Western popular music that generally predates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s
Traditional pop
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Other names
| Classic pop, pre-rock and roll pop
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Stylistic origins
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Cultural origins
| 1920s–1930s, United States
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Derivative forms
| Pop
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|
Japan
|
Traditional pop
(also known as
classic pop
[
citation needed
]
and
pre-rock and roll pop
) is
Western
pop music
that generally pre-dates the advent of
rock and roll
in the mid-1950s. The most popular and enduring songs from this era of music are known as
pop standards
or
American standards
. The works of these songwriters and composers are usually considered part of the canon known as the "
Great American Songbook
". More generally, the term "
standard
" can be applied to any popular song that has become very widely known within mainstream culture.
AllMusic
defines traditional pop as "post-big band and pre-rock & roll pop music".
[1]
[
non-primary source needed
]
Origins
[
edit
]
Classic pop includes the song output of the
Broadway
,
Tin Pan Alley
, and Hollywood
show tune
writers
[
citation needed
]
from approximately World War I to the 1950s, such as
Irving Berlin
,
Frederick Loewe
,
Victor Herbert
,
Harry Warren
,
Harold Arlen
,
Jerome Kern
,
George Gershwin
and
Ira Gershwin
,
Richard Rodgers
and
Lorenz Hart
,
Oscar Hammerstein
,
Johnny Mercer
,
Dorothy Fields
,
Hoagy Carmichael
, and
Cole Porter
.
[
citation needed
]
Mid-1940s to mid-1950s: height of popularity
[
edit
]
The swing era made stars of many popular singers including the young
Frank Sinatra
,
Dinah Shore
,
Jo Stafford
,
Perry Como
,
Peggy Lee
,
Patti Page
,
David Whitfield
, and
Bing Crosby
. Two notable innovations were the addition of string sections and orchestral arrangements and more emphasis on the vocal performance.
[2]
The addition of lush strings can be heard in much of the popular music throughout the 1940s and 1950s. In the early 1950s, as the dominance of swing gave way to the traditional pop music era, many of the vocalists associated with swing bands became even more popular, and were central figures in popular music.
[
citation needed
]
Late 1950s to 1960s: decline
[
edit
]
In the late 1950s, rock became a popular and prominent musical style. However, some pop singers who had been popular during the swing era or traditional pop music period were still big stars such as Frank Sinatra,
Doris Day
,
Ella Fitzgerald
, Dinah Shore,
Dean Martin
, and Bing Crosby.
Some of these vocalists faded with traditional pop music, while many vocalists became involved in 1960s vocal jazz and the rebirth of "swing music"; the swing music of the 1960s is sometimes referred to as
easy listening
and was, in essence, a revival of popularity of the "sweet" bands that had been popular during the
swing era
, but with more emphasis on the vocalist. Like the swing era, it too featured many songs of the
Great American Songbook
. Much of this music was made popular by
Nelson Riddle
and television-friendly singers like
Rosemary Clooney
, Dean Martin, and the cast of
Your Hit Parade
.
Many artists made their mark with pop standards, particularly entertainer, vocal jazz and pop singers such as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra,
[3]
Tony Bennett
, Doris Day, Dean Martin,
Sammy Davis Jr.
,
Louis Armstrong
,
Nat King Cole
(originally known as a jazz pianist),
[3]
Lena Horne
,
Vic Damone
,
Johnny Mathis
,
[4]
Bobby Darin
,
[5]
Ella Fitzgerald,
Carmen McRae
,
Barbra Streisand
,
Peggy Lee
,
Sarah Vaughan
,
Dinah Washington
,
Andy Williams
,
Frankie Laine
,
Nancy Wilson
,
Rita Reys
,
Liza Minnelli
and
Cleo Laine
.
[6]
Traditional pop had not completely faded from the music scene, even as late as the mid-1960s songs like "
The Days of Wine and Roses
" and "
Moon River
" topping the charts and being popular with both teenagers and adults, and in 1959?1960 the hit songs "
The Battle of New Orleans (in 1814)
" and "
North to Alaska
" by
Johnny Horton
were more popular with teenagers than with adults.
[
citation needed
]
In addition to the vocal jazz and/or 1960s swing music, many of these singers were involved in "less swinging", more traditional, vocal pop music during this period as well, especially Sinatra and Cole.
The diverging tastes between the baby boomers and older Americans of the 1960s led to one of the earliest schisms in
music radio
. Whereas rock dominated
contemporary hit radio
(top 40), traditional pop formed the basis of
middle of the road
(MOR). In terms of 21st century radio formats, the top-40 hits of the 1950s and 1960s are played on
oldies
stations while the traditional pop hits are the province of
adult standards
(with some exceptions);
[7]
due to aging demographics, both formats are fading in popularity in favor of
classic hits
and
gold-based adult contemporary
, respectively.
Advent of rock and roll
[
edit
]
With the growing popularity of
rock and roll
in the 1950s, much of what
baby boomers
considered to be their parents' music, traditional pop, was pushed aside.
[8]
Popular music sung by such performers as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee and their contemporaries was relegated in the 1960s and 1970s to television, where they remained very popular, Las Vegas club acts and elevator music. Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra continued to have many hit singles and albums until the late 1960s, however.
Nashville country music
borrowed heavily from traditional pop sounds in the late 1950s as
Music Row
sought to limit the growing influence of rock and roll on the genre;
[9]
it remained popular until both the
British Invasion
, the deaths of two of Nashville's biggest country stars (
Patsy Cline
and
Jim Reeves
) in separate airplane crashes, and the growing influence of
West Coast country music
pushed it aside beginning in 1964.
In 1983,
Linda Ronstadt
, a popular female vocalist of the rock era,
[10]
[11]
elected to change direction.
[12]
She collaborated with legendary arranger-conductor
Nelson Riddle
and released a successful album of standards from the 1940s and 1950s,
What's New
. It reached No. 3 on the
Billboard
pop chart
, won a
Grammy
, and inspired Ronstadt to team up with Riddle for two more albums: 1984's
Lush Life
and 1986's
For Sentimental Reasons
.
[13]
The gamble paid off, as all three albums became hits, the international concert tours were a success and Riddle picked up a few more Grammys in the process. Ronstadt's determination to produce these albums exposed a new generation to the sounds of the pre-
swing
and swing eras.
[14]
Since then, other rock/pop stars have occasionally found success recording traditional pop music. Notable albums include
Rod Stewart
's
It Had to Be You: The Great American Songbook
,
Willie Nelson
's
Stardust
,
Chaka Khan
's
Echoes of an Era
and
Carly Simon
's
Torch
.
[15]
Revival
[
edit
]
The appearance of the
lounge subculture
in the mid-1990s in the United States helped to enhance the revival and interest in the music, style, and performers of popular music before rock and roll. Many contemporary performers have worked in the style of classic pop and/or easy listening swing. Some jazz and popular music singers, such as
Diana Krall
are sustaining the tradition.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Traditional Pop | Music Highlights"
.
AllMusic
. Retrieved
2016-04-10
.
- ^
Gilliland, John
(1994).
Pop Chronicles the 40s: The Lively Story of Pop Music in the 40s
(audiobook).
ISBN
978-1-55935-147-8
.
OCLC
31611854
.
- ^
a
b
Gilliland, John
(1969).
"Smack Dab in the Middle on Route 66: A skinny dip in the easy listening mainstream"
(audio)
.
Pop Chronicles
.
University of North Texas Libraries
.
Show 22.
- ^
Gilliland 1969
, show 23.
- ^
Gilliland 1969
, show 13.
- ^
"Passed/Failed CLEO LAINE"
.
The Independent
. 1998-06-10
. Retrieved
2023-11-22
.
- ^
Channick, Robert (3 May 2018).
"MeTV FM goes from low-power TV station to top-10 Chicago radio station"
.
Chicago Tribune
.
- ^
Green, Jesse (June 2, 1996).
"The Song Is Ended"
.
The New York Times Magazine
.
- ^
Dawidoff, Nicholas (1997).
In the Country of Country
. Great Britain: Faber and Faber. pp. 48?50.
ISBN
0-571-19174-6
.
- ^
"Rolling Stone"
.
Rock's Venus
. Archived from
the original
on August 8, 2007
. Retrieved
May 4,
2007
.
- ^
"Work's out fine, best female voice in rock and roll"
.
The Daily News
. Retrieved
May 4,
2007
.
- ^
"The Linda Ronstadt Interview"
.
Time
. Retrieved
April 9,
2007
.
- ^
"Family Week"
.
Linda Ronstadt: The Gamble Pays off Big
. Archived from
the original
on October 22, 2006
. Retrieved
April 9,
2007
.
- ^
"Jerry Jazz Musician"
.
The Peter Levinson Interview
. 19 April 2002
. Retrieved
May 4,
2007
.
- ^
"Torch - Carly Simon | Songs, Reviews, Credits"
.
AllMusic
. Retrieved
October 27,
2019
.
External links
[
edit
]
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Stylistic origins
| |
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Styles
| |
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Regional variants
| Africa
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The Americas
| |
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Asia
| |
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Europe
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Related topics
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