关于流行音乐的英文文章

Pop music, in popular and contemporary parlance, is a subgenre of popular music. Since the term spans many rock, hip hop, rhythm and blues (R&B), country, dance and operatic pop acts, it is reasonable to say that "pop music" is a loosely defined category. The term is also used in a derogatory manner by those who feel that pop acts lack any musically artistic meaning, or in lack of better terminology, represent a "betrayal" away from the traditional sound of either the act themselves or the specific genre to which the act belongs.
Pop music is generally described as very commercial friendly, marketable and memorable, with either vocals, lyrics, instruments, or a combination of all three creating catchy choruses or verses. Pop music is also known for its ability to attract listeners through its versatile sound since it pulls from a plethora of musical influences. It can be also fair to say that pop music is predominantly image driven, especially through the subject matter of the lyrics, live performances, music videos, and other forms of exposure which makes it favourable and unfavourable to whoever is the listener.
In modern times (increasingly over the last half-century; most notably since the start of the 2000's), this genre's immense success as a commercial product has, ironically, led to even more commercialization within the music itself, with "artists" being drawn in by companies for their appearance, dancing ability and vocal competence; and being provided with an image, choreography, and most importantly complete songs by veterans working for the record company. Some notable examples include Swedish songwriter Max Martin's having crafted most hit songs by pop acts such as Britney Spears and The Backstreet Boys, and the pop boy band O-Town having been created as an MTV show. This technique for creating music is massively effective commercially for several apparent reasons. It is adept at targeting specific demographics among young people, since songs are written with that purpose in mind by talented professionals, and images crafted similarly. Also, by sticking to a straight-forward formula and format, it is able to produce a consistent, predictable, and marketable product. That ability is only aided, naturally, by the vastly reduced output of the artists preventing companies' dependency on their eccentricities and whims. On the other hand, that reduced role for the artist, especially in the creative area, has always drawn harsh criticism from music fans who are painfully aware of its lack of substance. A music production method completely opposite to that of pop music is that of indie music, where record labels are small, vastly dependent on their few artists, and run by young entrepreneurs rather than corporate veterans. Indie artists, in turn, are in no way image driven, not widely marketed (often because of the label's financial constraints), and are almost universally of organic origins rather than having been assembled by their label. Many new artists turn to small indie labels since their reduced marketability makes them an unpopular choice with major labels

World Popular Music

Print this section | Edit this section
World popular music is a broad category that includes many different urban-centered, mass-reproduced, and stylistically heterogeneous styles and types. A small sampling of these genres include bhangara, a form of dance club music pioneered by Pakistani musicians in London, England; African guitar-band music, performed in Africa, New York City, and Paris, France; the theme songs of romantic and martial arts films produced in Asia; and the recordings of contemporary musicians from Bulgaria, which blend American jazz and rock with traditional wedding music. The relatively recent discovery of non-Western styles by popular Western musicians such as David Byrne, Peter Gabriel, and Paul Simon might leave the impression that urban-centered, mass-reproduced popular music outside of Western culture is a new phenomenon. In fact, the recording industry was active in Asia and Latin America before the 20th century, and local popular styles were commercially recorded in Africa by the 1920s.

Although the influence of American popular music, supported by the multibillion-dollar transnational music industry, has in some cases contributed to the decline of traditional musics, there is also a rich history of cross-fertilization between popular styles. In the late 19th century the Cuban habanera influenced the development of American ragtime; the Argentine tango gained worldwide popularity during the 1910s, initiating a craze for Latin ballroom dancing in Paris, London, and New York City; recordings of Hawaiian guitar music, country-and-western music, and ballroom dance orchestras arrived in the port towns of Africa by the 1920s; and the Cuban rumba became popular around the world in the 1930s. In many cases the inclusion of imported elements in American popular music has been linked with stereotypes of the exotic. For example, many ballroom dance orchestras in the 1920s performed “Oriental foxtrots,” arrangements that owed more to Latin American music than to Asian music.

Today the global music industry is dominated by a small number of transnational entertainment corporations, with offices and agents in major cities around the world. One of the most popular forms of music internationally is Indian film music, which is produced in studios in New Delhi and Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and is popular in the Middle East and Africa as well as in Asia. The late Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum, whose recording career began in the 1920s, is still popular throughout the Arabic-speaking world. African popular music includes a number of distinctive regional styles, including the juju music of Nigerian bandleader King Sunny Ade; central African soukous, a blend of indigenous songs and dance rhythms with Afro-Cuban music; and South African isicathamiya, the Zulu choral singing style performed by Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The rich variety of popular music found throughout the world continually provides the global music industry with new music trends.

就这些了

Pop is short for popular, and it's remained the defining term for the ever-changing music favoured by the public. Although not specifically applied until the middle of the 20th century, pop music as such can be traced by a few decades before that.Since the year 2000 there's been a dearth of major new stars, relying mostly on established talent. Several younger artists have come and gone, and new styles have briefly emerged, but nothing appears to have gained a major foothold besides modern R&B, which owes little to its soulful predecessor, but a lot to hip-hop - which itself has become a pop style.