It is called that series of musical genres that have great appeal to the mass public and that are produced by the music industry. It is a broad idea based on the place, time and specific meaning that each town builds.
Musical genres that awaken the passion of the masses: rock, pop, dance ...
It is also important to note that popular music is associated with the international and, for example, folk music does not fall into this category.
Undoubtedly the reference genres of this type of music today are pop, rock, Latin music and dance or dance music.
Objectively, we could describe popular music as the music that a large part of the population listens to and that is precisely why it is confronted with what is usually considered scholarly, elite, or upper-class music.
However, this definition must be revised in each case since what is considered scholarly music today (for example, classical music) in other times had much greater scope.
In the same way, popular music can symbolize the musical traditions and representations of specific peoples confronted with the idea of international music that is heard everywhere, such as rock bands.
We can say that popular music depends a lot on the town or region in which we are located.
For many countries, especially in their rural regions, popular music is that which is transmitted from generation to generation as part of a cultural heritage, probably unique in the world since it arises in that space as a result of endless elements. .
Thus, for example, we can understand as popular music Celtic music, the different rhythms of African regions, the music composed by the native aborigines, the music of the Swiss Alps, etc.
On the other hand, nowadays the expression of popular music is used to refer to that type of music that can be consumed by anyone because it is accessible in terms of composition and is also much more striking and catchy than other rhythms.
In this sense, we will be talking about music in a much more direct relationship with the business since many international popular music artists only owe their great fame and success to the phenomenon of globalization that allows an American artist to be heard, thanks to the presence from record companies, from television, from the internet, from radio, everywhere in the world and that even the young people of each region know much more about this artist than about their own traditional music.
Rock and pop, two references of popular music
Rock is a popular music of yesterday, today and forever, from the very moment of its development.
This rhythm is contemporary and is characterized by its freedom of composition, lyrical, by the freedom and a certain rebellion that arises from its lyrics, which in some cases even turn out to be certainly rebellious with respect to some themes such as power.
Rock and roll results from the combination of various African-American rhythms such as boogie woogie, gospel, jazz, country music, blues.
The guitar, the bass and the drums are undoubtedly the characteristic instruments of rock to which the leadership of a vocalist is added.
Since its birth in the middle of the last century, rock has harvested references, soloists and groups, who are recognized worldwide as the fathers or kings of rock and roll, among them Elvis Presley, and bands such as the Rolling Stones and the Beatles stand out.
For its part, pop also finds its birth at the same time as rock and is precisely a combination of this rhythm with folk.
Regarding rock, it presents a somewhat softer composition in every sense in the interpretation of the instruments and the lyric.
The lyrics in pop tend to be less committed and allude to more superfluous issues, that is, they allude to more everyday issues and do not refer to social protest as is more classic in rock.
Among the references of this genre we can mention soloists like Michael Jackson, Madonna, and groups like U2.
