Pop music American pop music, as the main body of European pop music, is mainly developed based on the integration of traditional music, folk music and black music from Europe and other countries. With the gradual evolution and development, new types and forms have emerged, such as jazz, Timpan Alley songs, country music, ragtime blues, rock music, etc. Pop music is relative to serious music. It is different from serious music because serious music often has deeper ideological connotations and some specialized knowledge levels, requiring listeners to use their own knowledge and cultivation to comprehend and taste it carefully. For the audience, pop music is short, popular, and catchy to sing, and the audience does not need more expertise to understand it and can only rely on their understanding and perceptual knowledge of the music. American pop music is more self-entertaining and commercial. Its self-entertainment comes from African musical traditions. The most influential ones, such as jazz, blues, rock music, etc., all originated from black music. In the early years, most immigrants came to the United States from all over the world, generally speaking out of their own free will. They were basically willing to integrate their own culture with American culture. Except black people. They were forced into this country as slaves. They “had nothing but chains, but they kept in their minds the rich tradition of African dance and music.” While working on the farm, black slaves were not allowed to speak, but they could sing. They relied on labor chants and songs that they did not understand to convey information and exchange feelings with each other. Through this method of expression, they vented the pain and injustice stagnated in their hearts, thus gradually forming black music with black characteristics. Black music is also constantly changing during its formation process. This change includes absorbing white music elements and producing blues, jazz and other forms. The original rock music was the black music "rhythm and blues". Some people in the West also call rock music "a form of resistance of the lower class to the authorities." 1. Jazz Jazz was first developed in New Orleans at the end of the 19th century. The main sources of jazz formation are blues and ragtime. The original meaning of blues is sadness and melancholy, which evolved from the labor chants of black people. Most of the blues lyrics mainly reflect the lives of black people. Each lyric is structured in three sentences, with the second sentence repeating the first. In terms of musical structure, the musical form of AAB is commonly used in slow 4/4 time. The scale form of his songs often uses flat thirds and flat sevenths, and there are many syncopated rhythms. Blues singing is very free, and the singer can imitate some other daily sounds according to the singing content to express the singer's emotions. The accompaniment instruments of blues songs generally include guitar, banjo, etc., and later many other instruments were gradually added. Blues has gone through different stages of development such as rural blues, classical blues and urban blues. There is no fundamental difference between ragtime music form and blues. The most obvious differences are roughly two points. First, compared with pure blues, ragtime seems to be a more "cultivated" music. It is a kind of black piano music, and many of the players have received some formal music training. Because of the inconvenient portability of the piano, this musical form must be performed in a more suitable setting, which is usually in a pub. The second is the rhythmic characteristics of ragtime. It often uses a continuous syncopated rhythm. The player's left hand often plays regular strong and weak beat accompaniment on the piano, while the right hand plays syncopated rhythm melody and more complex rhythm melody that are misaligned with the left hand accompaniment, thus creating A wit and sense of humor. This music form is deeply loved by the American people who have a sense of humor and are active in nature. Later, ragtime songs were produced one after another. When African American musicians played blues or ragtime in a brass band, a new form of music was born, jazz. Since the birth of jazz, the style has been constantly changing. There are musicians’ exploration, integration and innovation of different styles themselves, as well as their efforts due to their dissatisfaction with the commercialization of jazz. For example, after the traditional New Orleans jazz of the 1920s, swing, big band, cold jazz, free jazz, etc. appeared in the 1930s. The representative figure of jazz is Louis Armstrong, whose compositions include "West End Blues", "The Power of Crying" and so on. Other representatives include Duke Ellington, Davis, etc. Generally speaking, early jazz was relatively simple and gradually developed into more complex music. The main reason is that more and more musicians with professional music training are participating, which integrates professional music creation skills with jazz creation. Despite this, the characteristics of jazz based on black music still exist, namely continuous syncopated rhythm, special instrument timbre, and improvisation in playing and performance. Jazz has been controversial and has mixed reviews since its birth, but the influence of jazz has far exceeded pop music itself. We can find traces of jazz in the works of many serious Western musicians in the 20th century. These musicians include Debussy, Ravel, and Stravinsky. American composer Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" and "An American in Paris" are examples of integrating jazz into modern serious music.

2. Timpan Alley Songs. At the end of the 19th century, many music publishing companies were concentrated on 28th Street (between 5th Avenue and Broadway) in New York City. Salesmen from each company played the piano there all day long to attract customers. The sound of the piano was like knocking on the piano. It looks like hitting a foreign iron plate, hence the name "Tingpan" alley. Timpan Hutong once became a center of popular music in the United States, and it also formed an era of popular music's prosperity and a symbol of music style. It lasted almost half a century. Some of the early works of Tingpan Hutong songs followed the musical style of American pop song composer Foster. His music has a nostalgic and sentimental mood, but most of the songs are cheerful, funny and humorous, and the lyrics are basically based on The main theme is love. In the middle and later stages of development, the music styles and expressions of Tingpan Hutong songs became more diverse, their artistry also strengthened, and they absorbed the rhythmic characteristics of black music, and their melodies and harmonies also tended to become more complex. The popularity of Timpan Hutong songs is basically white people in the city. 3. Country music Country music was originally called mountain music. The formation of this music form began in the agricultural areas of the southern states of the United States in the 1920s. It was handed down by British immigrants, so it naturally has the style of many British folk songs. Later, it was influenced by the music of other ethnic groups and developed. It was not until after World War II that it became popular throughout the United States and was called country music. In the early days of the formation of country music, its style had a more local flavor. The lyrics involved family, love, wandering, religion, etc. Its songs had a certain narrative and stanza form, and the musical accompaniments were often violins and banjos. Or guitar. 4. Rock music: Popular music began to show a diversified trend in the 1950s. With the advancement of science and technology, the emergence of electroacoustic instruments and the influx of large numbers of rural residents into cities, rich fresh blood of country music and other folk music has been injected into urban pop music, promoting the development of rock music. At that time, there was a movie called "A Pile of Chaotic Blackboards" that attracted widespread attention in society. There is a black "rhythm and blues" theme song called "Vibrating, Rattling Rock and Roll" in this film. Its spread marked the emergence of rock music that later became popular around the world. The main musical style of rock music is the fusion of black music and country music of white southerners. The form is mainly singing, and the music is accompanied by electric guitar, saxophone, electric bass, keyboard and jazz drums. The obvious feature of rock music is the continuous and forward-moving dance rhythm, which is composed of jazz drums playing the first and third beats in 4/4 time, and other instruments such as electric guitar playing the second and fourth beats. Early rock and roll singers include Presley, Berry, Domino, Liufus, Everly Brothers, etc. In 1964, the British band "The Beatles" (also translated as "The Beatles" by some) visited the United States for the first time and caused a fanatical response. The main content of their singing is to express love, but also has anti-war and anti-violence content. At that time, there was a wave of anti-Vietnam War and anti-racial discrimination in the United States. Rock music played a big role in this wave. There were few Americans who grew up in the 1960s who were not connected with rock music. The sound of rock music has influenced the artistic taste of modern Americans. Famous rock bands formed in the United States from the 1970s to the 1980s include punk, Rolling Stones, Thor, heavy metal, rap, pop, etc. Its famous rock and roll singers include Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Houston, etc.

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