When riding around with friends in the car and you start to hear that new and overplayed

Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, or Selena Gomez tune, its possible one of your friends immediately

requests to change the radio station. Sometimes, they even express their hatred towards pop

music. In reality, however, the music we hear on the radio today wasnt just crafted overnight. In

fact, todays wide-ranging musical influences trace back to the late 19 century with the
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inventions that produce different frequencies of sounds, which eventually branch out to different

genres. Yet, not many realize that popular music covers a wide range of musical genres that

simply appeal to the general public. In the past two centuries of the United States, popular music

has continued to evolve through the different genres, lyrics, and themes artists create as their

own, yet still remains a part of what the wider population enjoys listening to.

Before diving into the differing musical genres that became our own favorite music, lets

take a quick look at the physical developments that created these sounds. For more than half a

century, many tune in to the annual Grammy Awards to honor those who have contributed their

outstanding achievements in the music industry by handing them a trophy of a gold gramophone.

Have todays kids ever even seen or used a real gramophone? Thanks to Thomas Edison and

Emile Berliner, Edisons phonograph inspired Berliner to create the gramophone that first

recorded sound from flat discs in 1877. This invention became a key phenomenon to the birth of

popular music. The mass production of discs for the gramophone allowed middle-class

consumers to enjoy popular music in their own homes. In the same period, one of the earliest

group of composers and publishers arose from New York known as the Tin Pan Alley, which

produced sheet music for sale. As we look into the 20 century, more innovations come to play,
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such as the radio, which caused gramophone and sheet music sales to drop. Halfway through the

century, tape recorders were created, which allowed collaborating artists to record their parts at
different times. As decades progressed, the technology did as well with the compact discs and

even the television that allowed the popularity of music-related shows, such as MTV2

(University). You may be wondering why I just threw a bunch of tedious information about these

creations. But its important to realize that these developments are the whole basis of why we

can listen to music in the first place.

One of the earliest legends in popular music, as we know him as the King of Rock and

Roll, is Elvis Presley. Our grandparents, or even parents, may have influenced us to know some

of his greatest hits: Cant Help Falling In Love, Jailhouse Rock, and Hound Dog. Still

today, artists, including Youtubers, are inspired to recreate their own versions of his songs. Many

recognize Elvis contributions to make Rock and Roll the appeal to popular music in the 1950s,

yet very few are aware of the history of his own influences. Rock and Roll stemmed from the

musical genres of Rhythm & Blues and Country Music. In fact, Rhythm & Blues developed from

Blues, which traces back from African American religious music. They had a call and response

they utilized to communicate as they worked as slaves on plantations in the southern region of

North America. Blues later transformed into Rhythm & Blues following the Great Migration in

which black folks traveled north into urban areas, including Chicago, thus creating these new

sounds (University).

Unfortunately, during this time, racial tensions between whites and blacks allowed Elvis

to rise to stardom while the significant African American contributors including Chuck Berry,

Muddy Waters, Little Richard, and Ray Charles were left in the background. Although these

black artists werent given enough credit for their contributions at the time, Elvis popularity

actually appealed to the young audience, black and white. Despite the concerns of white parents

with the idea of Rock and Roll having some origins from the black population, this fandom
created a sense of community between the two races, and pushed for integration and more

opportunities for blacks in the decades to come. Rock and Rolls popularity to youth culture

paved the way to major shifts in U.S. history (Funk, C).

As we look further into the progression of popular music, there are three other

revolutions that are considered to be the most influential changes in the history of pop. This

includes the revolution of the 1960s in which rock and soul rise in popularity with The Beatles

Hey Jude and My Girl by The Temptations. The next revolution was in the 70s and 80s

where disco, new wave, and hard rock took center stage with hits such as September by Earth

Wind and Fire, as well as Bohemian Rhapsody famed by Queen. The rise of rap and hip hop is

then considered the most transformative of the 1990s where Doo Wop (That Thing) by Lauren

Hill and U Cant Touch This by Eminem rise to fame (Grimm, D). It is likely that hip hop and

rap became the most significant influence for todays music due to the technological

advancement of the television. Rap and hip hop had much exposure through the music-related

show called MTV2; the public tuned in on their TVs to listen to this form of music, making it

more popular (University). Having these multi-faceted genres of music allows listeners, like us,

to get a sense of the historical progress of integration from rock and roll, the struggles of Civil

Rights protests and the controversial Vietnam War with soul, the colorful glam rock culture

through disco, or the hardships of living in areas of crime and vandalism expressed through rap.

Its incredible to see how popular music has taken a journey through a diversity of genres, and

today were lucky to enjoy any and all the forms of music.

Although these transformations of genres through the decades provided the music we all

know and love, there will still be critics. Its safe to assume that artists back in the day also had

their haters, since one cannot please an entire audience. Due to the technological advances in the
21 century, however, it is easier to perceive negative feedback today. It is common to hear or
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read comments of media followers to have much distaste in todays popular music. Artists would

receive nasty remarks from bashers about their music, and it may even go to an extent of

disrespect to those individuals on a personal level. Harsh criticisms, such as Paul Watsons video

in James Maclarens The Case Against The Case Against Pop Music, display the existing

judgements of popular music today. One of the arguments Watson addresses is the idea of all

popular music sounding identical (Maclaren, J). According to my previous arguments of musical

genres being intertwined from one another, yes, all pop music may sound similar. But there is

still so much variety within popular music. You cant say that a passionate and touching ballad

sounds and feels exactly like an upbeat and cheerful disco song. We all know that a powerful

Adele song isnt necessarily going to sound exactly like Drakes boppin tune.

Furthermore, Watson also believes that lyrics today are elementary and are dumber than

ever, which have no meaning (Maclaren, J). Id consider Watson to reevaluate his claim of

meaningless songs, because the basis of most songs stems out from an artists writings of

emotions that they want to release - whether it may be a love song, breakup song, or simply a

song about having fun. He cant really argue that Kelly Clarksons Stronger (What Doesnt Kill

You) isnt about anything, when it is clearly about self-empowerment. In fact, a study that

analyzes the many changes pop music has made over the past fifty years has shown the variance

of the most popular lyrics that top artists were singing along with their main topics. The charts

were broken down by decade, and there was a constant of love being a major theme in music

between 1965 to 2015 (Snow, S). Moreover, if Watson thinks that lyrics from today lack

intellectual, what about all the meaningless lyrics from half a century ago? Half of the

soundtrack We Go Together from the classical movie musical, Grease, consists of lyrics that
dont even count as vocabulary. But who cares anyway? I dont sit and think about what a writer

is trying to convey in their song every time I listen. If the upbeat song makes me get up on my

feet and sway, thats all that should matter.

Another idea that caught my attention was Tom Barnes claiming that people are

brainwashed to like songs due to repeated exposure, such as on the radio (Barnes, T). But radio

stations that are based on playing mainstream music exist to expose these new and upcoming

songs that doesnt mean you HAVE to listen to it. Everyone has a choice. Growing up in

Chicago, I always listened to the B96 and Kiss FM pop radio stations. Its music ranged from hip

hop, R&B, EDM, and soul. They consist of songs I can sing along to and are upbeat that keep me

awake when driving, but that doesnt mean Im brainwashed by pop music. If I get sick of songs

on the radio, Ill listen to my own playlist on Spotify, simple. Theres no need to give yourself

negative vibes and blame popular music as a whole if you can simply change your radio station

or shut it off.

Now I could go on and on about the specific details of variance between each decade that

focuses on a musical genre. But Ill save that for another time. What were really looking at here

is the significance of how music developed over time and how these changes allowed our pop

music to be a diverse music media today. There will always be critics and those who will avoid

mainstream music and thats okay. No ones forcing them to listen to it. However, I dont think

one can simply hate all popular music. It is so complex in that there will always be that one

popular song that appeals to an individual, because it covers every genre that is known to the

greater population. Very few believe that any musical genre may it be hard rock, country,

dubstep, or rap that appeals to one and many others can be classified as popular music. All in
all, these historical music phenomena left a mark on popular music, which will contribute and

continue to evolve for future generations.

 Work Citation
Barnes, T. (2014, August 04). How The Music Industry Is Brainwashing You To Like Bad Pop
Songs. Retrieved from https://mic.com/articles/95260/how-the-music-industry-is-
brainwashing-you-to-like-bad-pop-songs#.CiOY9SiNy
Funk, C. (2016, August 16). A Quick and Dirty Guide to Music and Culture. Retrieved from
https://osu.pb.unizin.org/artandmusicbiographies/chapter/reading-3-rock-and-roll-and-
youth-culture/
Grimm, D. (2015, May 07). Podcast: A plant that finds diamonds, evolution of pop music, and
why Americans smile more than Russians and Chinese. Retrieved from
http://www.sciencemag.org.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/news/2015/05/podcast-plant-finds-
diamonds-evolution-pop-music-and-why-americans-smile-more-russians
Maclaren, J. (2016, April 01). The Case Against The Case Against Pop Music. Retrieved from
http://www.vanguard-online.co.uk/the-case-against-the-case-against-pop-music/
Snow, S. (2017, February 01). This Analysis of the Last 50 Years of Pop Music Reveals Just
How much America Has Changed. Retrieved from
https://contently.com/strategist/2015/05/07/this-analysis-of-the-last-50-years-of-pop-
music-reveals-just-how-much-america-has-changed/
University of Minnesota by Creative Commons. (2016, March 22). Understanding Media and
Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication. Retrieved from
http://open.lib.umn.edu/mediaandculture/chapter/6-2-the-evolution-of-popular-music/