Portal:Pop music
The Pop Music Portal
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. During the 1950s and 1960s, pop music encompassed rock and roll and the youth-oriented styles it influenced. Rock and pop music remained roughly synonymous until the late 1960s, after which pop became associated with music that was more commercial, ephemeral, and accessible.
Identifying factors of pop music usually include repeated choruses and hooks, short to medium-length songs written in a basic format (often the verse–chorus structure), and rhythms or tempos that can be easily danced to. Much of pop music also borrows elements from other styles such as rock, urban, dance, Latin, and country. (Full article...)
Cher (/ʃɛər/; born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Often referred to by the media as the "Goddess of Pop", she has been described as embodying female autonomy in a male-dominated industry. She is known for her distinctive contralto singing voice, for having worked in numerous areas of entertainment and for adopting a variety of styles and appearances. Cher rose to fame in 1965 as one half of the folk rock husband-wife duo Sonny & Cher before releasing her first solo top-ten singles "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" and "You Better Sit Down Kids". Throughout the 1970s, she scored the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves", "Half-Breed", and "Dark Lady", becoming the female solo artist with the most number-one singles in US history at the time.
After her divorce from Sonny Bono in 1975, Cher released the successful disco album Take Me Home (1979). Her music career revival in the late 1980s saw the releases of rock-inflected albums Cher (1987), Heart of Stone (1989), and Love Hurts (1991), all of which yielded hit singles such as "I Found Someone", "If I Could Turn Back Time", and "Save Up All Your Tears". Cher reached a new commercial peak in 1998 with the dance-pop album Believe, which featured pioneering use of Auto-Tune to distort her vocals, known as the "Cher effect". The title track became the number-one song of 1999 in the US and the best-selling single of all time by a female artist in the UK. She continued to make music, with the albums Closer to the Truth (2013) and Dancing Queen (2018) both debuting at number three on the Billboard 200 and becoming her highest-charting solo albums in the US. (Full article...)Pies Descalzos (transl. Bare Feet) is the third studio album by Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira, released on 6 October 1995, by Sony Music Colombia. Its music incorporates Latin pop styles, additionally experimenting with pop rock elements. Looking to revive her struggling career after the commercial failures of her first two studio efforts Magia and Peligro, she assumed a prominent position in its production. As executive producer, Luis Fernando Ochoa co-wrote and co-produced each of the eleven tracks on the record with Shakira.
Pies Descalzos received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who complimented it as a strong debut showing. Commercially, the project became Shakira's breakthrough record, with which she established notability throughout Latin America. It was awarded the "Diamond Prism" in her native Colombia, acknowledging one million copies sold in the nation. The album additionally peaked at numbers three and five on the US Billboard Latin Pop Albums and Latin Albums component charts, respectively. It was later certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album was also a breakthrough for Shakira in the country according to John Lannert of Billboard. (Full article...)General images
"Because of You" is a song recorded by American pop singer Kelly Clarkson for her second studio album, Breakaway (2004). It was written by Clarkson along with its producers David Hodges and Ben Moody, both from Evanescence. It was released on August 16, 2005, by RCA Records, as the third single from Breakaway. Clarkson originally wrote "Because of You" when she was 16 years old to cope with the emotional distress caused by her parents' divorce. She wanted the song to be included on her debut studio album, Thankful (2003), but her record label rejected the song. She then polished the song with Hodges and Moody before successfully convincing her label to include it on Breakaway.
Lyrically, "Because of You" explores the pain of Clarkson's deteriorating relationship with her father. The song begins with a piano-led melody and as it launches into the chorus, the sound of a roaring guitar becomes apparent. "Because of You" received positive reviews from music critics, who complimented its expressive lyrics, creative arrangement, and Clarkson's vocal prowess. It peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 and sold over 2 million digital downloads in the United States. It was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). "Because of You" became Clarkson's biggest success in Europe, topping the European Hot 100 Singles chart. It also reached number one in Brazil, the Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland, as well as the top ten in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. (Full article...)Did you know (auto-generated)
- ... that Yoko Ono considered her 1971 song "Listen, the Snow Is Falling" to be the first pop song she ever wrote?
- ... that 22-year-old singer Milena Warthon has created a new genre, pop andino, by fusing pop and Andean music?
- ... that the alt-pop musician Lucy Tun cites death metal and RuPaul's Drag Race as influences?
- ... that Mirror, a Hong Kong Cantopop music group which does not want to go for a "K-pop feel", performed Korean pop songs at a concert?
- ... that Eternal Blue, a metalcore album, was inspired in part by 1980s pop music?
- ... that the lap steel guitar was the first "foreign" musical instrument to gain a foothold in American pop music?
Selected image -
Major topics
Subcategories
Related portals
Pop music by decade
WikiProjects
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Pop music was created with the purpose of assembling writers and editors interested in Pop music.
- The aim of this project is to standardize and improve articles related to the various genres of Pop music, as well as to create missing articles.
- To become a member of the WikiProject (anyone may join), simply click here and add your username.
FA | A | GA | B | C | Start | Stub | FL | List | Category | Disambig | Draft | File | Portal | Project | Redirect | Template | NA | ??? |
117 | 0 | 1,569 | 1,098 | 3,618 | 10,744 | 6,612 | 109 | 436 | 1,670 | 4 | 152 | 252 | 1 | 23 | 1,315 | 1,890 | 11 | 1,012 |
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus