Pop music is translated from English popular music. Generally speaking, the so-called pop music refers to instrumental music and songs that are short in structure, popular in content, lively in form and sincere in emotion, and are loved by the broad masses, widely sung or appreciated, popular for a while and even passed down to future generations. These music and songs are rooted in the rich soil of public life. Therefore, it is also called "popular music". However, such a definition may make music that does not belong to pop music, such as The Internationale, March of the Volunteers, La Marseillaise, Hong Hushui Waves, Singing the Motherland, Dongfanghong and Nanniwan, be classified as pop music just because they are also widely circulated among the masses. On the other hand, those music that are clearly pop music are excluded from pop music because they can't be circulated, which is also quite a lot in pop music. Obviously, pop music is not always popular, and pop music is not just pop music. The accurate concept should be commercial music, that is, music created for profit. It is a commercial music entertainment and all the' industrial' phenomena related to it. (See the former Soviet Union's Encyclopedia of Music Dictionary, 199 edition) Its marketability is primary and artistry is secondary. Although some songs are sung by popular singing, they are ideological and artistic, and these songs do not belong to commercial songs. Such as Big China, People Paddling and Sailing, Asian Glory, Sixteen Moon Circles in the Tenth Five-Year Plan, What a Big Tree, etc. In fact, there is no necessary connection between the types of songs and singing methods. We cannot think that art songs can only be sung by Bel Canto, folk songs can only be sung by national singing methods, and popular songs can only be sung by popular singing methods. First of all, the division of three singing methods is not very scientific and reasonable, which has been recognized by the music industry, and no musician will think that the division of three singing methods is completely scientific and reasonable; Secondly, there are three kinds of singing methods at present (if you add the original ecological singing method and five kinds of children's singing rules), but the types of songs are far more than three kinds of art songs, folk songs and popular songs, as well as carols, lyric songs, March songs, queue songs, military songs, campus songs, satirical and humorous songs and many other types; Thirdly, countless facts in the music industry have proved that the same song can be sung in different ways. Liu Bingyi, a famous singer, has sung many campus songs in Taiwan Province, using Bel Canto. Xi Xiulan, a Hong Kong singer, has sung many folk songs in a popular way. Such examples are too numerous to mention. The concept of "commodity music" is more scientific, reasonable and accurate than any other concept. Literally, "popular" means easy to understand and "popular" means widely circulated, so it seems that songs such as March of the Volunteers, Singing the Motherland, Dongfanghong and Nanniwan can also be called popular songs or pop songs. At first glance, it's ridiculous, but when you think about it, it's not completely unreasonable, because these songs are easy to understand and spread widely. However, these songs can never be called commodity songs, because they are by no means created for profit. From this point, we can also see that the concept of "commodity music" is scientific, reasonable and accurate. Defining the concept of "commodity music" can solve many controversial problems in the music industry. For example, the question of "whether pop music can enter the classroom" has proved to be a "no discussion" question. And this discussion will never end, and it will never reach a final conclusion. The reason is that "pop music" is not a scientific and accurate concept. After defining the concept of "commodity music", we can draw a conclusion that "commodity music" must not enter the classroom, while the songs with high ideological and artistic quality mentioned in the second paragraph can completely enter the classroom. The main characteristics The difference between pop music and other mass media is that pop music has five characteristics: 1. The novelty of pop music is the popularity or fashion of pop music. Novelty is a prominent feature of all popular things, and curiosity is a feature of human psychology. Pop music, as a kind of commercial entertainment music mainly aimed at satisfying consumption, must be "based on a certain representative social psychology and thus can be generally accepted by the public." Attending: Pop music is based on this foundation, so it will inevitably "cause this kind of behavior and object of singing, playing, listening to a certain track or using a certain style to spread in a certain social scope, and form different degrees of social popularity and social group fanaticism." ? 7? 6 Popularity and fashion are the basis of pop music. 2. Entertainment of pop music The content of pop music works is easy to understand, and the themes are mostly taken from daily life. Most of them show the theme of love, and most of the subjects who accept and consume are ordinary civilians or subcultures, so it emphasizes its own entertainment and recreation. Its popularity determines that it has a mass base. People can take the initiative to participate in the performance, which increases the active space and fun, and people can relax and enjoy it. Therefore, pop music pays more attention to and emphasizes its own entertainment, and "entertainment" is an important feature and function of pop music. 3. Commercial pop music The carrier of popular music is mainly all kinds of audio tapes and records as consumer goods of popular culture. Under the market economy, because producers are faced with a huge commodity market, they will inevitably take making profits as his ultimate goal. 4. Rapid replacement Since pop music is commercial, like other commodities, it is one of the main forms of mass cultural consumption goods, so there must be mass production characteristics, and the products are quickly introduced to meet the needs of consumers' constantly updated cultural consumption. With the constant change of popular culture demand, the change cycle of pop music is getting shorter and shorter, and then it will be quickly replaced by more fashionable and novel forms. 5. Participation in pop music The theme of pop music creation is generally based on daily life, emphasizing personal psychological feelings and self-emphasis, which is easy to arouse the emotion of college students in particular. And the melody of pop music is easy to remember and sing, which can satisfy the emotional catharsis of self and produce a sense of narcissism, thus obtaining a creative satisfaction. This makes the participation of pop music greatly enhanced. 6. The progress of science and technology in the means of communication of pop music has greatly changed the means of communication of pop music, from tapes, records, CDs and broadcasts without images at first to TV, karaoke, VCD, DVD and MTV with images, and then to portable high-tech inventions such as mp3, mp4 and MP5. The appearance of these scientific products has greatly satisfied the widespread "popularity" of pop music. The emergence of MIDI, multi-track recording technology and electronic sound synthesis technology has greatly improved the effect of pop music production and the richness of sound performance. Therefore, the expansion of the popularity of pop music can not be separated from these modern scientific and technological means of communication. The date of popular music, which can be traced back to at least the mid-19th century, is usually divided into different genres. Different genres often attract different age groups. Big bands may be an older group than RAP music listeners. With more and more young people who are socially and economically independent, this "generation gap" has become wider and wider since the Second World War. Music halls and other forms before the 194s did not clearly indicate the generation. From the end of the depression through war, Bing crosby is the highest-selling record artist in the United States. His fan base has no age division. The average listener in a concert hall is 21 years old. After crosby retired, there was a big generation gap in 1954. Elvis Presley has become the most popular recording artist among teenagers, while Frank Sinatra is the most popular adult. In the state of Oxford music, in the 197s, "exploration by bands such as King Crimson and Yes involved complicated musical instrument patterns and textures, often involving profound musical themes and structures." In 198s and 199s, Michael Jackson, known as the "King of Pop Music", was the most popular artist. Rock and Roll The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Pink Floyd (Pink Floyd), Led Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin), Soul (Soul) Aretha Franklin (Aretha Franklin), Ray Charles (Ray Charles), James Brown (James Brown), Marvin Gaye (Marvin Gaye), Stevie Wonder (stevie wonder) Pop (Michael Jackson), Prince (Prince), Madonna (Madonna), Frank Sinatra (Frank Sinatra), Elton John (Elton John), ABBA (ABBA Choir), Diana Ross &; The Supremes, The jackson 5 (jackson 5), The Beatles R&; B (R&B) Michael Jackson (Michael Jackson), R. Kelly (Luo Kaili), Usher (Usher), Babyface (Baby Face), Mariah Carey (Maria Kelly), Rap (Rap) 2pac, Dr. Dre、N。 W。 A、B。 I。 Reggae Bob Marley ballad Bob Dylan Blues B. B。 King Several Styles of European and American Pop Music Tin Pan Alley Ding Bang Alley is a place name, located on 28th Street (between Fifth Avenue and Broadway Street) in new york. Since the end of the 19th century, there have been many music publishing companies, all of which have song salesmen playing the piano all day to attract customers. Due to the excessive use of the piano, the timbre is worn out, like knocking on a tin plate, so some people jokingly call this place "Ding Bang Xiang" (or translated as "Tingpan Hutong"). Ding Bang Xiang is not only the publishing center of pop music, but also a symbol of an era and a representative of a style in the history of pop music. It lasted almost half a century. Ding Bang Xiang songs are generally composed by white professional composers. The styles of different writers in different periods are different, but there are similarities. From the content, it is mainly about love, full of romantic feelings, or slightly nostalgic and sad, or cheerful and funny. No matter what happens at home and abroad, it is rarely reflected in Ding Bang Xiang songs. It mainly shows the sunny side of life, as if Americans are enjoying life carefree; From the form of expression, singing melody, uncomplicated rhythm, harmony of natural sound system (sometimes changing chords and tone sandhi between phrases) are mostly in the form of "Verse-Chorus" (i.e. main song plus chorus) (Example 18). Ding Bang Xiang songs are usually sung by professional singers according to the score, paying attention to vocal skills, accompanied by bands or choirs, and string groups are often used as the background timbre of accompaniment. Such as the famous pop singer Ping at that time? 6? 1 Bing Crosby (194 ~ 1977), Frank? 6? 1 Frank Sinatra (1915 ~ 1997) and others mainly sang Ding Bang Xiang songs. Ding-Bang-Xiang songs spread mainly to the white people in the city, and rarely extended to the black people or the lower classes. The appearance of rock music in 195s challenged the position of traditional Ding Bang Xiang songs in the whole pop music. Jazz Jazz, with its dynamic syncopated rhythm, full-featured jazz syllables and unconventional improvisation (or singing), has won the love of the broad audience and been recognized by people from all walks of life in the music field. It originated from Blues and ragtime. After a whole century's development, it is now colorful and full of flowers. Jazz is gradually formed by improvising in the form of a small band, based on Blues and ragtime, with some white music elements. Blues came into being in the 189s. At the beginning, we talked about the inseparable relationship between jazz and blues, because some jazz is based on blues music, while some jazz is directly transformed from blues music, and they use the song structure of traditional blues music, that is, the so-called twelve-bar blues. "Blues" has multiple meanings. Besides the music type, it can also be regarded as an adjective on the scene. Usually, when people see this word, they often think of melancholy and sadness immediately, which is the basic characteristic of blues music. Blues music originated in the late 19th century (since 189), and its music content is a mixture of African field cries and Christian hymns. The reason can be said to express the singer's personal feelings, and even can be said to be a portrayal of the early life of black people. In the movie "The Color Purple", we saw two black people working hard and singing to the rhythm, which is the original work Song (work son, also known as the predecessor of blues music). This kind of music sounds very melancholy, and this way of expressing one's inner thoughts directly by songs is completely different from the music of white society at that time, and has become the center of jazz and rock music. It is generally believed that jazz in New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz, appeared in the 189s. But the first jazz record in history came out in 1917 and was recorded by the Original Dixieland Jazz Bal1d in New Orleans. Therefore, we will never know what the characteristics of jazz were before 1917, but according to the music score records and photography at that time, the speed of early jazz was between medium speed and fast speed, and people who first came into contact with jazz felt full of vitality and excitement. Another feature of early New Orleans jazz, perhaps the most important feature, was group improvisation. Self-effacing and cooperation with each other are only limited by the chord progression structure. The most attractive thing about this kind of performance is that the band members are both competitive and cooperative, and they pay attention to and turn a blind eye to the restrictions imposed on them. At the beginning of the 2th century, this new voice could be recognized by any audience. This is "Jue".