Pop Music of the C20th and C21st

Popular music of the 20^th and 21^st Centuries.

This strand of music includes the following types of music:

• Blues
• Popular music of the 1960s, R ‘n’ B, (Rhythm and Blues) and hip hop
• Rock music
• Music theatre
• Film music

The term popular music (pop music) is used to describe any style of music which is not classical or serious music. It’s music that has been composed to appeal to the wider population who have little or no music training or knowledge.

In order to appeal pop music has catchy melodies, riffs, a strong bass line, a memorable structure that is not too long and a typical combination of instruments. Repetition is a major factor in making the music easy to remember. Popular pieces are usually quite short often lasting less than five minutes. (Some classical pieces can take a few hours to perform!)

The Blues

Blues music started in southern slave areas of America during the 19^th Century and was a kind of folk music that expressed the feelings and fears of African-Americans, and the conditions in which they lived. Later blues music spread to the cities and became associated with the poor, unfortunate, homeless and sometimes unfortunate in love. Blues music is raw, full of emotion, typical of its humble roots. Originally blues music was performed by an instrument that could provide simple harmony such as a banjo, guitar or piano.

12 bar blues

The 12 bar blues forms the basic structure upon which blues pieces are composed and performed. It is based on a pattern using three different chords with a steady four beats to each bar. In a major scale chords built on the first, fourth and fifth notes of the scale (I,IV,V) are called primary chords and are all major chords. They are called Primary chords because between them they include the notes of the scale.

In a 12 bar blues structure these chords are played in a set order. Here is a blues in C, the slashes indicate that each chord is played four times in each bar.

C / / / C / / / C / / / C / / /

F / / / F / / / C / / / C / / /

G / / / F / / / C / / / C / / /

Once you know the order of the chords you can work out a 12 bar blues chord scheme in any key. Use the space below to work out a 12 bar blues chord sequence in G major.

_ / / / _ / / / _ / / / _/ / /

_ / / / _ / / / _ / / / _ / / /

_ / / / _ / / / _ / / / _ / / /

The 12 bar blues is repeated for each verse. Repetition is an important feature of popular music because it meant that untrained composers and performers could quickly and easily learn music and then improvise over the basic structure.

Blue Notes:

A melodic feature of blues is its use of blue notes. These are chromatic notes, usually flats (lowered by a semitone).

When added to the melody the blue notes add a biter quality, particularly when they clash, or are dissonant with the harmony.

Rhythm:

Blues music has a steady four beat rhythm. However this does not mean every note has to be a crotchet. A characteristic of blues music is the use of syncopation which gives the music a spiky off beat feel to the music.

Instrumental and vocal techniques:

Blues lyrics are expressive and emotional. They tell of hardship and bad luck. To add expression to the music singers and instrumentalists often slide between a blue note and an ordinary note of the scale. They also often added vibrato which gives the notes a trembling more emotional sound.

Blues became the inspiration for many other popular music styles, whether in their use of structure, chords, melodic features, metre and rhythm, or through performers being inspired by the performance techniques of blues singers and players.

Rhythm ‘n’ Blues:

During the 1960s pop musicians developed musical styles that first started in the 1950s. Two important styles that had a major impact on popular music during the 1960s were rhythm ‘n’ blues and rock ‘n’ roll. Rhythm ‘n’ blues had developed in the clubs and dance halls of American cities such as Chicago. It mixed the strong vocal style and harmony of gospel music with city blues instruments such as electric guitars with amplifiers. Although it was based on the 12 bar blues structure, rhythm ‘n’ blues was often faster, louder and had tighter rhythms.

Rock ‘n’ Roll:

Rock ‘n’ Roll was also a mixture or fusion of two popular music styles: rhythm ‘n’ blues and country & western music. Fast, loud and using energetic syncopated rhythms, rock ‘n’ roll was one of the most important popular music styles to emerge during the 1950s. It became a craze amongst teenagers for the way the lyrics challenged adult authority. Many of its performers became pop legends such as Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard. The songs such as “Jailhouse Rock”, Blue Suede Shoes” and “Tutti Futti” became modern classics.

Rock ‘n’ Roll helped establish the typical pop music instrumental combination of lead and rhythm guitars, bass guitar and drum kit.

Gospel and Soul:

Gospel music has its roots in African-American church services, where it developed from religious songs called spirituals. Performed by choirs or groups of singers, gospel music combines the harmonic style of European hymn tunes with call and response patterns and syncopated rhythms from West African music and melodic features of blue music (blue notes). Gospel can be very energetic but its main features are:

• A powerful solo singer who often improvises over the choir
• The use of melisma - this extends certain words to make them more important, or repeating a syllable a number if times with gaps in between (e.g. ‘Swee-ee-ee-eet Jesus’)
• Sliding into a note from a higher or lower pitch
• A fervent emotional quality achieved by sobbing or shouting
• Sophisticated vocal arrangements with strong harmonies

Gospel singing is often accompanied by a keyboard (typically piano or electric organ), drum kit and bass guitar.

Soul music is a mix of rhythm ‘n’ blues and gospel music. The use of saxophones, brass, electric guitars, drums and amplifiers are an influence of rhythm ‘n’ blues, while the vocal style and the addition of an electric organ come from gospel music. In Soul music, the religious words of the gospel are replaced by lyrics about human relationships, heartbreak and love, but the vocal style is the same as Gospel.

Pop Ballads:

Ballads have always been a popular form of son, found quite often in folk music. A ballad is usually a solo song with a fairly slow tempo, a memorable tune with romantic or sentimental lyrics. Ballads often tell a story, so the style is usually simple and direct. Many ballads are in strophic form with the same music accompanying different verses.

Folk influenced music:

Folk music is a term usually associated with the traditional vocal and instrumental music of a particular country. Its composers are often unknown and it is music that was originally created and performed by ordinary people. Folk music often provides some sort of social comment and during the 1960s singers such as Bob Dylan wrote and performed music in a simple folk style which dealt with issues such as the war in Vietnam, civil rights and the nuclear arms race, which concerned many young people at the time. Bob Dylan’s music influenced students to form protest groups and rally to change the issues that he sang about. Bob Dylan usually performed his music in a simple, traditional way with an acoustic guitar and harmonica. He shocked his fans by performing in 1965 on an electric guitar with amplifiers although his fans were horrified and said he’d ‘sold out’ he did start a new style of music- folk rock.

Popular Song Format:
Popular song is usually 32 bars long. The 32 bars are divided into four sections, each of eight bars. The first two sections and the last section all use the same melody. The third section, however, has a different melody and may be in a different key, so that the overall plan is:

A A B A

The B Sections is sometimes called the middle eight and many pop songs in the 1960s are based on this popular song form.