Pop (19-12-03)

DDEX Data Dictionary, 19-12-03

Pop

Popular music, for lack of a better term. Consists almost entirely of short-to-medium length songs, with heavy use of verse-chorus structures and a strong emphasis on melodicism and catchiness. Has no singular sound - often incorporates the popular sounds of the day (thus pop was synonymous with rock through the 60s, picked up elements of EDM in the late 2000s/early 2010s, and often features trap beats in the late 2010s). UMG's bread and butter.

Relationships
Parents	MusicalWork	A Work intended to be perceivable as a combination of sounds, with or without accompanying text.
Children	AfricanPop	Contemporary African Pop Music, which often combines traditional African Music with Western popular music genres.
	Afrobeat	A genre which combines West African music with American Jazz and Funk. Afrobeat originated and became popular in the 1960s and 1970s.
	AlternativeDance	Emerged in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s. It is a genre that mixes rock song structures with the beats, instrumentation, samples, and club focus of electronic dance music.
	AlternativePop	A wide ranging genre that remains distinctly separate from mainstream pop music.
	Axe	Axé is a pop genre that emerged in the city of Salvador in the Brazilian state of Bahia in the 1980s. It combines Afro-Caribbean genres such as reggae, calypso, merengue, and marcha with Brazilian sounds such as forró, frevo, afoxé, and carixada.
	Bikutsi	A Cameroonian dance genre that emerged among the Beti people in the mid-20th century as the musical accompaniment to parties, funerals, and weddings. It prominently features the balafon and guitars modified with dampened strings to resemble the sound of the balafon. Bikutsi is typically in 6 (3+3).
	Bollywood	Hindi songs featured in Bollywood films. Bollywood songs are India's predominant type of pop music.
	BrazilianPop	South American Music meant to be commercially successful that often has Latin and American Pop influences.
	Brega	Brazilian ballads with catchy melodies and explicit romantic lyrics.
	CantoPop	Cantonese pop music, strongly influenced by Western pop styles.
	CaribbeanPop	Popular Music originating from the Caribbean.
	ChamberPop	With an emphasis on melody, harmony and clean production, Chamber Pop attempts to apply Classical aesthetics to a distinctly Pop song structure and template. Instrumentation frequently includes strings and woodwinds. Chamber Pop may also be referred to as 'Baroque Pop'
	Chimurenga	A Zimbabwean popular music genre which focuses on social justice.
	ChinesePop	Popular Music originating from China. Sometimes abbreviated C-pop, Chinese pop music contains three main sub genres: Cantopop, Mandopop, and Minnan Pop. Originally Chinese pop music reflected Maoist ideologies but has since lost political ties and now is similar to J-pop and K-pop music cultures.
	DreamPop	Dream Pop is an atmospheric subgenre of alternative rock that relies on sonic textures as much as melody. Dream pop often features breathy vocals and processed, echo-laden guitars and synthesizers. Though the Cocteau Twins, with their indecipherable vocals and languid soundscapes, are frequently seen as the leaders of dream pop, the genre has more stylistic diversity than their slow, electronic textures. Dream pop also encompasses the post-Velvet Underground guitar rock of Galaxie 500, as well as the loud, shimmering feedback of My Bloody Valentine. It is all tied together by a reliance on sonic texture, both in terms of instruments and vocals. fusion of post-punk, aery textures and bittersweet pop melodies with sensual, sonically spacious soundscapes. Breathy vocals and reverb/chorus-drenched instruments are typical, and lyrics are generally introspective and existential.
	Electroclash	A style of Electronic Music that fuses New Wave, Punk, Synth Pop & Electronic Dance Music. The music prominently features synthesizers, drum machines, and other hallmarks of electronic music, often distorted. The name derives from the Electropop bands who provide the majority of the musical influence. Lyrics are generally punk inspired and more given to emotion than technique while the vocals are generally atonal in nature.
	ElectronicPop	Features an overtly electronic sound and an electronic music culture-derived aesthetic.
	Enka	Modern Enka music was developed in the postwar era. Enka consists of sentimental ballads which follow traditional Japanese music stylistically.
	FilipinoPop	Often called Pinoy Pop, Filipino Pop draws influence from traditional forms of Filipino Music and Western pop genres. Through the 1990s and 2000s pop rock, hip hop, and R&B ruled the Filipino Pop scene. Around 2010, Filipino Pop music vastly changed and became more in tune with current Western Pop Music trends.
	Folktronica	A genre combining elements of folk music and electronica. Folktronica features both acoustic and electronic instruments and often has a dance feel.
	FrenchPop	Pop music sung in French. Cabaret Music is one of the biggest developments to come out of French popular music.
	GermanPop	Pop music sung in German. Some popular genres in Germany are Electronic and Metal genres.
	GreekPop	Closely related to Greek Folk Music and has a rich heritage. Some forms of Greek pop Music are Rebetiko, Éntekhno, Laïkó, and New Wave.
	Highlife	A Ghanaian pop genre originating in the 20th century that uses melodic and rhythmic structure from traditional Akan music, but is played with western instruments such as guitars and horns.
	Hiplife	A Ghanaian pop music genre drawing influence from Highlife and American hip-hop and electronic.
	HokkienPop	Music similar to Cantopop, but sung in Taiwanese Hokkien and produced in Taiwan.
	IndianPop	Mainly comes out of Indian films. Bollywood and Telugu music are the most popular Indian pop genres.
	IndiePop	Often incorporates (but certainly isn't limited to) jangly guitars, sloppy riffs, ironic and/or cutesy lyrics, and lo-fi production. In many ways it has developed out of a suburban interpretation of the cool aesthetic. Currently, Indie Pop has a strong international following, with many bands coming from the UK, United States, Continental Europe, Japan, Australia, etc. Indie Pop has its roots in the Alternative Rock/Pop and Underground scenes of the UK and United States. Initially, the term 'indie' referred to bands signed to independent record labels. Indie Pop initially referred to music which utilizes the musical elements of pop music while existing outside of the politics and PR of mainstream pop music. However, many Indie Pop bands signed to major labels as the popularity of the subgenre has grew, especially in the late-90s and early-aughts of the 21st century. Indie Pop can be used as a catch-all phrase for many underground subgenres from the 1980s and 1990s, such as Dream Pop, Post Punk, Power Pop, Twee Pop, Shoegaze, etc. Its sound is less aggressive than its sister subgenre, Indie Rock.
	Indietronica	The electronic variant of Indie Rock/Pop, it is a short tern for Indie Electronic Music. Typical instruments include electronic keyboard, synthesizer, sampler and drum machine, as well as bass guitar and electric guitar. During the early 2000s, the number of indie electronic artists grew exponentially as home recording and software synthesizers (or softsynths) became common.
	IndonesianPop	Pop music that closely reflects the trends of American, British, Japanese, and Korean pop music cultures.
	JapanesePop	Emerged as a distinct genre in the 90s, and is influenced by traditional Japanese music, American Rock and Pop music of the 1960s and 1970s, and earlier popular Japanese music such as the synthpop group Yellow Magic Orchestra.
	Kayokyoku	Western based Japanese pop music that became the base for modern J-pop. Typically refers to Japanese pop music created prior to the 90s.
	Kizomba	An Angolan pop genre combining African rhythms with a sensual sound. The lyrics are typically sung in Portuguese.
	KoreanPop	Pop music sung in Korean with strong western influences and overarching cultural importance in many mediums.
	Kuduro	An Angolan pop genre which combines samples of African drumming and music with western styles of electronic music.
	LatinFreestyle	Freestyle is an Electronic Dance Music genre which fuses Latin Hip Hop and Latin Pop music with melodic vocal styles found in '70s disco music with synthesized instrumentation of the '80s Electro/Hip Hop sound. It was developed mostly in New York and Miami, and peaked in the mid to late '80s. The style is characterized by Latin percussion, heavy syncopation and themes of romance, love, and partying.
	MPB	Also known as Música Popular Brasileira, MPB was formed in the late 60s as a modernized form of Bossa Nova and Samba-Cancao. MPB encompasses many non-Brazilian styles of popular music (i.e. American rock/pop/folk/jazz) while retaining its distinct Brazilian identity, partially with use of Portuguese lyrics.
	Madchester	Madchester came onto British Pop scene in the mid-1980s as a fusion of British Rock, Acid House and modernized-60s Pop. The result is a pop style that relies heavily on melody and Pop structure while incorporating 'baggy' beats, so that the music is dance-oriented.
	Makossa	A Cameroonian popular music genre originating in the 1980s, which uses heavy electric bass lines and brass instruments.
	MandoPop	Mandarin pop music, which followed the rising cultural trend of Cantopop.
	Mbalax	The national popular dance music of Senegal and Gambia. Mbalax combines western dance music genres with traditional Senegalese drumming and music.
	Mbaqanga	A popular genre of native black South African people combining traditional South African dance genres with swing.
	ModernLaiko	Contemporary Greek mainstream pop music derived from traditional laika music. Modern Laika draws influence from western dance music styles.
	ModernPop	Sleek, shiny, smooth, and clean, with all its wrinkles smoothed out through extensive production and editing.
	MusicOfThePhilippines	Filipino pop music that combines influences from traditional Filipino music, American music, and Spanish/Latin music. Performance is a big component of this music.
	NDW	Derived from punk rock synth pop and new wave NDW (Neue Deutsche Welle/German New Wave) utilizes a predominantly synthetic aesthetic to engage several strains of 70s/80s pop music. Beginning as an underground scene NDW's non-traditional German sound soon found clout with a wider audience.
	NeoPsychedelia	Neo-Psychedelia evolved from the Psychedelic movement of the 1960's. Neo-Psychedelia is a blanket term for many styles: some taking cues from their 1960's predecessors and some going another direction incorporating elements from Punk, Post Punk, etc.
	NewRomantic	A more decadent, heavily produced, glam-influenced brand of New Wave. The music embodies the trends and fashions of the UK in the early 1980s. Because of it's reliance on a distinct yet fickle fashion, it was quick to die out a few years after its inception.
	NewWave	The term 'New Wave' began as a near synonym with punk in the early 1970s, and gradually diverged to refer to groups with a punk ethos, but which played more polished and lyrically and musically sophisticated styles than punk groups. Compared to punk music, New Wave prominently featured synthesizers, a jittery sound, a broader range of cultural influences, and frequently, a nerdy aesthetic (see the Talking Head, Elvis Costello). As synthesizers and drum machines engulfed popular music in the 1980s, New Wave came to indicate more of a pop-based than a rock-based style, and was used to refer to synthpop groups such as Duran Duran.
	NoisePop	Taking thematic and structural queues from traditional/mainstream Pop, Noise Pop combines tropes of noise music (i.e. feedback, drones, distortion) with a melodic sensibility.
	NouvelleChanson	Also known as 'New Chanson', Nouvelle Chanson is a recently coined buzzword used to define a new style of music emerging in France one which takes clear inspiration from the forefathers of French Chanson (including Jacques Brel Barbara and Charles Aznavour) albeit in an updated style. However the principal influences appear to be the more avant-garde artists. The defining characteristic of Chanson both old and new is that it focuses on the French language as vehicle and instrument.
	PopRock	The combination of Pop and Rock music.
	PsychedelicPop	Grew out of the Psychedelic Rock scene of the mid-60's. Where Psychedelic Rock tends to expand on the form of the pop song, Psychedelic Pop essentially remains grounded within the pop template, adding instruments and sounds associated with the Psychedelic movement (sitars, pedals, synthesizers, reversed tape, distortion).
	Schlager	Catchy, light hearted tunes with happy-go-lucky lyrics. Recently, the sound of Schlager music has shifted to be more electronic.
	Soca	A style of Caribbean Music that emerged in Trinidad & Tobago in the early 1970s. It is geared towards dance and celebration, and it blends traditional Calypso with Indian-inspired music, such as Chutney music. Soca is characterized by a steady bass drumbeat, against which a highly syncopated cymbal and snare drum pattern are juxtaposed. The basslines are syncopated. Like other styles of modern music, today's Soca often utilizes programmed drums. The percussion is at the forefront of the track, and is sometimes the only thing backing up the vocals. Horn sections are often present in live Soca shows, typically including two trumpets and a trombone, with occasional saxophones.
	Soukous	A high tempo dance genre derived from the Congolese Rumba.
	SynthPop	A subgenre of New Wave and pop music in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. While most current popular music in the industrialized world is realized via electronic instruments, Synth Pop has its own stylistic tendencies which differentiate it from other music produced by the same means. Synth Pop is epitomized by the band Depeche Mode.
	Telugu	Songs featured in Tollywood films. Telugu songs represent south Indian Carnatic and classical music form.
	TweePop	Twee Pop is a derivative of Indie Pop and therefore has its roots in the release of NME's C86 mixtape. Twee typically features a quaint, child-like vocal delivery-- there is no confrontation. It utilizes jangly guitars, low-end model keyboards, lo-fi production and innocent lyrics. Songs are typically sweet, carefree and/or cheerful/bright in sub-mood.
Belongs to AVS	avs:ClassifiedGenre	A Type of genre.