What is ‘pop’ music?

Definition -

Pop Music – commercial popular music, in particular accessible, tuneful music of a kind popular since 1950s

Classical Music – Serious music following long-established principles.

When looking at these two statements it’s easy to see why one genre is a thriving industry whilst the other is classified by the average person as elitist, dated or even historic.  The gap between ‘accessible, tuneful music’ and ‘serious music following long established principles’ seems a huge chasm with little to link the two.

But speaking as someone who grew up listening to only pop music and gradually learnt to love classical through my violin classes, I think of it as anything but the above statement.  I could go on to list the various ‘musical jokes’, the huge amount of film music and video game music to the light-hearted and catchy incidental music composers like Mozart were very good at churning out.  I could also spend this entire entry analysing the structure and harmony of specific pop songs, illustrating that the very same ‘long-established principles’ classical music is famed for are the very basis of all pop songs.  But this isn’t an A-level paper….so I won’t.

So after (without actually providing specific examples, because I’m lazy) we have established that not all classical music is ‘serious’ and that pop music does in fact follow the same ‘long-standing principles’ we are back to the question, what is pop music?  If it is ‘popular music’ then why does classical not fall into this bracket anymore?

I’ve listed the general points of both genres below to see what the crucial differences between classical music and are and to see f we can decide why one is a thriving business that influences fashion, advertising, lifestyle choices and even political opinions whist the other is relegated to a museum exhibit by society.

Genre	Pop	Classical
Active Years	1950s-	!600-1920 (1920-)
Structure	Binary, Ternary, Compound	Also contains Sonata and Rondo
Texture	Homophonic/polyphonic	Homophonic/polyphonic
Influences	local urban, local folk, press, foreign countries include Jamaica, Columbia, the here and now, past present and future generally restricted to the singers life span	Local urban, local folk, current events, the future far away, foreign countries include Turkey, Morocco, USA,  social movements
Length	3.30	5-45mins
Imagery	High Quality Music Videos	None Provided
Performers Dress	Dress for event (modern attire)	DJ and evening dress

This list only generalises the common aspects of each genre and it’s not extensive, but it does start to show us the common themes and differences between the two categories of music.  What is surprising is that in many ways the two genres are very similar.  Let’s start with the similarities.

Both genres generally use homophonic or polyphonic textures.  On occasion you can find unaccompanied violin works or passages in pieces/songs that are monophonic, but generally both favour the other two textures.  Similarly both textures favour homophonic texture for intimate music or as we classical musicians call it ‘Chamber Music’ whilst larger scale works tend to contain polyphonic textures.  Most modern dance music is polyphonic.  As a side note rap often contains antiphony which is a form of call and response used in early church music.  So it’s safe to say that these ‘long established principles’ are very much present in modern pop.  With the most popular being some of the oldest textural devices created.

Another area where both genres are similar are their influences.  Both are influenced by the world around them, the only difference is that pop music tends to influence the world in return.  But why is this?  Both genres have a history (a back catalogue maybe), but whilst pop music played on radio, listened and promoted generally features music composed in the last few years (with older hits generally played as ‘classics’ or ‘vintage’) classical music’s air-time features 90% of music composed pre WW2 and about 60% pre WW1.  In fact a large amount of classical music played on a daily basis is even pre Napoleonic War.  When both of these genres are so heavily influenced by the world around can we really wonder why the general population finds it hard to make a connection?  I have loved history since a child, I love period dramas and I love historic buildings, I make that connection because it’s easily accessible to me, but can the average person in a fast paced society that has 10 seconds to make a decision  against a constant push for musical attention really ‘get’ the excitement of discovering new cultures and music in ‘The Americas’, the exotic sounds of Turkey or the urban nuisances of inner city Saltzburg, and do they want to?  It’s not lazy to find an easy connection to music that talks to you and your life.  It speaks of shared experiences and social experiences and isn’t that what music is about?  In fact, the biggest success to come out of classical music for a long time is film music and video games.  This is an influence that the listener can relate to.  Does it have the catchy melody of Eine Kleine? No.  Does it have the simple texture of Spiegel im Spiegel? No.  What it has is music that the modern listener can emotionally relate to, because it accompanies a story that they are emotionally committed to.

The length of the average pop song is 3.30 minutes, but this is increasing (just like the length of a film).  This happened with classical music too, but modern composition seems to have made a turn in the opposite direction.  It’s my belief that the length of the music does not affect the popularity of the music as long as the themes within the music hook the listener.

Classical music allows the listener to create their own imagery in their mind.  This comes from the fact that classical music was around long before TV’s and music videos.  Pop music on the other hand helps the listener engage with the storyline and content of the music by creating music videos.  One could argue that this is a lazy society that needs everything spoon fed.  But I would argue that this is a packed society with culture via for attention to the point of over stimulation of the listener.  By encompassing the listener fully the video allows the listener to fully engage, to switch off from the other distractions, to immerse themselves with the artistic concept.

And finally, the dress of the performer.  Though not the most important aspect, it definitely contributes.  Classical concert organisers have experimented with dress down events in the hope that it will increase target audiences, but it has never proved that successful.  I believe the reason is that pop musicians don’t dress down.  They dress for the occasion, they dress for the song.  They have a team of stylists who dress them to suit the music and event they are performing at.  This is often seen as P.R. or a calculated move.  But I see it as part of the art.  I see it as no more than a costume to keep the listener engaged, similar to West End musicals. We’d all be shocked if a non-green Elphaba in jeans took to the stage insisting that you were there for the music, not her appearance…..it would kind of spoil the magic a bit. 

So in conclusion, I do not believe that classical music’s lack of popularity in the modern world is due to it’s long established traditions, difficulty and high-brow status.  I believe that most classical works reflected the bubbling society they were composed in, it’s just that that society existed on average in 1754.  I believe that pop music is still vibrant because they love and respect their short history, but treat it in the appropriate way.  In short, pop music is looking out and unfortunately us classical lot are looking in.  Let me know your thoughts in the comments.