The history of Pop and Rap

The term "pop song" was used in 1926 in reference to music "having popular appeal. David Hatch and Stephen Millward indicate that many events in the history recording in the 20s can be seen as the birth of the modern pop music industry, including in country, blues and hillbilly music.

Hatch and Millward define pop music as “a body of music which is distinguishable from popular, jazz and folk music.”

According to Pete Seeger, pop music is “professional music which draws upon both folk music and fine arts music.”

Pop

Pop music has always contained songs from a variety of sources, including classical, jazz, rock, and novelty songs, while pop music as a genre is usually unseen as existing and developing separately.

Therefore ‘pop music’ may be used to describe a distinct genre, aimed at younger people, often characterized as soft alternative rock and roll.

According to the Grove Music Online, the term ‘pop term’ “originated in Britain in the mid 1950s as a description for rock and roll and the new youth music styles that it influenced...”

Grove Music Online also stated that “in the early 1960s the term ‘pop music’ completed terminologically with Beat music (in England), while in the USA its coverage overlapped (as it still does) with that of rock and roll.”

Rapping can be traced back to its African roots. A long time before hip-hop existed, people in West

Africa were delivering stories rhythmically, over drums and sparse instrumentation.

Such connections have been acknowledged by many modern artists, modern day “griots”, spoken word artists, mainstream news sources, and academics.

Blues music, rooted in the work songs and spiritual of slavery and influenced greatly by West African musical traditions, was first played by black people, and later by some white people.

Grammy-winning blues musician/ historian Elijah Wald and others have argued that the blues were being raped as early as the 1920s.

Rap

How our genre fits into David Buckingham's

theory

Pop videos have changed a lot through time.They have developed slowly but dramatically from

the earliest pop music videos in the 70s. For example, ‘Fernando’ by Abba was released in

1976. The music video consisted of close-ups of the artists singing and playing guitars. The video was low budget, it was set in a studio made to look like the outdoors. They were sat around a camp fire, this paired with the instruments would seem now like an indie music video. The video has very dark lighting which now-a-days would be associated with rock. I would say this music video would be classed as a performance music video as there was not a narrative.

Pop

In 1982 ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson was released. This music video is a narrative music video. Also this particular video consists of special effects make up and choreographed dancing. This is completely different to ‘Fernando’ by Abba. However, ‘Thriller’ also had dark lighting, which would now be associated with rock/ heavy metal. The music video ‘Thriller’ fits in with Vladimir Propps theory, which was that there were 8 character types in folk tales and legends. In ‘Thriller’ there are around 5 different character types. They are:1. The hero- Michael Jackson in his human form.2. Villain- Michael Jackson in his zombie form and the

zombies.3. The dispatcher- the zombies as they give Michael Jackson

a reason to save the girl.4. The false hero- Michael Jackson in his zombie form, he

tries to hurt the girl and he takes over his brain.5. The princess- the main girl in the music video who

Michael Jackson ends up saving.

In 1998 ‘..Baby one more time’ by Britney Spears was released. This was also a narrative music video. This video is different to the others as the lighting has changed, the costumes have changed (this is because of the style in the different years). However, this is similar to both music videos as well. This is because it is slightly a performance video, but Britney Spears is performing to the camera (this is similar to ‘Fernando’ by Abba.) Also it is similar (to ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson), because there is a lot of close-ups of the artist and there is some choreographed dancing in parts of the video. ‘..Baby one more time’ also fits in with a theory. It fits in with Levi Strouses theory that there are good and evil, black and white, boy and girl. Two binary oppositions that drive the narrative and make the viewers what to see what happens to the character. In ‘..Baby one more time’ she is singing to a boy and then he disappears which makes the viewer want to see what happened next and where he is gone and what happens in the end.

A recent pop music video is ‘All about that bass’ by Meghan Trainor. This is music video does not have a narrative. It is similar to ‘Thriller’ and ‘..Baby one more time’ as there are large amount of close-ups of Meghan Trainor singing. However, if you compare it to ‘Fernando’ by Abba, it is very different. In ‘All about that bass’ there is bright lighting which shows it is a pop video and there are bright colours. Whereas, the music video for ‘Fernando’ by Abba was very dark and almost looked like a rock music video. Also, ‘All about that bass’ looked like a more expensive video to make, this is because there was a range of various locations. The music video ‘Fernando’ is a simple music video in the way that there isn’t a lot going on, whereas ‘All about that bass’ there is a lot going on which keeps the viewer interested.

Rap music videos have not changed a lot over time.

The first alleged rap music video to be made was ‘Do dat’ by LMNTL in 1978. This video is a performance music video. There is a lot of quick shots in the video. Also the music video is quite dark and the location looks like somewhere underground, for example a train station. There is graffiti on the walls which now-a-days is also associated with rap. The rappers were wearing gold chains and hats which is also associated with rap now.

In 1989 Biz Markie released the song ‘Just a friend’. In the music video it was slightly similar to a typical rap video in 2014. For example, the outfits that they were wearing, the rapper was rapping about a girl.

Rap

However, it was also different. There were longer takes/ shots, the lighting was natural which is typically associated with indie. The music video was a narrative music video as he was rapping to his friends about a girl he met on tour.

In 1994 Dr.Dre’s song featuring Ice Cube was released called ‘Natural born killaz’. This was a narrative video as both rappers were murderers running from the police, in the end one of the died and the other got caught. There was a lot of quick shots, and the locations they were in are typical rap song locations for example, in a room with two thrones with chains around them. There was a lot of low angle shots looking up at the rappers. This music video fitted in with Levi Strouses theory. There was good (the police) and evil (Dr.Dre and Ice Cube). The tension drove the narrative forward, which makes the viewers want to find out what happens to the characters in the end.

The song ‘Snapbacks back’ by Tyga featuring Chris Brown was released in 2011. The music video is a performance music video, and has no narrative. In this video there are quick shots, canted angles, low angle shots. There is only two different locations in this music video. One is similar to ‘Natural born killaz’ by Dr.Dre ft. Ice Cube, Tyga is sat on a thrown in a room that has chains around him. Tyga also has loads of snapbacks around him, hung up and on the floor, these are usually associated with rap. Also the music video is dark with flashing lights which is also associated with rap. The rappers are wearing gold chains and baggy trousers/ tracksuit bottoms which is what a stereotypical rapper would wear.

Our song for our is a hybrid genre, this means two or more different genres combined.

Our music video is going to be more like a pop music video.

For example, bright colours, longer shots, etc.However, in the rapping part of the song there

will be a few quick shots. E.g. “A 70s dream and 80s best,” will be Naomi doing an 80s work out but will be a quick short shot. Then “Hepburn, Beyonce, Marilyn, Massive,” will be me (Shelby) doing the iconic Marilyn Monroe dress blowing up moment.

Our music video genre