Key Concepts of Pop

Pop music has been the most prominent genre in the music industry since its conception. It has changed a lot with the times. In this post I will be talking about the key concepts that make up the pop genre from the turn of the millennium.



Appeal:
Pop music gets its name from the word popular, so it has to appeal to the larger, general audience. This means that it has to be conventional for it to be more likely to appeal to a larger audience.
It does this by conforming to the trends of the time and by having a larger emphasis on technology and production over the song and its meaning.


An example of this is the artist Katy Perry. Her videos are always high production elements and less emphasis on performance. An example is her video for her song "Dark Horse" she is playing a pharaoh in Egypt as pictured to the left. The video was massively popular and was awarded best music video at the MTV European music awards.


Rhythm:
A generic song from the pop genre will typically have a noticeable rhythmic element. This element changes with time and since the 2000's, the typical rhythmic element found in most songs are dance orientated.




An example of this is the 2012 song "Scream" by Usher.
Its rhythm is very dance orientated. This is further reflected by the video which uses bright lights and dance to accompany the dance oriented rhythm.




Gaze:
This refers to the gaze theory and the objectification of a man/woman to gain the audiences attention. This is often used in pop videos to increase appeal and re-watch ability however this forces the star image of the artist to be associated with gaze.