WHAT IS POPULAR MUSIC?

Popular music is both ubiquitous and challenging to define. It can be easy to connect with others over shared enjoyment of a song but difficult to describe what makes it enjoyable or popular. While it is true that every popular song will be despised by many who reject the style of music, artist, or even the concept of popularity, popular music unites millions of people.

In this unit, we’ll be looking at the various genres that encapsulate most of America’s popular music trends and how they’re broken down, as well as what makes music popular and how its popularity is measured and recorded.

DEFINING GENRE

Most music consumer tend to gravitate toward a select few preferred music genres although many trends have shown that Gen Z, America’s youngest generation of tracked music consumers, do not find the restrictive idea of genre appealing. MUSIC GENRES are categories of music distinguished from others by consistencies in their various music elements. With such a wide variety of music at our fingertips, genre preference serves as a sort of filter to help consumers find more music they like within a given category. Though exceptions always exist, songs generally fit into genres by meeting certain metric ranges in each of the established music elements. These general “acoustic fingerprints” can help consumers to make some assumptions about what they will hear when discovering new artists in specific genres. While there are literally hundreds of genres (and subgenres) in the United States and globally, this module will focus primarily on the top 10 most popular American genres. Below, see each genre defined as well as its market share total volume in 2020 (the most recent year with data) based on Billboard statistics.¹

RAP/HIP-HOP & R&B (28.2%)

Rap and Hip-Hop are often used interchangeably while R&B could be considered another genre entirely. All three are often placed in the same category as they are along a spectrum of Black urban vocal music from mostly spoken to mostly sung. RAP is generally considered to be entirely spoken word with a simple, repetitive beat that keeps the spotlight on the lyrics. HIP-HOP is a term used more broadly to define music and other artistic expressions in the urban Black community. “Rap” is a facet of “Hip-Hop” but not the only type of music made in Hip-Hop culture. When referencing music specifically, “Hip-Hop” often describes more sung elements in a song while still including spoken word and the sung elements tend to fall more into an R&B category. R&B (which stands for Rhythm & Blues) is a soulful, sung genre where emotions tend to be conveyed through the energy of the vocalizations even more so than the lyrics. R&B can be traced back to the traditional Blues genre developed in the post-Civil War South with gospel-type elements associated with the Black American church. R&B artists might classify themselves as Soul artists, but in today’s market, there is little difference between the descriptions of these two genre names. Rap and Hip-Hop tracks tend to be faster in order to establish a flow of lyrics while R&B songs tend to be slower to highlight the emotional elements and give the singer more space to move their voice. Note that the choice to put Rap/Hip-Hop and R&B in one genre category partially explains its high percentage of market share compared to other genres below.

ROCK (19.5%)

ROCK (or “Rock and Roll” or “Rock ’n’ Roll”) is a popular genre developed by Black musicians of the post-WWII era that was heavier and more formulaic than jazz, and more reliant on electric instruments and loud, abrasive sounds. Although its popularity has run high for almost a hundred years, Rock has always spoken to an individuality and rejection of societal norms. Rock music varies in its elements but almost always consists of a high, unbridled energy, and a live, “in-your-face” quality to performances and recordings. Other genres related to (or subgenres of) Rock include Punk, Metal, Alternative, Grunge, and Progressive Rock.

POP(12.9%)

POP music, at its core, is meant to have a wide appeal and garner a large audience. In this sense, it can often be considered somewhat safe, without huge extremes in order to reach the largest audience. Pop songs are often intentionally catchy and repetitive with relatable lyrics and a generic, easy-to-consume, “feel-good” quality. Because the term Pop casts such a wide net, oftentimes, Pop songs will skew toward one of the more unique genres so songs might be categorized as Pop-rock, or Pop-punk, or Country-pop. Interestingly, this genre is one of the most “dated” - meaning it’s usually very obvious to tell what decade a song comes from since this genre follows trends more closely than other genres that hold more strictly to specific musical markers. Also note that Pop tends to be the most popular music genre when it includes R&B - but since the Billboard charts categorize R&B with Rap/Hip-Hop, Pop seems just a little less popular.

COUNTRY (7.9%)

Country music was developed in the rural regions of the southern United States and finds its roots in the folk traditions of Western Europe coupled with the bluesy musical traditions of the enslaved people of the American South. Country music’s lyrics generally reflect every day rural life in America and are often storytelling in nature. This music tends to be more acoustic and live than many other popular genres and can include additional folk instruments like acoustic guitar, fiddle (violin), banjo, steel guitar, dobro, and acoustic piano. Vocalists in this genre tend to sing with full, robust voices and may utilize a southern “drawl” or “twang” in their accent as well as elements of a vocal technique called YODEL where a singer transitions seamlessly between head and chest voice.

LATIN (4.7%)

Latin music has a following in the United States due to high populations of people from or descended from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries including Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Brazil, and other countries in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. In addition, many areas of the United States are considered hubs of Latin music (such as regions of Texas and Miami, Florida) and people from all ethnic groups living in these communities consume more Latin music than the average American. Latin music tend to sound similar to genres above like Pop, Rock, or R&B but often include different elements such as a greater focus on rhythm, more dramatic vocal styles, and Latin instruments such as Spanish-style guitar or Latin percussion. Genres that are considered Latin include Salsa, Bachata, Banda, Mariachi, Reggaeton, and Tejano. Even though these subgenres are very different from each other, they all fall into the category of Latin because of a shared language and who in the market tends to consume them.

DANCE & ELECTRONIC (3.2%)

Dance and Electronic music is a genre developed with the specific intention to be danced to or at the very least, affect the listener’s adrenal system by putting them in a higher stage of alert or excitement. Most of this music is highly electronic (produced digitally via music production software or DJ-ing products) and has a somewhat fast, regular beat - with very little or repetitive lyrics. This music can often be heard at dance clubs, raves, and music festivals where there is an emphasis to the visceral body connection to music rather than an emotional or intellectual connection. Many times, this music might have similar beats or styles to other genres like Pop and R&B, but the latter categories emphasize vocals and lyrics more than the beat and energy.

CHRISTIAN/GOSPEL (1.9%)

Christian and Gospel music are similar in lyrical content but vary in musical elements. Various Christian artists could perform music with a pop, rock, or country feel (often referred to as Contemporary Christian) while Gospel music is associated with the Black American Christian church practice and finds its roots in Negro spirituals and R&B. This music may be identical to other genres but is given its own classification based on the religious nature of the lyrics.

WORLD MUSIC (1.8%)

This genre includes most traditional and fusion styles of music from around the world that cannot easily fit into a category above. Because this is a “catch-all” category, it is very broad and there is little consistency in this genre. World Music could include anything from the throat singing of Tibetan monks, to Incan panpipe music of Peru, to Hindustani classical music, to traditional didgeridoo performance of Australia. Billboard still categorizes very popular world artists such as those in the K-POP and AFROBEAT genres as World Music which explains why the genre has a much higher share of the market (2.2%) in mid-2022. Due to the development of technology and international travel, World Music FUSION has also evolved where instruments, techniques, sounds, and traditions of various cultures are blended together to create new musical genres. Oftentimes, fusion genres arise from people if different cultures coming together to share and blend their music, although sometimes a musician from one culture may learn about the music of another culture and incorporate elements into their own. Care should be taken to seek out and consume authentic World Music as opposed to music by artists who are appropriating styles from other cultures and passing them off as their own!

CLASSICAL (1.0%)

Classical music dates back to the 1500’s in Western Europe when musicians and composers began to develop a shared understanding of written music and instrumental and vocal performance practices. Today, the Classical music genre consists of performances and new recordings of music from past eras of this genre (including the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras), but also much contemporary work still being composed and debuted today. Classical music is not a “dead” genre, though many music consumers have the impressions that Classical music only consists of symphony orchestras performing music by dead European men. Instead, Classical is a rich and diverse genre that includes vocal and instrumental (and even some electronic) elements and incorporates many styles and new techniques of music. The defining factor of this music is that it tends to be academic and intellectual in nature and most pieces are much longer than popular music songs.

1.3% of the 2020 market went to Children’s Music but that will not be covered in this course.

MEDIA MATTERS

Today, there are more ways to consume music than ever. While live concerts and music festivals are still well attended, most music consumers spend the majority of their time engaging with recorded music. Even though music can be listened to via the radio (with little control other than selecting the station), many music consumers these days curate their music consumption by intentionally seeking specific songs, artists, albums, or playlists. Recorded music tends to be divided into two categories: physical and digital music. PHYSICAL MUSIC MEDIA includes most “older” ways of capturing audio onto a physical object such as vinyl records, compact cassette tapes, 8-tracks, laserdiscs, and compact discs (CDs). DIGITAL MUSIC MEDIA encompasses all the ways music can be stored and played back on a digital device such as mp3, WAV, or AAC files and streaming audio. Depending on the genre of the music, consumers may gravitate toward one medium or another based on factors such as music culture, consumer age, availability,

PHYSICAL MUSIC

Sound recording was developed in the United States and Europe starting with American inventor Thomas Edison’s 1877 phonograph recording of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”.² The PHONOGRAPH was a device that could both capture and “play back” recorded sound waves by a needle scratching the sound waves into a wax cylinder. In 1887, a German-American inventor patented a disc version of the phonograph that would later evolve into the vinyl record. These first discs were very short and could only include a couple minutes of music.

One of the first ways music was recorded and played back was the invention of the PLAYER PIANO invented in 1897. This piano was playable by a musician but one could also insert a PLAYER PIANO ROLL into a cabinet in the top compartment of the instrument that would provide instructions of what keys to depress when (by way of perforations in the paper that corresponded to notes and rhythms) and the instrument needed to be operated by depressing foot pedals to pump air into the system.³

1948 saw the introduction of the LP (long-playing) record and this medium continued to be developed for decades, with improvements in sound quality and length of time. The late 1950’s introduced the first REEL-TO-REEL TAPES where sound was recorded onto electronic tape that would be placed into a cassette for listening. Laser-style audio formats such as the COMPACT DISC (CD) and LASER DISC began to be produced in the early 1980’s with higher quality sound and a continued increase in length. These music media would be played on a device usually named after the medium, such as a record player, tape deck, or CD player. Portable music players like the Sony WALKMAN (a personal listening device with headphones for tapes or CDs) or the BOOMBOX which offered radio, cassette tape, and eventually CD function with speakers were developed starting in the late 1970’s.

From the first wax cylinders through the advancements of physical media, producers marketed full albums as collections of songs that complimented each other in theme or at least were released by the artist at the same time. SINGLES, songs released individually by an artist outside of an album for promotional means, continue to be available individually on vinyl, but most physical media includes an entire album on the product.

DIGITAL MUSIC

If you are a younger person in 2021, you are likely consuming almost exclusively digital music. Digital music is music that exists only as a digital file and can only be played back on an electronic device. Digital media such as MP3s, WAVs, and AACs have been around since the early 1990’s and the digital encoding supported more data (and thus better quality) in a given sound file. Any audio housed on a computer, phone, digital audio player, or other electronic device is an example of digital music. The music you stream from Spotify, SoundCloud, iTunes Music, or YouTube are also digital files stored remotely. Digital music includes music that was recorded digitally, but may also represent recordings that were originally recorded in an anolog/physical format such as those above that were then converted to a digital file.

While the quality and convenience of digital sound make it the go-to consumable source of music today, many music consumers and AUDIOPHILES (those who have a great and specific interest in the various mediums of audio recording and playback interfaces) prefer certain analog formats due to various sound and fidelity characteristics in addition to the tactile experience of handling physical media.

As you consider what kind of music you gravitate toward and what kind of music media you consume (be it physical or digital or a combination of both), consider that many genres also align with media type, so if you have a preference for a specific style of consumption, that may also make it easier or more challenging for you to engage with the artists producing and marketing in that particular arena.

BILLBOARD HITS

WHAT IS BILLBOARD?

BILLBOARD is an American music industry magazine that has been in publication since 1894. The magazine’s original content included broader entertainment industry information including common 19th century entertainments such as concerts, fairs, and circuses, but eventually began focusing on music only once the recording industry took off in the early 20th century. Today, Billboard and its parent company (MRC Media) are responsible for tracking and disseminating popular music statistics in the United States and abroad.⁴

Billboard releases the weekly HOT 100 CHART which tracks the most popular 100 songs in any genre. Popularity is calculated based on sales, streams, and radio play across the US. Billboard also charts the most popular albums on the BILLBOARD 200. Popular singles may “debut” on the chart during their release week or climb onto the chart due to notice and increase of popularity. The industry tends to pay especial attention to each chart’s “Top Ten” and a very popular song may stay in the No. 1 spot or in the Top 5 or Top 10 for many weeks in a row. Songs may leave and re-enter the charts due to a late increase in popularity (especially due to seasonality, or the song’s use in a film or other cultural moment). Weekly charts are also provided for most popular genres, in addition to year-end, decade-end, all-time charts, and global charts from around the world.

Here are some interesting facts about the Billboard Top Hits:

• The longest-running No. 1 song (as of 2023) is Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus’ 2019 hit “Old Town Road” which held the position for 19 straight weeks. Tied for second at 16 weeks each is 2017’s “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber, and “One Sweet Day” by Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men in 1995. It would appear that collaboration and genre-bending fusion supports longevity at No. 1.

• Elvis Presley has had the most songs make it to the Hot 100 with a total of 108 ranked.

• The Beatles recorded the most songs to reach No. 1 - 20 in all. In April 1964, all Top 5 songs were by The Beatles: "Can't Buy Me Love" (1), "Twist and Shout" (2), "She Loves You" (3), "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (4) and "Please Please Me" (5).

• Ragtime composer Scott Joplin’s 1902 “The Entertainer” peaked at No. 3 and stayed on the charts for 16 weeks in 1974 due to its thematic use throughout the film The Sting - a full 72 years after its first release. Note that the version on the 1974 chart included a small dixieland-style band from the film recording rather than the original piano-only version.

• Mariah Carey’s 1994 holiday song “All I Want for Christmas is You” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Top 100 every year from 2019 through 2022 during the month of December and Jose Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad” broke the top 10 in 2020 for the first time ever.

Below are the #1 songs on the Billboard Year-End Chart of Pop Singles. These songs are considered the “most popular of their year” not because they spent the longest at #1 on the chart, but by an algorithm that takes into account time on the chart (and at what position) in addition to sales, airplay, and streams. Thus, it is possible for a song that never topped the charts as a #1 hit in a given year to still place #1 as the overall best-performing song of the year. This data goes back as far as 1958.

1960’s

1970’s

1980’s

1990’s

2000’s

2010’s

2020’s

REFERENCES

1. “Year-End Report US 2020; Presented in Collaboration with Billboard” 2021. MRC Data. https://static.billboard.com/files/2021/01/MRC_Billboard_YEAR_END_2020_US-FINAL2-1610065667.pdf

2. “Music Recording.” 1988. Encyclopedia Brittanica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/music-recording

3. “Player Piano.” 1998. Encyclopedia Brittanica. https://www.britannica.com/art/player-piano

4. Trust, Gary. “The First Billboard: All That Was 'New, Bright and Interesting On the Boards'.” 2020. Billboard. https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6746273/first-billboard-issue-november-1-1894