Pop Music History
Scroll down to read about pop music history if you believe that music can alter people’s feelings, moods and actions for the better.
Leonard Bernstein once quoted that, “Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable”.
In the history of music, the term ‘pop music’ was first used in 1926. It was used to describe ‘a piece of music having popular appeal’. Commercially recorded music, consisting of relatively short and simple
love songs is known as ‘pop music’. It is associated with the ‘ rock and roll
‘ style, often tailored for the youth market, which utilizes technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes. Pop music history states that the term ‘pop music’ originated in Britain in the mid-1950s which implied ‘concerts appealing to a wide audience’ or ‘the non classical music, usually in the form of songs’, performed by such artists as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Abba, etc.
If you go through 80’s pop music history, you will notice that pop music, throughout its development has been influenced by most other genres of popular music. Pop music picked up instrumentation from jazz and rock music, vocal harmonies from gospel music and soul music, formed from the sentimental ballads, tempo from dance music, support from electronic music and spoken passages from rap. In 1950s television was introduced and visual presence of pop stars helped to gain more popularity. In 1960s, cheap portable transistor radios were introduced, which helped the teenagers to listen to music outside of the home. By 1980s MTV favored the artists such as Michael Jackson, Prince and Madonna who had a strong visual appeal. Widespread use of the microphone, multi-track recording, digital sampling were the other technological innovations which were responsible for the increasing popularity of pop music.
Though pop music had been dominated by the American music industry, most regions and countries have their own form of pop music. In 1980s video technique was introduced and pop albums became still more popular. The American pop music history provides us information about the fact that the 1960s and ’70s saw a number of important changes in American popular music, for instance, the development of a number of new styles, including heavy metal, punk, soul and hip hop. Here is an overview of pop music history timeline.
Pop Music History Timeline
Date and Year
Event
Description
1957 Jul 6 John Lennon meets Paul McCartney
In March 1957 John Lennon formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen. McCartney met Lennon on 6 July 1957, and agreed to join the group a few days later.
1957 Jul 9
The first official Quarry Men performance
The first “official” public, albeit unsuccessful, performance by The Quarry Men – they failed to impress when they auditioned before the promoter Carroll Levis
1958 Feb 6 Paul McCartney invited George Harrison to watch the Quarrymen
According to George Harrison, the first time he saw the Quarry Men was at the Wilson Hall, opposite the bus depot in Garston, Liverpool.
1958 Aug 16 Madonna is Born
Madonna (born Madonna Louise Ciccone; August 16, 1958), is an American recording artist, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan and raised in Rochester Hills, she moved to New York City in 1977, for a career in modern dance.
1958 Aug 29 Michael Jackson is Born
Michael Joseph Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana (an industrial suburb of Chicago, Illinois) to a working-class family on August 29, 1958. The son of Joseph Walter “Joe” and Katherine Esther, he was the seventh of nine children.
1960 May 10
The Quarry Men become The Silver Beats
The well-known British impresario Larry Parnes was looking for musicians and backing acts for his “stars”, including Billy Fury and others, whom they would accompany on a tour of Northern England and Scotland. Parnes listened to each Liverpool group.
1960 Aug 12 Pete Best joins the Beatles
The group invited Pete Best to become their drummer on 12 August 1960. Four days after hiring Best, the group left for Hamburg. The Beatles began a 48-night residency in Hamburg at Bruno Koschmider’s Indra Club
1968 Oct 17
Ziggy Marley is born
David Nesta “Ziggy” Marley (born October 17, 1968, Trenchtown, Jamaica) is a four time Grammy-winning Jamaican musician and leader of the band Ziggy Marley and the Melody makers
1972
Michael Jackson’s first solo hit “Ben” reaches No. 1
“Ben” is a number-one hit song recorded by the teenager Michael Jackson for the Motown label in 1972. The song, the theme of a 1972 film of the same name, spent one week at the top of the U.S. pop chart. It also reached number-one on the Australian pop chart, spending eight weeks at the top spot.
1972 May 19
Rohan Marley is born
Rohan Anthony Marley (born 1972) is the son of late reggae artist Bob Marley and Janet Hunt. He is a member of the Rastafari movement. Marley and musician Lauryn Hill met in 1996
1973
Karen Marley is born
Karen Marley, second daughter of Bob Marley, was born in England in 1973 but grew up in Jamaica.
1974
Michael Jackson introduces “The Robot”
In 1974, during a performance on “Soul Train,” Jackson introduced a dance called the robot, made of moves that were mimicked on dance floors across the country.
1983
Red Hot Chili Peppers are formed
Red Hot Chili Peppers (originally Tony Flow and the Majestic Masters of Mayhem) were formed by Fairfax High School alumni Anthony Kiedis, Hillel Slovak, Jack Irons and Michael “Flea” Balzary in 1983.
1983 Mar 25
Michael Jackson popularizes the moonwalk
The moonwalk or backslide is a dance technique that presents the illusion that the dancer is stepping forward while actually moving backward, giving the appearance of a person moving along a conveyor belt. The dance gained worldwide popularity after Michael Jackson executed it during his performance of his song “Billie Jean” on the March 25, 1983, television special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, and was considered his signature move.
1984 Jan 27
Michael Jackson burns hair during Pepsi commercial
While filming a Pepsi Cola commercial at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, he suffered second degree burns to his scalp after pyrotechnics accidentally set his hair on fire. Happening in front of a full house of fans during a simulated concert, the incident was the subject of heavy media scrutiny and elicited an outpouring of sympathy.
1989 Dec 13
Taylor Allison Swift Is Born
Swift was born in the city of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. She is the daughter of Scott, a stock broker, and Andrea Swift, a homemaker.
1992 Sep
Radiohead releases their first single, “Creep”
“Creep” is a song by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, written by vocalist Thom Yorke.
1993 Feb 10
Oprah Winfrey interviews Michael Jackson
Jackson gave a 90-minute interview with Oprah Winfrey in February 1993, his first television interview since 1979. He grimaced when speaking of his childhood abuse at the hands of his father, he confessed that he had missed out on much of his childhood years, admitting that he often cried from loneliness.
1994
Warped Tour first conceived
The Warped Tour was created in 1994 by Kevin Lyman, who got the idea while working on skateboarding shows such as the Vision Skate Escape and Holiday Havoc which included music with skateboarding contests.
1993 Feb 22
Radiohead releases first studio album, “Pablo Honey”
Pablo Honey, released in early 1993, is the first album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead. The cover features the baby Tim Coates, the son of close friends of the band.
1995 Sep 12
Red Hot Chili Peppers release One Hot Minute
Dave Navarro first appeared with the band at Woodstock ’94, where they wore enormous light bulb costumes attached precariously to chrome metallic suits, making it near-impossible for them to play their instruments.
May 1997- Jan 1998
Radiohead releases “Paranoid Android” single, “OK Computer”, “Karma Police” Single, “No Surprises/Running from Demon EP”, & “No Surprises”.
No Surprises/Running From Demons is an EP by Radiohead. Released on 10 December 1997, the EP was aimed at the Japanese market in order to promote the band’s Japan tour of January 1998
1998 Feb 22
“Coldplay” formed
The band finally settled on the name “Coldplay” which was suggested by Tim Crompton, a local student who had been using the name for his group.
2001 Jun 1
Keane releases second single “Wolf at the Door”
“Wolf at the Door” is a song performed and composed by English alternative rock band Keane and happened to be their second single release ever, originally intended only as a promo item with only fifty copies made, becoming the rarest Keane item in existence.
2001 Sep 18 John Mayer releases debut album “Room for Squares”
Room for Squares is the debut studio album by American musician John Mayer, released on September 18, 2001. Originally released independently by Aware Records on June 5, 2001, the album reached number nine on the American Billboard 200 albums chart. It remains as Mayer’s best-selling album to date, with sales of over 4,308,000 copies in the United States, as of July, 2009
2003 May 12
Keane releases “Everybody’s Changing” single
“Everybody’s Changing” is a song performed and composed by English rock band Keane, from their debut album Hopes and Fears, on which it appears as the fourth track.
2006
Mat Kearney Releases “All I Need” Single
“All I Need” was Kearney’s first single and was featured on Grey’s Anatomy and began to chart on iTunes top 100 downloaded songs. It peaked at #94 on the Billboard Pop 100.
2009 June 25
Death of Michael Jackson American singer Michael Jackson died after he suffered cardiac arrest at his home in the Holmby Hills neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. He was treated by paramedics at his home, but was pronounced dead at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center These were just a few incidents from the history of pop music. There were and there are hundreds of music artists who have sold millions of copies of albums around the world, the albums that topped the charts and are considered as best selling albums of all time. Read more on music reviews.
Spread of Western-style pop music has been interpreted by people all over the world variously as representing Americanization, homogenization, modernization, creative appropriation, cultural imperialism. Pop music history tells us about the general process of globalization. The appeal of pop music lies in its supple, energetic rhythms, its appealing vocal lines and in many cases its symbolic associations with the plight of the underprivileged.
