threespires
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Just a point of order (very Handforth PC) for this intro. Though it touches on Rock and Roll, if people can avoid making playlist suggestions that are clearly in that space, as we'd like to cover those in next weeks final intro.
'Pop' Music
Traditional Pop
I suggested in the Jazz introduction that in many ways it was the first kind of ‘pop’ music and certainly the stars of the big band era were rightfully feted; but something more specifically ‘pop’ also sprang from that era too. Conventional wisdom has it that Pop music as we understand it starts in the mid-1950s with the birth of Rock and Roll. However, many important foundations were laid prior to then via what is sometimes called ‘Traditional Pop’.
Traditional Pop refers to an era between the mid 1930’s and the mid 50’s. It's perhaps less important for the style of music, which wasn’t that radical a departure from what had gone before, than for changes in other areas like the technology used, the rise of the vocal performer and, perhaps most importantly, who the target audience was.
A new market
It may be hard for us to comprehend that once upon a time listening to music was an almost exclusively adult past time. The idea of young people driving the trends and the economics of the music industry, or probably any other sector, was unthinkable. However, in the early 40’s, singers like a young man called Francis Albert Sinatra changed all that.
Here was a singer who had come up through the band ‘swing’ era, but as a solo artist began to appeal hugely to the young “bobby soxers” with their pre-existing interest in jazz (and swing in particular) and their rebellious streak. Not only did he appeal to them, he also sowed the seeds that perhaps there was money to be made by appealing to the under 30’s and, heaven forbid, that young women represented a market with their own preferences and agency too.
Bobby Soxers mobbing a young Frank Sinatra
Sinatra was far from the only person to transition beyond jazz in the fashion he did. When people think of Nat King Cole, they typically don’t think of the jazz pianist fronting his trio, they think of that honeyed voice and winning smile singing Unforgettable or Mona Lisa and to many he is an early pop star.
Our playlist starts with Sinatra not swinging so much (presumably to broaden his appeal beyond his terrifyingly devoted teen fan base!) on 'These Foolish Things' and Nat Cole still retaining a bit of swing on 'It’s Almost Like Being in Love'.
Technology
It's not a coincidence that the rise of Sinatra, and many others, as individual artists coincided with technology advances; most specifically an improvement in recording the human voice. Pre 1925, recordings were made into a recording horn; but the introduction of microphones supported a variety of styles beyond a simple powerhouse voice that could compete with a band in a live context. By the 1930’s, singers could sing in a style that was intimate or nuanced and still be heard, a crucial development in allowing singers like Sinatra to come to the fore in dance bands and beyond.
Other technological advances were focused on reducing the price of getting music into people’s hands. Columbia had introduced the 33 1/3 rpm album format and RCAs response was to prove pivotal to pop music. RCAs cunning plan to allow the same amount of music to be played as Columbia’s LPs was to record the albums as a boxed set of smaller discs that could be stacked and played one after the other. These box sets played at 45rpm and consisted of 7” discs.
All the technical foundations were laid for the subsequent explosion of pop music fuelled by rock and roll in the 1950s, but there was another innovation that would also fan the flames.
And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for pop pickers
As in the development of the music itself, when it came to promotion the US led the way with the UK playing catch up. In 1940, Billboard published its first chart based on record sales. Until this point music popularity was based on volume of sheet music sold and in fact that would continue to be the case in the UK until 1952 when NME introduced the first UK chart. The idea of 'chart music', aligned to the more affordable 7" single format, would propel pop music forward for decades.
So, alongside Sinatra and Cole, the likes of Perry Como, Peggy Lee and Patti Page took a mixture of songs from the American Songbook and from musicals and forged proto-pop star careers. Along came more US stars like Al Martino (who had the first UK #1 with 'Here in My Heart') who would dominate the first years of ‘chart music’ in many cases, like Doris Day, mixing singing careers with other entertainment forms like films.
The First UK Number 1 Single
That said, the American traditional pop singers didn’t have it all their own way in the early UK charts, in the 50’s the likes of Shirley Bassey forged a career and Alma Coogan (on our playlist with 'Why Do Fools Fall In Love') had a run of 18 hits during the 50s.
Alma Coogan - one of many stars deemed "not cool enough" once rock n roll came along
However, in the early fifties the tide began to change when DJ Alan Freed started playing a new kind of music labelled 'rock and roll'.
Though we are leaving the detail of rock and roll till next week’s final introduction, it is impossible to talk about early pop without mentioning it; as by the mid 50’s rock and roll had created clear blue water from the traditional popular music stars and was also about to start taking control commercially.
Bill Hayley and the Comet’s “Rock Around The Clock” certainly wasn’t the first rock and roll record but it’s place in history was secured by becoming the first rock and roll number 1 in 1955. Not only that, but it also sold in such rapid and incredible numbers that it was the first ‘smash hit’.
The honour of the first rock and roll album to be Billboard number one would go to a young man brought up in Memphis and going by the name of Elvis. Whether you agree with James Brown or with Chuck D when it comes to Elvis’s legacy is beyond this write up. However, what is probably less controversial is the degree to which Elvis changed the image on the pop star. With his more sexualised ‘grunt and groin antics’, as critics called it, Elvis stood in vivid contrast to Sinatra and his peers.
It wasn’t just Elvis getting the conservatives hot under the collar. Since the 40’s, vocal groups like The Orioles, with songs like ‘Hold Me, Kiss Me Thrill Me’, had produced more sexualised music than the vocal groups of the swing era. Though it wasn’t called Doo-Wop at the time, the Orioles were helping pioneer that style of music, often concerned with affairs of the heart and very much aimed at a younger audience.
Easy Now
The changing times left the traditional pop stars with a decision to make - try and compete against the rock n rollers or plot an alternative course. The rise of rock and roll and modern pop meant that many of these earlier stars headed towards vocal jazz or the 1960’s revival of swing music, which needed a snappier name and so would become known as ‘Easy Listening’. Though some artists and great individual songs like Moon River would continue to rub shoulders with the likes of Elvis, Cliff and then The Beatles in the charts through to the late 60s; these increasingly became the exception rather than the rule.
It wasn’t that traditional pop didn’t remain successful, the likes of Sinatra and Dean Martin (on our playlist with 'Dream a Little Dream') continued to sell huge numbers of records, but it wasn’t considered ‘pop’ anymore. Its stars transitioned to film, TV light entertainment and to residencies in Vegas, whilst the rock and rollers ruled the airwaves and the charts. However, some of the old stars managed to go out on a real high. After a stellar career, Peggy Lee’s last big hit was 1958’s 'Fever', proof that irrespective of genre a great song will always have a popular audience.
The Skiffle craze
Worthy of its own mention at this point is Skiffle, originally a form of US folk music but then revived in the UK primarily by Lonnie Donegan, who had emerged out of the UK trad jazz scene. He had 31 top 30 hits, but his lasting contribution was that Skiffle was wholeheartedly embraced by youngsters across the UK including a bunch of Liverpudlians called The Quarrymen who later changed their name and went on to return the favour to the US by spearheading the “British Invasion” of the mid-60’s.
Lonnie Donegan, the hero of the hour who inspired many a young Skiffle band....
...including these fresh-faced scallywags pictured in 1958
The Skiffle ‘craze’ became a cultural boon for young people in the UK and by the late 50s it was estimated there were between 30,000-50,000 Skiffle bands in these isles. Skiffle bands kick started the careers of many British greats as varied as Jagger and the Gibbs brothers. Seemingly replaced in historical importance by individuals like Elvis and Buddy Holly, the contribution of Skiffle to British music culture can hardly be overstated and Donegan, though his star waned in the latter part of the 20th century is now rightly viewed as a pivotal figure in British popular music. He not only planted the seed for many future artists, but he also blazed a trail for them by becoming the first Brit to have two number ones in the US. I've chosen his 1957 song 'Gamblin' Man' as it represents the end of an era. It was the last UK number one to be released solely at 78 rpm, as the 7" single began to rule the airwaves, especially once it became the standard for jukeboxes.
Skiffle made kids want to be in a band; given the dearth of bands in modern pop maybe a 21st century equivalent of the Skiffle craze would put things right?
It’s only rock and roll but…
With the traditional popstars seeking an audience elsewhere, for the second half of the 1950’s, rock and roll and ‘pop’ were to all intents and purposes synonymous. Rock and Roll was the new emerging pop music of that period, it wasn’t until well into the 60’s that rock and pop began to be seen as two different beasts.
The second half of the 50’s was a fast-moving period for the emergent music style. Initially dominated by US acts like Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and the Elvis, various youth cultures in the UK rapidly embraced this new import and the edgier musicians who had taken over from the traditional stars that their Mums and Dads still loved. Though the likes of Tommy Steele made some in-roads, it really wasn’t until ‘58 when, in the form of Cliff Richards, the UK produced its first home grown ‘modern’ pop star.
Little Richard and Cliff trying to give him a run for his money in the cool stakes
These examples are included to illustrate the link between modern pop stardom and rock and roll, we’ll leave nominations on the rock and roll front until next week but I have included ‘Move It’ by Richards in this playlist as a nod to the first true pop star this country produced.
Radio, live transmission
Whilst pop was sorting itself out musically in the latter part of the 50s, the Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation were looking with interest across the pacific at AT&T’s new gizmo, the transistor. With the help of the Japanese government, they licensed the technology and produced the TR-55 their first transistor radio. They needed a brand name too, so they settled on Sony. Before the end of the decade, the successor TR-63 would become the first transistor radio to sell in millions. It wasn’t yet a truly cheap device, but parents would still buy it for their children, so they kept their grubby mitts off the larger family tube radio.
I'm sure transistors have been used for more important things; I just can't think of any
The final piece of the pop jigsaw was in place. Young people had their own music, their own means to play it under the bed clothes when they should have been asleep, and the record industry had a way for them to become competitive and tribal about it all. They had become their own, increasingly lucrative, market and as the 60's started ‘pop’ music was well on the way to becoming the dominant force it continues to be today.
'Pop' Music
Traditional Pop
I suggested in the Jazz introduction that in many ways it was the first kind of ‘pop’ music and certainly the stars of the big band era were rightfully feted; but something more specifically ‘pop’ also sprang from that era too. Conventional wisdom has it that Pop music as we understand it starts in the mid-1950s with the birth of Rock and Roll. However, many important foundations were laid prior to then via what is sometimes called ‘Traditional Pop’.
Traditional Pop refers to an era between the mid 1930’s and the mid 50’s. It's perhaps less important for the style of music, which wasn’t that radical a departure from what had gone before, than for changes in other areas like the technology used, the rise of the vocal performer and, perhaps most importantly, who the target audience was.
A new market
It may be hard for us to comprehend that once upon a time listening to music was an almost exclusively adult past time. The idea of young people driving the trends and the economics of the music industry, or probably any other sector, was unthinkable. However, in the early 40’s, singers like a young man called Francis Albert Sinatra changed all that.
Here was a singer who had come up through the band ‘swing’ era, but as a solo artist began to appeal hugely to the young “bobby soxers” with their pre-existing interest in jazz (and swing in particular) and their rebellious streak. Not only did he appeal to them, he also sowed the seeds that perhaps there was money to be made by appealing to the under 30’s and, heaven forbid, that young women represented a market with their own preferences and agency too.
Bobby Soxers mobbing a young Frank Sinatra
Sinatra was far from the only person to transition beyond jazz in the fashion he did. When people think of Nat King Cole, they typically don’t think of the jazz pianist fronting his trio, they think of that honeyed voice and winning smile singing Unforgettable or Mona Lisa and to many he is an early pop star.
Our playlist starts with Sinatra not swinging so much (presumably to broaden his appeal beyond his terrifyingly devoted teen fan base!) on 'These Foolish Things' and Nat Cole still retaining a bit of swing on 'It’s Almost Like Being in Love'.
Technology
It's not a coincidence that the rise of Sinatra, and many others, as individual artists coincided with technology advances; most specifically an improvement in recording the human voice. Pre 1925, recordings were made into a recording horn; but the introduction of microphones supported a variety of styles beyond a simple powerhouse voice that could compete with a band in a live context. By the 1930’s, singers could sing in a style that was intimate or nuanced and still be heard, a crucial development in allowing singers like Sinatra to come to the fore in dance bands and beyond.
Other technological advances were focused on reducing the price of getting music into people’s hands. Columbia had introduced the 33 1/3 rpm album format and RCAs response was to prove pivotal to pop music. RCAs cunning plan to allow the same amount of music to be played as Columbia’s LPs was to record the albums as a boxed set of smaller discs that could be stacked and played one after the other. These box sets played at 45rpm and consisted of 7” discs.
All the technical foundations were laid for the subsequent explosion of pop music fuelled by rock and roll in the 1950s, but there was another innovation that would also fan the flames.
And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for pop pickers
As in the development of the music itself, when it came to promotion the US led the way with the UK playing catch up. In 1940, Billboard published its first chart based on record sales. Until this point music popularity was based on volume of sheet music sold and in fact that would continue to be the case in the UK until 1952 when NME introduced the first UK chart. The idea of 'chart music', aligned to the more affordable 7" single format, would propel pop music forward for decades.
So, alongside Sinatra and Cole, the likes of Perry Como, Peggy Lee and Patti Page took a mixture of songs from the American Songbook and from musicals and forged proto-pop star careers. Along came more US stars like Al Martino (who had the first UK #1 with 'Here in My Heart') who would dominate the first years of ‘chart music’ in many cases, like Doris Day, mixing singing careers with other entertainment forms like films.
The First UK Number 1 Single
That said, the American traditional pop singers didn’t have it all their own way in the early UK charts, in the 50’s the likes of Shirley Bassey forged a career and Alma Coogan (on our playlist with 'Why Do Fools Fall In Love') had a run of 18 hits during the 50s.
Alma Coogan - one of many stars deemed "not cool enough" once rock n roll came along
However, in the early fifties the tide began to change when DJ Alan Freed started playing a new kind of music labelled 'rock and roll'.
Though we are leaving the detail of rock and roll till next week’s final introduction, it is impossible to talk about early pop without mentioning it; as by the mid 50’s rock and roll had created clear blue water from the traditional popular music stars and was also about to start taking control commercially.
Bill Hayley and the Comet’s “Rock Around The Clock” certainly wasn’t the first rock and roll record but it’s place in history was secured by becoming the first rock and roll number 1 in 1955. Not only that, but it also sold in such rapid and incredible numbers that it was the first ‘smash hit’.
The honour of the first rock and roll album to be Billboard number one would go to a young man brought up in Memphis and going by the name of Elvis. Whether you agree with James Brown or with Chuck D when it comes to Elvis’s legacy is beyond this write up. However, what is probably less controversial is the degree to which Elvis changed the image on the pop star. With his more sexualised ‘grunt and groin antics’, as critics called it, Elvis stood in vivid contrast to Sinatra and his peers.
It wasn’t just Elvis getting the conservatives hot under the collar. Since the 40’s, vocal groups like The Orioles, with songs like ‘Hold Me, Kiss Me Thrill Me’, had produced more sexualised music than the vocal groups of the swing era. Though it wasn’t called Doo-Wop at the time, the Orioles were helping pioneer that style of music, often concerned with affairs of the heart and very much aimed at a younger audience.
Easy Now
The changing times left the traditional pop stars with a decision to make - try and compete against the rock n rollers or plot an alternative course. The rise of rock and roll and modern pop meant that many of these earlier stars headed towards vocal jazz or the 1960’s revival of swing music, which needed a snappier name and so would become known as ‘Easy Listening’. Though some artists and great individual songs like Moon River would continue to rub shoulders with the likes of Elvis, Cliff and then The Beatles in the charts through to the late 60s; these increasingly became the exception rather than the rule.
It wasn’t that traditional pop didn’t remain successful, the likes of Sinatra and Dean Martin (on our playlist with 'Dream a Little Dream') continued to sell huge numbers of records, but it wasn’t considered ‘pop’ anymore. Its stars transitioned to film, TV light entertainment and to residencies in Vegas, whilst the rock and rollers ruled the airwaves and the charts. However, some of the old stars managed to go out on a real high. After a stellar career, Peggy Lee’s last big hit was 1958’s 'Fever', proof that irrespective of genre a great song will always have a popular audience.
The Skiffle craze
Worthy of its own mention at this point is Skiffle, originally a form of US folk music but then revived in the UK primarily by Lonnie Donegan, who had emerged out of the UK trad jazz scene. He had 31 top 30 hits, but his lasting contribution was that Skiffle was wholeheartedly embraced by youngsters across the UK including a bunch of Liverpudlians called The Quarrymen who later changed their name and went on to return the favour to the US by spearheading the “British Invasion” of the mid-60’s.
Lonnie Donegan, the hero of the hour who inspired many a young Skiffle band....
...including these fresh-faced scallywags pictured in 1958
The Skiffle ‘craze’ became a cultural boon for young people in the UK and by the late 50s it was estimated there were between 30,000-50,000 Skiffle bands in these isles. Skiffle bands kick started the careers of many British greats as varied as Jagger and the Gibbs brothers. Seemingly replaced in historical importance by individuals like Elvis and Buddy Holly, the contribution of Skiffle to British music culture can hardly be overstated and Donegan, though his star waned in the latter part of the 20th century is now rightly viewed as a pivotal figure in British popular music. He not only planted the seed for many future artists, but he also blazed a trail for them by becoming the first Brit to have two number ones in the US. I've chosen his 1957 song 'Gamblin' Man' as it represents the end of an era. It was the last UK number one to be released solely at 78 rpm, as the 7" single began to rule the airwaves, especially once it became the standard for jukeboxes.
Skiffle made kids want to be in a band; given the dearth of bands in modern pop maybe a 21st century equivalent of the Skiffle craze would put things right?
It’s only rock and roll but…
With the traditional popstars seeking an audience elsewhere, for the second half of the 1950’s, rock and roll and ‘pop’ were to all intents and purposes synonymous. Rock and Roll was the new emerging pop music of that period, it wasn’t until well into the 60’s that rock and pop began to be seen as two different beasts.
The second half of the 50’s was a fast-moving period for the emergent music style. Initially dominated by US acts like Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and the Elvis, various youth cultures in the UK rapidly embraced this new import and the edgier musicians who had taken over from the traditional stars that their Mums and Dads still loved. Though the likes of Tommy Steele made some in-roads, it really wasn’t until ‘58 when, in the form of Cliff Richards, the UK produced its first home grown ‘modern’ pop star.
Little Richard and Cliff trying to give him a run for his money in the cool stakes
These examples are included to illustrate the link between modern pop stardom and rock and roll, we’ll leave nominations on the rock and roll front until next week but I have included ‘Move It’ by Richards in this playlist as a nod to the first true pop star this country produced.
Radio, live transmission
Whilst pop was sorting itself out musically in the latter part of the 50s, the Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation were looking with interest across the pacific at AT&T’s new gizmo, the transistor. With the help of the Japanese government, they licensed the technology and produced the TR-55 their first transistor radio. They needed a brand name too, so they settled on Sony. Before the end of the decade, the successor TR-63 would become the first transistor radio to sell in millions. It wasn’t yet a truly cheap device, but parents would still buy it for their children, so they kept their grubby mitts off the larger family tube radio.
I'm sure transistors have been used for more important things; I just can't think of any
The final piece of the pop jigsaw was in place. Young people had their own music, their own means to play it under the bed clothes when they should have been asleep, and the record industry had a way for them to become competitive and tribal about it all. They had become their own, increasingly lucrative, market and as the 60's started ‘pop’ music was well on the way to becoming the dominant force it continues to be today.
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