beat giving contagious energy
  • Marshal amplifiers

A high-pitched voice is mostly required to sing rock music. They are loud and energetic as most liked by teenagers. The expertise of rock singers can be examined in high tone music.

Pop Music

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Pop music came out from its old nutshell into the modern one in the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. Pop music is a genre of popular music that has grown and developed on its own.

In the 1950s when rock was growing tremendously, pop music began to grow its roots, Mitch Miller was the one who worked with label’s big artists to build a piece of music that was confined to many genres. Miller blended country, blues, and folk music with ever-growing rock sounds and upshot soothing pop music loved by everybody.

All hit singles are not produced by the pop artists. They are produced by many artists from other different genres such as country music signers Carrie, Underwood, and Taylor swift. Rock group Radiohead and Foo fighters, folk singers Bob Dylan, and Mumford and sons, and singers such as Johnnie Ray, Frankie Laine, and Guy Mitchell worked to dawn to dusk along with Mitch Miller.

Artists

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  • Thriller by Michael Jackson in 1980
  • Like a Prayer by Madonna in 1984 released her album
  • When Doves Cry by Prince in 1984
  • Baby One More Time intoned by Britney Spears in 1998
  • Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) by the Backstreet Boys in 1997
  • Rolling In The Deep by Adele at her early age of 21 years
  • Billie Jean by Micahel Jackson in 1982
  • Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen in 2012
  • Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) by Beyonce`in 2009
  • Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani in 2004
  • Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars released in 2014
  • Shake It Off by Taylor Swift in 2014
  • Party In The U.S.A by Miley Cyrus released on 11th august 2009
  • Sorry by Justin Bieber in 2015

Pop Music Characteristics

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The verse-chorus formula is notable in popular music, thus having different basic structures. This includes:

  1. Introduction
  2. Bridge passages just to fill the gap between verses and choruses
  3. Instrumental sections
  4. Middle eights

Middle-eights consist of eight-bar sections that introduce new stuff in the form of lyrics, chords, melody, and rhythm.

Hooks and riffs are also characteristic of pop music. This helps the listener stuck to the song longer. This includes the repetition of music and tones that provide a relaxing sensation to its listener.

Popular music has mainly two aspects. Some of them are scribbled at slow speed and some lyrical tracks are written at a high-speed tempo up to 160 beats per minute. This is the situation where the pop music genre is divided into two themes of music whether for listening or dancing.