Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal"^[1] and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music^[2][3][4] and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local audiences.^[2][3][4] Although popular music sometimes is known as "pop music", the two terms are not interchangeable. Popular music is a generic term for music of all ages that appeals to popular tastes,^[5] whereas pop music usually refers to a specific musical genre.

Overview[link]

Musicologist and specialist in popular music Philip Tagg defined the notion in the light of sociocultural and economical aspects:

"Popular music, unlike art music, is (1) conceived for mass distribution to large and often socioculturally heterogeneous groups of listeners, (2) stored and distributed in non-written form, (3) only possible in an industrial monetary economy where it becomes a commodity and (4) in capitalist societies, subject to the laws of 'free' enterprise, according to which it should ideally sell as much as possible of as little as possible to as many as possible."^[4]

For Richard Middleton and Peter Manuel, "a common approach to defining popular music is to link popularity with scale of activity", such as "sales of sheet music or recordings".^[6] This approach has a problem, in that "repeat hearings are not counted, depth of response does not feature, socially diverse audiences are treated as one aggregated market and there is no differentiation between musical styles".^[6] Another way to define popular music is "to link popularity with means of dissemination" (e.g., being aired on the radio); however, this is problematic, because "all sorts of music, from folk to avant garde, are subject to mass mediation".^[6] A third approach to defining popular music is to based on "social group – either a mass audience or a particular class (most often, though not always) the working class", an approach which is problematic because social structures cannot simply be overlain onto musical styles. These three approaches are "too partial" and "too static". Moreover, "understandings of popular music have changed with time".^[6]

Form[link]

Form in popular music is most often sectional, the most common sections being verse, chorus or refrain, and bridge. Other common forms include thirty-two-bar form, verse-chorus form, and the twelve bar blues. Popular music songs are rarely composed using different music for each stanza of the lyrics (songs composed in this fashion are said to be "through-composed").

The verse and chorus are considered the primary elements. Each verse usually has the same melody (possibly with some slight modifications), but the lyrics change for most verses. The chorus (or "refrain") usually has a melodic phrase and a key lyrical line which is repeated. Pop songs may have an introduction and coda ("tag"), but these elements are not essential to the identity of most songs. Pop songs that use verses and choruses often have a bridge, which, as its name suggests, is a section which connects the verse and chorus at one or more points in the song.

The verse and chorus are usually repeated throughout a song, while the bridge, intro, and coda (also called an "outro") tend to be used only once. Some pop songs may have a solo section, particularly in rock or blues-influenced pop. During the solo section one or more instruments play a melodic line which may be the melody used by the singer, or, in blues- or jazz-influenced pop, the solo may be improvised based on the chord progression. A solo usually features a single instrumental performer (e.g., a guitarist or a harmonica player) or less commonly, more than one instrumentalist (e.g., a trumpeter and a sax player).

Thirty-two-bar form uses four sections, most often eight measures long each (4×8=32), two verses or A sections, a contrasting B section (the bridge or "middle-eight") and a return of the verse in one last A section (AABA). Verse-chorus form or ABA form may be combined with AABA form, in compound AABA forms. Variations such as a1 and a2 can also be used. The repetition of one chord progression may mark off the only section in a simple verse form such as the twelve bar blues.

History[link]

The 19th century singer Jenny Lind depicted performing La sonnambula

"The most significant feature of the emergent popular music industry of the late 18th and early 19th centuries was the extent of its focus on the commodity form of sheet music".^[6] The availability of inexpensive, widely available sheet music versions of popular songs and instrumental music pieces made it possible for music to be disseminated to a wide audience of amateur music-makers, who could play and sing popular music at home. In addition to the influence of sheet music, another factor was the increasing availability during the late 18th and early 19th century of public popular music performances in "pleasure gardens and dance halls, popular theatres and concert rooms".^[6] The early popular music performers worked hand-in-hand with the sheet music industry to promote popular sheet music. One of the early popular music performers to attain widespread popularity was a Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind, who toured the US in the mid-19th century. During the 19th century, more regular people began getting involved in music by participating in amateur choirs or joining brass bands.

The centre of the music publishing industry in the US during the late 19th century was in New York's 'Tin Pan Alley' district. The Tin Pan Alley music publishers developed a new method for promoting sheet music: incessant promotion of new songs. One of the technological innovations that helped to spread popular music around the turn of the century was player pianos; these allowed people to hear the new popular piano tunes.^[6] By the early 1900s, the big trends in popular music were the increasing popularity of vaudeville theaters and dance halls and the new invention—the gramophone player. The record industry grew very rapidly; "By 1920 there were almost 80 record companies in Britain, and almost 200 in the USA".^[6] Radio broadcasting of music, which began in the early 1920s, helped to spread popular songs to a huge audience. Another factor which helped to disseminate popular music was the introduction of "talking pictures"—sound films—in the late 1920s. In the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s, there was a move towards consolidation in the recording industry which led several major companies to dominate the record industry.^[6]

In the 1950s and 1960s, television began to play an increasingly important role in disseminating new popular music. Variety shows regularly showcased popular singers and bands. In the 1960s, the development of new technologies in recording such as multitrack recorders gave sound engineers an increasingly important role in popular music. By using recording techniques, sound engineers could create new sounds and sound effects that were not possible using traditional "live" recording techniques.^[6]

In the 1970s, the trend towards consolidation in the recording industry continued to the point that the "... dominance was in the hands of five huge transnational organizations, three American-owned (WEA, RCA, CBS) and two European-owned [companies] (EMI, Polygram)". In the 1990s, the consolidation trend took a new turn: inter-media consolidation. This trend saw music recording companies being consolidated with film, television, magazines, and other media companies, an approach which facilitated cross-marketing promotion between subsidiaries. For example, a record company's singing star could be cross-promoted by the firm's television and magazine arms.^[6]

In the 1990s, popular music was changed by the "introduction of digital equipment (mixing desks, synthesizers, samplers, sequencers)" which allowed the creation of "new sound worlds" and facilitated DIY music production by amateur musicians and " tiny independent record labels".^[6] By the 2000s, another trend which affected popular music was the increasing availability and use of computers and Internet connections, which facilitated the dissemination—both legal and illegal—of digital recordings and digital versions of sheet music and lyrics.

See also[link]

• Music radio
• Popular culture
• List of popular music performers
• List of popular music genres
• Popular music pedagogy
• List of honorific titles in popular music
• Music popularity index

Sources[link]

• Tagg Philip (1982) "Analysing Popular Music : Theory, Method and Practice" in Popular Music, 2
• Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0-335-15275-9.
• Bennett (1980).
• Birrer, Frans A. J. (1985). "Definitions and research orientation: do we need a definition of popular music?" in D. Horn, ed., Popular Music Perspectives, 2 (Gothenburge, Exeter, Ottawa and Reggio Emilia), p. 99-106.
• Hall, S. (1978). "Popular culture, politics, and history", in Popular Culture Bulletin, 3, Open University duplicated paper.
• Everett, Walter (1997). "Swallowed by a Song: Paul Simon's Crisis of Chromaticism", Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-510004-2.
• Hamm, Charles (1979). Yesterdays: Popular Song in America. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-01257-3.
• Manuel, Peter (1988). Popular Musics of the Non-Western World: An Introductory Survey. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505342-7.
• Marcello Sorce Keller (2000). "Popular Music in Europe", in James Porter, Timothy Rice and Chris Goertzen (eds.), Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: Europe, New York, pp. 204- 213.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• T.W. Adorno with G. Simpson: ‘On Popular Music’, Studies in Philosophy and Social Science, ix (1941), 17–48

• R. Iwaschkin: Popular Music: a Reference Guide (New York, 1986)

• P. Hardy and D. Laing: The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music (London, 1990/R)

• R. Middleton: Studying Popular Music (Milton Keynes, 1990)

• P. Gammond: The Oxford Companion to Popular Music (Oxford, 1991)

• D. Brackett: Interpreting Popular Music (Cambridge, 1995)

• fr:Volume ! a French scholarly journal dedicated to popular music studies.

External links[link]

• Famous Music Videos - Music Video Database - YouTube, Google Video, MySpace TV, MetaCafe, DailyMotion, Veoh, Current.com, ClipFish.de, MyVideo.de, Break.com and EyeSpot
• The 1950s-2000's Week-By-Week - Looks at pop music/albums/radio and music news through these decades.
• Pop Culture Madness Features the most requested pop songs 1920s through today
• The Daily Vault music reviews
• Yale Music Library Guide to Pop Music Research
• Volume ! the French academic journal dedicated to the study of popular music
• Éditions Mélanie Seteun ! a French publisher dedicated to popular music studies - publishes Volume, the French journal of PMS.

Ariana Grande
Grande at the film premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 in July 2011
Background information
Birth name	Ariana Grande-Butera
Born	(1993-06-26) June 26, 1993 (age 19) Boca Raton, Florida, U.S.
Genres	Pop
Occupations	Actress, singer, dancer
Years active	2008–present
Labels	Universal Republic
Website	arianagrande.info[1]

Ariana Grande-Butera^[2][3] (born June 26, 1993^[4][5]) is an American actress, singer, and dancer. She made her performance debut on Broadway at age 15. Recently, she has gained attention for her role as Cat Valentine on the Nickelodeon sitcom Victorious.

Early life[link]

Grande was born and raised in Boca Raton, Florida.^[6] She is of Italian descent, half Sicilian, half Abruzzese.^[7]

Career[link]

Grande at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2010

In 2008, Grande played the role of Charlotte in the musical 13 on Broadway, for which she won a National Youth Theatre Association Award. When she joined the musical, Grande left her high school, North Broward Preparatory School, but continued to be enrolled. The school sent materials to her for study with tutors.^[8] She played the role of Miriam in the first reading of the forthcoming musical Cuba Libre composed by Desmond Child. Grande teaches music and dance to children in South Africa each year as a member of Broadway in South Africa.^[6][9]

Grande plays the character Cat Valentine on the Nickelodeon television show Victorious, which premiered in March 2010.

In May/June 2011, she was featured in Greyson Chance's music video for the single "Unfriend You", playing Chance's ex-girlfriend.

Grande is currently working on her debut album, due for a late 2012 release.^[10]

Stage and screen credits[link]

Television

Broadway

Music video

Discography[link]

Singles[link]

Album appearances[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ariana Grande

• Official website
• Ariana Grande at the Internet Movie Database
• Ariana Grande at the Internet Broadway Database

This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling. You can assist by editing it. (May 2012)

Alexandra Stan
Background information
Birth name	Alexandra Stan
Born	(1989-06-10) 10 June 1989 (age 23)
Origin	Constanța, Romania
Genres	House, pop, dance
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician, entertainer, model, dancer
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	2009–present
Labels	Maan Music, Media Pro Music, Ultra Records
Website	alexandrastan.ro

Alexandra Stan (sometimes stylized as Alexandra Staи) (born June 10, 1989) is a Romanian singer-songwriter. She released her debut single, "Lollipop (Param Pam Pam)", in late 2009. The song impacted Romanian mainstream radios in early 2010, peaking at number-eighteen. Her sophomore release, "Mr. Saxobeat", became her worldwide breakthrough hit, selling almost 1,000,000 copies in less than a year and reaching the top five in over twenty countries such as New Zealand and the United Kingdom and the top thirty in Australia, Canada and United States. She released her debut album in August 2011, entitled Saxobeats. The album spawned another single called "Get Back (ASAP)".

Early life and early career[link]

Alexandra Stan was born in Constanța.^[1] She studied at the "Traian" High School in Constanța, and as of 2011 she is enrolled in her second year as a student at the Faculty of Management Andrei Saguna.^[1] In the past, she took part in various music-related contests with a notable appearance at the Mamaia Festival vocal performance-section.^[1] She took one year of canto lessons. During an interview, she stated that she believes in God and she has her religious principles, and she does believe in the Church.^[2]

[edit] Saxobeats era (2009–present)

In 2009, Stan released her debut promotional single, "Lollipop (Param Pam Pam)"^[3] The song was out in late 2009 but impacted some major Romanian mainstream radio stations in early 2010, with an A-list addiment in May 2010. During summer 2010, she premiered a new track "Show Me The Way" and toured Romania. In September 2010, Stan premiered her second release "Mr. Saxobeat". In less than two months, the song became her greatest hit in Romania, peaking at number-one on the Romanian Top 100 and defending the position for eight consecutive weeks.^[4] The song was commercially successful worldwide. In early 2011, it entered the Spanish Singles Chart and debuted inside the top ten of the French Singles Chart as well as in the Canadian Hot 100. It has firstly hit the #1 position in Italy and Denmark, then in Slovakia, Hungary and Poland. In late May, "Saxobeat" became the first Romanian song to reach #1 in Germany since "Dragostea din Tei". It was a number-one in Austria, Germany and Switzerland for twenty weeks in total. It was also a top-five success in over twenty countries, including #2 in Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Netherlands, Norway and Scotland, as well as #3 in Spain, Sweden and the UK Singles Chart. In New Zealand it peaked at number-four, while on the Brasil Hot 100 at.number-six while in Australia, Canada and the US Billboard Hot 100 at #21, #24, 25 and 29 respectively. It was also a #1 in the UK Dance Chart and in the US Hot Dance Airplay for seven weeks (the longest run in the 2010s).

After the success of "Mr. Saxobeat", Stan released a follow-up "Get Back (ASAP)". So far, it peaked at number-one in Slovakia, at number-four in the Romanian Top 100, at number-eight in Finland and inside the top twenty in over five countries. The song "Lollipop" was re-released for international digital markets exclusively, but with no success. In summer 2011, Stan released another single, "Million", featuring famed German rapper Carlprit. As of September, 2011 the song has received little airplay in France and missed the top forty. Its music video's shots started on December 6, 2011.

On August 29, 2011, Alexandra Stan released her debut album, entitled "Saxobeats". It features eight tracks plus five remixes. The album was first released in France, then in Germany, Switzerland, Romania, Spain, Poland and Italy.^[5][6] It was released in the United States and Canada on October 25, through Ultra Records. It is yet to be released in the UK. Her fourth overall single "1,000,000" ft. German rap star Carlprit has just been sent to mainstream radio stations in Belgium, France and Romania.^[7] As of January 14, 2012, "1,000,000" has currently peaked at #13 on the Romanian Airplay Chart, its highest peak on the chart to date.^[8]

Stan received multiple certification awards for "Mr. Saxobeat", including platinum in Australia^[9] and Spain,^[10] Platinum in Denmark^[11] and Sweden^[12] and Multi-Platinum in Italy.^[13] At the 2011 Romanian Music Awards she received two nominations for "Mr. Saxobeat" ("Best Dance" and "Best Song", winning the latter) and two nods for herself "Best Female" and winning the "Borderbreaker Award". She was also nominated for Best European Act at the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards, after winning Best Romanian Act where she was nominated alongside rapper Guess Who and Puia, singer Smiley and band Fly Project. In November, Stan lost the Best European to Lena Meyer-Landrut from Germany.

Discography[link]

• Saxobeats (2011)

Singles[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alexandra Stan

• Official website

Howard Goodall at St. John the Baptist Church in Devon, United Kingdom, May 2009

Howard Lindsay Goodall CBE (born 26 May 1958) is a British composer of musicals, choral music and music for television. He also presents music-based programming for television and radio, for which he has won many awards. In May 2008 he was named as a presenter and Composer-in-Residence with the UK radio channel Classic FM,^[1] and in May 2009 he was named "Composer of the Year" at the Classical BRIT Awards.^[2]

Personal life[link]

Born in Bromley, Kent and educated at New College School, Oxford, Stowe School and Lord Williams's School Thame, he read music at Christ Church, Oxford.^[3] He is married to Val Fancourt, who is a classical music agent.^[3]

Works[link]

Musical theatre[link]

His output of musical theatre works includes The Hired Man (1984), an adaptation of the novel by Melvyn Bragg, which won an Ivor Novello award (1985) and TMA Award(2006) award for Best Musical, Girlfriends (1986), Days of Hope (1991), Silas Marner (1993), The Kissing-Dance (1998),^[4] The Dreaming (2001) (both with Charles Hart), A Winter's Tale (2005) and Two Cities (2006). Goodall worked on original music for a new production called 'King Cotton', a co-commissioned stage show by The Lowry and the Liverpool Culture Company. However, he amicably withdrew from the production weeks before the opening for reasons unknown, and "any offers for Goodall's unused music will be gratefully received", according to the 16 September 2007 Sunday Times (page 14). A Winter’s Tale was presented during 2009–10 by Youth Music Theatre: UK, while 2010 saw the premiere at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester of Love Story, based on the novella by Erich Segal. The production opens in London's West End (Duchess Theatre) in November 2010. In 2010 there was also a new professional production of The Hired Man produced by The Octagon Theatre, Bolton which played from 3 June to 4 July 2010.

Television[link]

Goodall has composed incidental music for several popular UK comedy programs including: Red Dwarf, Blackadder, Mr Bean, The Thin Blue Line, The Vicar of Dibley, The Catherine Tate Show, 2point4 Children and QI, on which he has also appeared twice as a panellist. It was as an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford that he met the actor Rowan Atkinson and the writer Richard Curtis, his collaborators on several of these projects, including his first break into TV, Not The Nine O'Clock News.

Choral works[link]

Goodall has a body of choral music to his name (the process of composing one of these works is noted in the book of his Big Bangs series), including "In Memoriam Anne Frank" (2001), "O Lord God of Time and Eternity" (2003) and settings of Psalm 23 (better known as the theme tune to The Vicar of Dibley) and "Love Divine". In September 2008, his Eternal Light: A Requiem was premiered by Rambert Dance Company to choreography by Rambert Dance Company’s Artistic Director: Mark Baldwin). The result of a commission from London Musici (Artistic Director: Mark Stephenson) to celebrate its 20th anniversary, Eternal Light: A Requiem was commissioned as both a choral-orchestral-dance piece and a choral orchestral work. The London premiere took place on 11 November 2008 at Sadler's Wells with Rambert Dance Company, London Musici, The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, Finchley Children's Music Group and soloists, conducted by Paul Hoskins. Also in September 2008, EMI Classics released the premiere recording of Eternal Light: A Requiem, with soloists Natasha Marsh, Alfie Boe and Christopher Maltman joining London Musici, The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and conducted by Stephen Darlington.

In March 2009, Classic FM released Howard Goodall’s Enchanted Voices, a modern exploration of ancient chant, scored for upper voices, cello, organ, handbells and synthesizer. The disc marks Goodall’s position as Classic FM’s Composer-in-Residence for 2009. A month after its UK release, it became the best-selling specialist choral CD of 2009 there. It subsequently earned a nomination for Classical Brit Album of the Year. Howard Goodall's Enchanted Voices was followed by Howard Goodall's Enchanted Carols (November 2009) and Pelican in the Wilderness (March 2010).

After the chapel at Tonbridge School burnt down in the 1980s, the then Headmaster, Christopher Everett commissioned Goodall to write a piece of music to commemorate the chapel. The idea was that it would be performed in the restored chapel. For this, Goodall wrote the music to Psalm 122. Unfortunately, the chapel was not built in time so instead the entire school performed Goodall's Psalm 122 in Rochester Cathedral. It was not until 2010 that the piece was performed by the entire school in its intended place - the beautifully restored Tonbridge School Chapel, along with the choir from Benenden School.

Goodall was recently commissioned by Truro Cathedral to write a new work for all four of the Cathedral's choirs: Truro Cathedral Choir (boys and men), St Mary's Singers (mixed adults), Cornwall Youth Choir and Cornwall Junior Choir. The piece, entitled A New Heart, A New Spirit, sets a text from Wisdom and Ezekiel in four languages (English, Latin, French and Cornish). It was first performed in the Cathedral on 18th June 2011, along with several of Goodall's other choral compositions.^[5]

Presenting[link]

As well as presenting the BBC's Choir of the Year, Young Musician of the Year, among many programmes, he has presented six award-winning series of television programmes on musical theory & history, filmed by Tiger Aspect and broadcast on Channel 4:

• Howard Goodall's Organworks (1996) — history of the organ
• Howard Goodall's Choirworks (1998) — history of choral music
• Howard Goodall's Big Bangs (2000) — pivotal events in the history of music (also a book, published by Vintage in 2001, ISBN 0-09-928354-9
• Howard Goodall's Great Dates (2002) — important dates in the history of music
• Howard Goodall's 20th Century Greats (2004) — exploring the divergence between classical and popular music in the 20th century
• Howard Goodall's How Music Works (2006) — analysing the fundamental components of music itself.^[6]

Goodall received a Royal Television Society award for Organworks and the 2000 BAFTA Huw Wheldon award for Big Bangs, which also won several international prizes.

On Christmas Day December 2008, Goodall presented The Truth About Christmas Carols on BBC 2 TV, a documentary examining the surprising, and often secret, history of the traditional Christmas carol and on Good Friday April 2009 Hallelujah! The Story of Handel’s Messiah. In 2010, Goodall presented Music Room on Sky Arts.

Awards[link]

Goodall has been awarded honorary Doctorates of Music from Bishop Grosseteste University College in Lincoln, and the University of Bolton. The British Academy of Composers & Songwriters gave him its Gold Badge Award for exceptional work in support of his fellow British composers. In 2007, he received the Making Music/Sir Charles Groves Prize for Outstanding Contribution to British Music and was appointed by the UK Government as England’s first ever National Ambassador for Singing, leading a 4-year programme (Sing Up) to improve the provision of group singing for all primary-age children.^[7]

In April 2009, Goodall was nominated for The Classical BRITs “Composer of the Year” award for Eternal Light: A Requiem, which he won in May 2009,^[8] and in July 2009 he was nominated for an Emmy Award in the category “Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie, or Special (Dramatic Score)” for his work on the Winston Churchill biopic Into the Storm;^[9] which he then went on to win on 12 September at a ceremony in Los Angeles.^[10]

Goodall was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to music education.^[11]

He is a member of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA),^[12]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Howard Goodall's official website
• Howard Goodall at the Internet Movie Database
• Howard Goodall, Esq, CBE at Debrett's People of Today
• Youth Music Theatre UK's Homepage
• London revival of Days of Hope
• Howard’s page at Faber Music Ltd, his publisher
• Eternal Light: A Requiem – official page
• Howard’s page at Classic FM
• Webpage of New College School, Oxford
• How Music Works on YouTube (via Brainpickings)